Sanne Klit: Spare Parts Is Not a Side Business for Machine Builders (Part 1)
(Part 1 of our series with Sanne Klit, Head of Parts Solutions & Warranty at BEUMER)
When a critical system grinds to a halt, the atmosphere in the plant changes instantly. The silence is expensive. Teams scramble, pulses race, and the only question that matters is:
“How fast can we get the part?”
To an operator, that moment feels like an isolated crisis. But to a machine builder, it’s the climax of a relationship that started decades ago.
In our previous interview series, we’ve looked at the MRO world through the eyes of the practitioners on the shop floor. We’ve talked data decay with Conrad Greer, gut-feeling stocking with Sanjib Das, and the cultural 'backwater' of MRO with Andrew Jordan. In this interview series, we explore spare parts management from a perspective that is often less visible: the machine builder responsible for supplying those parts.
Across this series, we explore four questions:
- The OEM Reality: Why parts are the lifeblood of long-term customer trust.
- The Planning Puzzle: How you stock for thousands of unique systems at once.
- The Obsolescence Trap: Why "proactive" is harder than it looks on a slide deck.
- The Data Future: How shared intelligence could end the "firefighting" era for good.
Our guide through this perspective is Sanne Egholm Klit, Head of Parts Solutions & Warranty at BEUMER. After nearly 15 years within the company, Sanne has worked across customer support, strategy and spare parts operations. Today she oversees the function responsible for ensuring customers can keep their systems running long after installation. And that responsibility reaches much further than many people assume.
Spare parts is not a side function
Spare parts management is often underestimated in industrial organisations, yet it sits at the heart of system reliability and customer support. For machine builders responsible for supporting equipment over decades, spare parts are not just a logistics activity. It is a strategic capability. Sanne Klit explains:
“Spare parts are an essential part of the strategy. We are involved in many initiatives across the company, from projects to data analytics, because spare parts touch so many parts of the business.”
This role reflects the broader structure of many industrial equipment manufacturers. Once a system has been delivered, the relationship with the customer does not end. In many cases, it is only beginning.
At BEUMER, Customer Support represents an essential part of the company’s business, with spare parts as the engine. This isn't just a BEUMER trend; across the sector, aftermarket services have become a major revenue and profit engine. According to Boston Consulting Group, companies investing here see stronger loyalty and higher-margin revenue streams. (Source: Boston Consulting Group — Aftermarket Services Drive Growth for Industrial Manufacturers).
Reliability first, then speed. Price comes later
Sanne has noticed a massive shift in what customers actually want. For decades, "How much?" was the first question. Today, the order has flipped..
“Customers tell us that the first priority is reliable lead time. The second is a short lead time. And then the price needs to be fair.”
In the high-stakes world of airport logistics, a "cheap" bearing that arrives three days late is the most expensive thing in the building. Production interruptions can cost manufacturers anywhere from €10,000 to €250,000 per hour, depending on the sector (Source: Siemens – The True Cost of Downtime in Manufacturing). When the meter is running that fast, you don't need a bargain; you need a promise you can trust.
SPARROW.Plan, helps operators structure this planning process by combining historical demand, operational knowledge and planning logic into a transparent decision framework. When operators plan their spare parts more systematically, it also improves collaboration with machine builders responsible for supplying those parts.
spFor machine builders, achieving reliability requires more than a well-run warehouse. This is why Sanne’s team focuses on predictability over everything else. If they promise 30 days, they hit 30 days. While operators plan spare parts around the needs, risks and constraints of their own operations, machine builders, by contrast, have to anticipate demand across a much broader installed base of customers, systems and service obligations.
A thirty-year commitment
A machine builder isn't just selling a piece of steel; they are selling a thirty-year commitment. Sanne’s team supports systems that have been running since 1988.
Think about the data complexity involved in that. Supporting a machine built before the internet requires a level of "data archaeology" that most companies aren't prepared for. As Conrad Greer pointed out in our series on The Real Cost of Broken Data, fragmented information is the silent killer of reliability.
For machine builders responsible for decades of system support, keeping this data usable becomes part of the spare parts mission itself. This long horizon fundamentally shapes how spare parts functions are organised. Sanne says:
“If we are not performing, then it will have an impact on the relationship with the customers.”
Spare parts are therefore not just an operational capability. It is one of the most visible expressions of the partnership between a machine builder and the organisations operating its systems.
Industry research confirms this shift. According to Deloitte’s analysis of industrial service models, aftermarket activities frequently deliver two to three times higher operating margins than original equipment sales, while also strengthening long-term customer retention.
(Source: Deloitte – Aftermarket Services: The Digital Differentiator)
The way spare parts are managed — the availability of components, the clarity of lead times, the ability to support ageing equipment — all influences how that relationship evolves over time.
A shared objective: keeping systems running
Seen from this perspective, spare parts management is not only the concern of either the operator or the machine builder. It sits at the intersection of both.
Operators focus on maintaining uptime while managing the capital tied up in inventory. Machine builders focus on ensuring systems can be supported across many customers, suppliers and product generations.
The bridge between them is Data.
Right now, the machine builder sits in a "double-blind" spot: they have customers who don’t yet know what they’ll need, and sub-suppliers with their own chaotic lead times.
How do you plan for that? How do you ensure a part for a 1988 conveyor is ready to ship tomorrow without wasting millions in warehouse space?
In the next article, we’ll dive into the "Planning Puzzle": the operational reality of planning spare parts across an installed base, and how you stock for thousands of unique systems at once.
Read the full series
1️⃣ Spare Parts Is Not a Side Business for Machine Builders
2️⃣ You Cannot Stock Everything. But You Are Expected to Know What Breaks Next
3️⃣ The Obsolescence Trap: Why “Proactive” Is Harder Than It Sounds
4️⃣ The Data Future: Deliver the Spare Part Before the Failure
