Performance measurement of the after-sales service network. Evidence from the automotive industry

The after-sales activities are nowadays acknowledged as a relevant source of revenue, profit and competitive advantage in most manufacturing industries. Top and middle management, therefore, should focus on the definition of a structured business performance measurement system for the after-sales business. In addition, since many actors are involved along the after-sale service supply chain, an integrated and multi-attribute set of measures needs to be designed consistently at every level of the supply chain. Nonetheless, little attention was devoted by scientific and managerial literature to this topic. The paper aims at filling this gap, and proposes an integrated framework for the after-sales network performance measurement, and provides an empirical application to two automotive case companies and their official service network. The cases show that performance measurement systems of different supply chain actors should be aligned in order to achieve strategic consistency. In particular, the performance of different actors at the process level of the framework concurs in determining the after-sales service overall performance towards the final customer. In addition, linkages at other levels (mainly the business and activity ones) may be needed or helpful in ensuring consistency between strategic and operational objectives, inside the organisations and thus for the whole supply chain.