Perkins Engines, a subsidiary of Caterpillar, is a provider of diesel engines for capital equipment. These engines are incredibly complex machines that are at work in the field for years and years. 

In addition to building and selling these machines, Perkins made a strategic decision to invest on a new solution to enhance its aftermarket support as a way to cut costs and increase an important, high-margin revenue stream.

This was not going to be easy since more than 7 million Perkins engines are in operation around the world each day. To support these engines required delivering 35,000 different replacement parts through a global network of 4,000 distributors and service centers.

Perkins took the bull by the horns and launched a new Web-based Service Parts and Information (SPI) system that provides a central point of reference for all the maintenance and parts information dealers need to provide the best aftermarket customer support. 

The goals for the system were:
• increase aftermarket revenues through support and spare parts sales;
• improve usability and value of Perkins parts and maintenance information;
• use existing distribution channel to strengthen relationships with distributors, dealers and customers

Perkins teamed with Enigma of Burlington, Mass., to build the system. Based on Enigma's 3C platform for support chain management, the new SPI was a massive re-engineering of the electronic catalog system that tracked parts for 1,000 types of engines in use in agriculture, construction and many other markets. 

The goal was to make it simple for folks in the field to find the part and maintenance information for an individual part. This meant the aggregation and delivery of very specific data pulled on the fly from a massive volume of content.

Perkins then tied in content from its PDM system and also XML and intelligent graphics data to ensure that maintenance procedures could be linked to parts pricing and inventory. 

By doing of all of this, Perkins anticipates that the SPI will:
• increase aftermarket revenues by 5 percent to 10 percent;
• increase spare parts ordering accuracy and inventory management efficiency;
• reduce the number of technical support calls to Perkins headquarters as a result of a more responsive and better-informed distributor network.

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