Parts is (Not) Parts: The Life Cycle Problem for Heavy Equipment

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We trace how Alex Schuessler, the once and once-again President of SmartEquip--also a scholar of expressive choice!--built a platform that makes machines more profitable by erasing the friction between parts, service, and uptime. The rental economy, Japan’s utilization model, and IoT diagnostics reveal why transaction costs, not price tags, decide who should own and who should rent.

• rental vs sharing and why property rights matter
• how serial-number specific data kills errors and downtime
• why parts discounts matter less than service speed
• Japan’s high saturation rental market and long lifecycles
• sensors, IoT, and AI for damage attribution and prevention
• decommoditizing parts through integrated workflows
• Coasean boundaries of the firm and renting incentives
• why RB Global acquired SmartEquip to span the lifecycle
• the back-office puzzle of bespoke systems vs SaaS

“Next week: Book 4, chapters 7–9 from The Wealth of Nations”

• (Parts is Parts, from Wendy's) https://youtu.be/OTzLVIc-O5E?si=Mjz8JX-Sl_sdG6bC
• SmartEquip web site:  https://www.smartequip.com/schedule-demo/
• Announcement of Schuessler being (re)hired as President:  https://news.ararental.org/schuessler-appointed-president-of-smartequip
• Why Japanese "used" equipment commands a premium:  https://everycar-review.com/2025/08/27/voices-from-global-dealers-why-japanese-used-machinery-is-their-first-choice/

If you have questions or comments, or want to suggest a future topic, email the show at taitc.email@gmail.com !

You can follow Mike Munger on Twitter at @mungowitz

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Published on 1 week ago