For complex products, manufacturing, construction machinery and transport vehicles it is crucial to be able to deliver top quality service, as well as considering the potential profitability of spare part sales. This puts high demand on maintenance in terms of diagnosis as well as correct, complete and easily accessible product information, all of which can be expensive and difficult to produce in an effective manner with high quality. It also stresses the need for a process.

Service Lifecycle Management (SLM) is defined as a set of processes and tools to support service and aftermarket.