Value Co-Creation in Industrial Buyer-Seller Partnerships ... - Doria

forth between the companies. This has contributed to speeding up the acquisition of spareparts considerably. The cooperation agreement includes different discount percentagesdepending on when a spare parts order is made and when it is supposed to be delivered. Byplanning ahead the Buyer can get a discount and the Seller can economize by having lessparts in stock and planning better. Joint spare parts inventory handling is connected withjoint planning of maintenance and service. By joining forces and planning together bothparties can work smarter - something that neither of the parties could achieve on its own.There are discussions underway regarding the storage of spare parts. It is expensive for theBuyer to carry a load of expensive parts at sea on each ship. The parties are nowinvestigating the possibilities for the Seller to start keeping some of the stock and deliveringit when needed. Some of the parts are re-used and in this way the Seller could service theparts while in its warehouse and deliver the overhauled parts to the ships - yet anotherexample of greater interdependence and possibility for value co-creation.… “ On identifying critical parts for consumables and spares and developing a newprocess for long lead ordering. So we’re not caught short with the parts not available.A new process for ordering parts and maintaining an adequate stock level of criticalparts and consumables. Use their resources, use what they have because ultimately,that’s going to make the cost go down and, which is my job, is to try to figure out howwe can keep the cost down but yet be a win-win for both sides. And I think we hit on ittoday, I was kind of happy.” (Interview: Buyer 14)The invoicing of spare parts is another current issue. The parties are discussing a new logicfor quarterly invoicing as a way to save costs for both parties.7.4.2 A categorization of the initiatives takenIn the figure below I categorize the initiatives according to their aimed outcome. The twotypes of outcome that are suggested in the applied framework are: efficiency in exchangeand effective use of resources. Some of the initiatives did not seem to fit in any of the twocategories and therefore I established a third category, which I call “ enabling initiatives” .The reason for calling the category “ enabling initiatives” is that they all aim at enforcing thepartnership spirit – the atmosphere of cooperation. In a sense they can be seen as serving asexpressions of goodwill since they include ingredients such as “ promising” , “ ensuring” ,“ committing” , “ trusting” , and “ understanding” .161