Sawing machine and sawing centre builder has established a service hotline with a recently developed skill matrix, remote maintenance by modem and a strengthened team.

 

A service 'hotline' with a recently developed skill matrix, remote maintenance by modem and a strengthened team are just some novelties realised by one of the world's leading manufacturers of sawing machines and machines for structural steel.

 

The performance of sawing machines as well as the level of automation in the production lines increase steadily and rapidly resulting in a smaller amount of installed machines at the customers facilities.

 

Implementing a high potential of savings it also involves a substantial risk.

 

In case of a machine standstill a bigger part of the production comes to a halt than some years ago.

 

"Fast help needs to be at hand in case of a failure.

 

Qualified personal must be within easy reach, have short reaction times and offer immediate solutions to get the machine back to work," explained Albrecht Seelhorst, sales manager at Kaltenbach.

 

"In order to ensure help like this, we enlarged our after sales services." He said: "Since the service department is handling a growing amount of warranty agreements, the Kaltenbach service hotline uses a recently developed skill matrix which guarantees that customers get directly in contact with the appropriate person when having a problem with the machines.

 

Furthermore it helps to forward the necessary information as soon as possible in the right way to the right place." Experience has shown that about 80% of all machine problems can be immediately solved by the personal contact between the customer and the service hotline team if no mechanical damage happened.

 

In order to put the new service concept into action Kaltenbach took on four new employees in the last six months.

 

In total the service team of the Germany-based sawing machines manufacturer today counts 36 people.

 

The most important criteria in the selection process were a good qualification and a wide know-how basis.

 

Highly qualified electronics engineers and programmers now build a competence team made of specialists.

 

To be able to react fastest possible the Kaltenbach machines are long-time equipped with modems for remote maintenance.

 

The customer opens the access to the machines easily with the implemented modem.

 

Not only services can take place this way.

 

The Kaltenbach service team also applies updates this way.

 

What it is the advantage for the customers? They get a reasonably faster support and have fewer costs.

 

Potential downtimes are immensely reduced and not every service act is connected with travel expenses.

 

In addition the machines have log files which steadily protocol all processing steps what means that the service team can do a detailed malfunction diagnosis if necessary.

 

Kaltenbach also strengthened his personal in the training area and extended the company-run technology centre in Loerrach, Germany.

 

Regularly trainings and seminars take place allowing for example customers to learn how to execute smaller maintenance jobs on their own.

 

The training centre is also at hand if new employees on the customer's side are to be trained at the various Kaltenbach machines.