Customer service in mechanical engineering

The Swiss engineer focuses on the ongoing development of global customer service with the aim of ensuring the productivity and cost-effectiveness of the Starrag machines used. The focus here is not on new concepts, but rather on clearly defined services and a transparent structure for the service offerings.

“In addition, I would like to work with our strong team to standardize our existing service offerings more effectively and harmonize them across all products. This is how we create greater transparency, increase brand recognition, and make it easier for our customers to access our services,” Remo Heusi explains.

The service should be designed in a consistent manner and be easy for users to handle. This understanding of service is rooted in his many years of experience: Prior to taking on this role, Remo Heusi held senior service and management positions at two long-established Swiss companies – the Bühler Group and Netstal – which, like Starrag, are among the global leaders in their respective industries. At both companies, service was closely linked to productivity, process stability, and long-term machine availability.

The experience he gained there in operating highly automated, high-performance machines continues to shape his understanding of service as an integral part of mechanical engineering – not as subsequent support, but as a technically relevant function throughout the entire lifecycle.

Machine availability as a key performance indicator

For Remo Heusi, machine availability is a key economic indicator. The true value of a machine becomes apparent through daily use over many years. “It is therefore crucial to maintain machine availability at a consistently high level throughout the entire lifecycle. That requires consistent and regular maintenance,” he emphasizes. For him, unplanned downtime is a cost driver that can be avoided as much as possible through predictable, preventive measures. His leadership roles at Bühler and Netstal have also shaped his professional ethos: For Remo Heusi, service isn’t just about making repairs when something breaks down, but rather an expression of technical responsibility toward the machine, the process, and the user.

Access to machine data

A key objective is to align services more closely with existing technical expertise. The focus here is on leveraging insights gained from applications and processes to make informed assessments of machine conditions and determine appropriate actions. “I see particularly great potential in areas where we can leverage our in-depth application expertise to provide even more comprehensive support to customers and create measurable added value,” explains Remo Heusi.

In the future, such services could also be aligned more closely with clearly defined technical metrics such as availability or system performance – an approach that is likely to gain in importance. Proactive solutions with a forward-looking and preventive nature, for instance automated remote fingerprinting, play an important role in this regard. This allows Starrag machines to be monitored remotely, enabling even the slightest deviations in performance to be detected and analyzed at an early stage. Maintenance tasks can be planned in a targeted manner, thereby increasing the machine's availability and productivity. Customer service thus remains the permanent technical interface between the machine and the user – taking a preventive, data-driven approach and clearly focused on ensuring high machine availability.