Five Service Trends Shaping OEM Operations in 2026
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
- Why service data quality now directly impacts margin
- How inventory distortion quietly erodes profitability
- Why service tradeoffs have become leadership decisions
- What connected service operations do differently
- How OEMs are adapting to mixed and aging hardware
Service organizations supporting hardware environments are under increasing pressure. Operating costs continue to rise, customer expectations for uptime are higher than ever, and tolerance for disruption is shrinking across industries ranging from industrial manufacturing to healthcare, retail, and infrastructure.
Across industry discussions this year - including conversations with service leaders at events such as Field Service Next West - a consistent theme has emerged: traditional service operating models are struggling to keep up with today’s scale, complexity, and financial expectations.
Point solutions, siloed planning, and “lack of AI-Ready” data may have worked in less complex environments. Today, they introduce blind spots, inflate inventory and logistics costs, and slow decision‑making at precisely the moment when speed matters most.
Below are five service trends shaping how OEMs and technology-driven organizations operate in 2026 - and why these trends matter far beyond service teams alone.
The shift from reactive service to system‑level execution
Trend 1: Good data is no longer optional
Service execution is fundamentally dependent on data. Yet many organizations still lack a consistent, trusted view across field activity, service inventory, logistics, and cost.
Disconnected systems make it difficult to answer basic operational questions such as:
- Are critical spare parts positioned where demand is most likely?
- How much inventory is being carried to mitigate uncertainty?
- Are service risks being identified early - or only after SLAs are already impacted?
Industry analysts consistently point to inventory distortion as a major driver of service margin loss. Across asset‑heavy environments, the combined cost of stockouts, overstocks, excess inventory, repeat service visits, and expedited logistics is commonly estimated to reduce service profitability by double‑digit percentages.
The goal is no longer better reporting. Earlier visibility allows leaders to change outcomes rather than explain failures after the fact.
At the same time, organizations are under pressure to “use AI” to improve service outcomes. But AI doesn’t fix broken data. Without reliable, connected information, automation simply accelerates mistakes.
Leading service organizations are taking a different approach:
- Connecting field, inventory, logistics, and financial data into a shared view
- Focusing on early signals instead of retrospective dashboards
- Enabling teams to act before problems scale
It is earlier visibility that allows leaders to influence outcomes, not explain failures after the fact.
Why this matters: Organizations that cannot trust their service data often compensate with excess inventory and expediting - at the expense of margin.
Trend 2: Service is shifting from cost center to revenue driver
Look for global service delivery from a single partner
Historically, service was treated as a necessary expense - designed to protect uptime but rarely optimized for scale. Over time, organizations layered on tools, absorbed acquisitions, and customized processes to solve immediate needs. While functional, many of these models have become expensive and difficult to manage.
Today, expectations are changing. Service leaders are now expected to:
- Justify cost
- Protect margins
- Clearly articulate how service contributes to growth
Research from Salesforce shows that over 80% of organizations now view field service as critical to revenue growth, not just cost containment. This is driving a shift away from reactive cost-cutting and toward intentional service design, including:
- Selling outcomes instead of isolated fixes
- Aligning service offerings with customer value
- Building service models that can scale without increasing complexity
When service is designed to scale, it can support revenue growth rather than constrain it.
Why this matters: Service models designed for scale can protect margins and drive growth; those optimized only for cost increasingly do neither.
Trend 3: Balancing cost and service is now a leadership decision
Perfect service sounds appealing. In practice, it is expensive. Chasing zero downtime often leads to excess inventory, premium freight, and over-correcting for low-probability events.
More organizations are recognizing that this balance is not an operational detail - it is a business decision.
Leading companies are becoming more explicit about:
- Making risk visible instead of hiding it in inventory
- Defining where perfection truly matters - and where it does not
- Aligning service levels with financial impact
This shifts cost optimization from reactive firefighting to strategic planning, allowing leaders to make informed trade-offs instead of last-minute compromises.
Why this matters: The trade‑off between cost and uptime is no longer an operational issue, it is a strategic decision that requires executive ownership.
Trend 4: Connected service operations outperform siloed teams
One theme continues to surface across service organizations: teams perform better when they operate as a connected system.
When field service, service supply chain, and finance operate independently, teams often optimize locally at the expense of the broader business. The result is higher cost, excess inventory, and unexpected leadership surprises.
Organizations seeing stronger outcomes are taking a more integrated approach:
- Planning, inventory, and logistics operate from shared data
- Repair and replace decisions are embedded into supply chain execution
- Field teams gain early visibility instead of relying on escalations
This shift does not create more dashboards. It enables better, earlier decisions across the service lifecycle - a capability PwC highlights as foundational to resilient operating models.
Why it matters: Organizations that connect field execution, supply chain, and finance make earlier, better decisions - and avoid costly surprises.
Trend 5: Supporting mixed and aging hardware is the new normal
Service environments are becoming more complex as organizations support a mix of new, legacy, and end‑of‑life hardware - often across multiple regions.
As product lifecycles shorten and deployments expand, service leaders are navigating:
- Aging hardware that still must meet uptime expectations
- Limited availability of parts for older technologies
- Rising costs associated with custom or one‑off repairs
Organizations that plan for lifecycle complexity - rather than reacting to it - are better positioned to maintain service levels without inflating the cost or working capital.
Why this matters: Lifecycle complexity is unavoidable; the advantage goes to organizations that plan for it rather than react at the end‑of‑life.
Implications beyond service teams
What this means for OEM and operations leaders
These shifts are not temporary. They reflect a structural change in how service organizations are expected to operate.
- Scale service without proportional cost increases
- Absorb disruption without losing customer trust
- Make service execution a competitive advantage
Those who continue to optimize individual components in isolation risk falling further behind as complexity accelerates.
How Avnet Integrated Solutions fits into this shift
As service organizations evolve to address higher cost, greater lifecycle complexity, and global scale, many are rethinking how field execution, inventory planning, and financial controls operate together.
Avnet Integrated Solutions supports this operating model by providing integrated field services, service supply chain capabilities, and lifecycle support across global environments. Typical engagement areas include:
- Coordinated field services across more than 80 countries
- Regional optimization of service‑parts inventory
- Support models spanning both current and legacy technologies
This type of connected approach is often used to improve service predictability, limit exposure to excess inventory, and reduce reliance on last‑minute decisions when issues arise.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What are the biggest service challenges OEMs face in 2026?
Rising service costs, data fragmentation, lifecycle complexity, and the need to balance service levels with financial performance are consistently cited as top challenges across industries.
Why is connected service data so important?
Disconnected data leads to late decisions, excess inventory, and reactive service execution. Connected service data enables earlier visibility into risk and more intentional planning.
How does service contribute to revenue growth?
Well‑designed service models improve uptime, customer retention, lifecycle extension, and recurring revenue opportunities - making service a value driver rather than a cost center.
How should organizations plan for aging hardware?
Organizations that proactively plan for lifecycle complexity - rather than reacting at end‑of‑life - are better able to control cost, reduce risk, and maintain consistent service performance.
What is inventory distortion in service operations?
Inventory distortion refers to the operational and financial impact of stockouts, overstocks, excess inventory, and inaccurate service data, which collectively increase service costs and erode margin.