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»Granted: Customer Service«

Customer Service – Moments that offer added customer value

“Service is about seeing your entire business through the eyes of the customer”. This piece of management wisdom from Bavarian marketing guru Axel Haitzer is implemented on a daily basis by Günther Eller and his team. The head of the “Customer Service” business unit describes the highly unique path that the Starrag Group is following when it comes to service and added customer value.

Mr Eller, alongside the three operational business units of “Aerospace & Energy”, “Transportation & Industrial Components” and “Precision Engineering”, the “Customer Service” business unit takes responsibility for all after sales services across the group, such as the provision of spare parts, maintenance and retrofitting work, as well as the development of new service products. What makes the “Customer Service” business unit stand out?

Günther Eller: We ensure that our customers’ production processes are productive because our team makes sure that Starrag machines consistently deliver a high and stable level of availability. In addition, we offer service products that are tailored to customer requirements. This approach requires very close collaboration and regular contact with our customers. Given that “service” as a product is initially developed in direct co-operation with the customer, the success of the concept depends on this relationship. In other words, good service can only be successful long term if the customer and service provider cooperate openly and in partnership. We have 300 highly motivated and globally active employees with several years of experience and a wealth of expertise who contribute to this relationship. In addition, our team is able to tap into the extremely in-depth expert knowledge offered by the plants that belong to the Starrag Group. A core component of our business unit is our highly effective local fi eld service team, which is a group of 150 technicians who work on-site at customer premises. As an ideal scenario, we can base “embedded service teams” at the factories operated by our customers.

And what is the key theme of your work?

Günther Eller: Our strength is in our holistic concepts: Based on the idea of “lifecycle management”, we provide in-depth support to our customers for the entire product life. Our engineering teams for system modernisation and retrofit work represent one of our specialities. 

How far do you go when it comes to service? Where are the limits? In what areas do customers need support from the Starrag Group? What are they able to do themselves, perhaps with a bit of help?

Günther Eller: The type of support varies greatly because our customer structure is so diverse. At the moment, a reactive service is increasingly turning into a proactive service: For example, there is scope for strong growth in major preventive annual maintenance. Due to the experience and expertise required, this is something that our employees defi nitely need to do on behalf of our customers. We have already had some tangible success in this area: The amount of unscheduled downtime and major preventable damage has decreased, while reliability and productivity are increasing. Customer tasks include standard maintenance and machine operation. We support our customers by providing an ever more professional training programme for operators and programmers. Ideally, customers are responsible for ensuring that only certified specialists with Starrag qualifi cations operate a machine. We see great potential in this area, not only because of the obvious safety improvements, but also because the productivity of the Starrag machine increases too. 

“Our strength is in our holistic concepts: Based on the idea of ‘lifecycle management’, we provide in-depth support to our customers for the entire product life.

Günther Eller, Head of the “Customer Service” business unit at the Starrag Group

What is your spare parts strategy?

Günther Eller: We rely on a sophisticated stock management policy and a highly professional, globally implemented logistics process; we do this instead of expecting our customers to stockpile parts, which is generally not very helpful and rather expensive for them

What would you consider the best part of your work?

Günther Eller: We developed a special, exemplary service model for a customer with around 50 Starrag machines. The model includes a strong team that is permanently based on-site: Starrag deals with training, condition monitoring, preventive maintenance and repairs. During regular meetings, we discuss and plan all actions, from machine inspections to complete retrofi ts, which we implement together. Thanks to this partnership, we have been able to achieve extremely high and stable machine availability. 

Can you give us some more details about this?

Günther Eller: The contractually agreed target was 95 % machine availability – according to our joint measurements, we have consistently achieved well over 98 %. This is pure added value for the customer in the most tangible form. However, excellent results like this can only be achieved when the customer works closely with us. 

What can other companies learn from this exemplary level of cooperation?

Günther Eller: A lot can be achieved if a customer is willing to spend around 1% of the machine’s value per year on preventive measures. An additional 2–3 % is required for expenses relating to parts, repairs and inspections.

Retrofi t work plays an important role within the Starrag Group: What are the benefi ts of this special service? What is its particular unique selling point?

Günther Eller: Many of the machines manufactured by the Starrag Group have such a high value that a retrofi t is worthwhile even after 20 or 30 years. One of the benefi ts of having retrofi t work completed by the Starrag Group is the fact that, as the manufacturer, we have access to all of the design documentation and we can integrate the very latest technology from our current portfolio into the machines because we also have all of the patents, design documentation and the corresponding expertise for the new technology. In addition, we have an assembly and engineering team that specialises in retrofi t work. A machine that is modernised by us is then as good as a new machine, meaning that we can then offer the same lifecycle concept for it.

You are also responsible for service across all Starrag Group brands and for machine tools produced by other manufacturers. With the keyword being “retrofi t” here: How do you ensure that the service you provide is in line with the respective brand?

Günther Eller: We only carry out retrofi t work on machines from other manufacturers if we own the design documentation — so this is generally plants
manufactured by Schiess or Wotan. It’s also important to consider that the range of machines within the Starrag Group is very broad: It includes small, highprecision machines for watch and medical technology to huge machining centres for XXL components. We complete retrofi t work via our customer-oriented, local service network, which has direct access to the plant service team that specialises in the individual brand products at the respective development site of the series. In this regard, it is helpful that there are already a number of identical modules in many machine series. The task is made simpler by the fact that this feature is even more prevalent among new developments.

Do you also benefi t from synergy effects?

Günther Eller: Of course; after all, every company within the Starrag Group has its own best practices: This means that we are always exchanging approaches and ideas.

Does this mean that there is no need to be a fl exible “jack-of-all-trades”?

Günther Eller: That’s right: The secret for success is a team of specialists who cooperate perfectly. The on-site technicians work together a wide range of experts. It does not matter where they are based. The experts with the necessary expertise are not always just within the Starrag Group, but potentially also working for suppliers. Our service process also depends on the speed with which we can call on this knowledge.

How would you describe the ideal service employee?

Günther Eller: He or she is an expert who has received targeted and advanced training from us – we have invested a lot in our training programme in recent years. In our business unit, around 7 % of a technician’s annual working hours are spent on training. These well-qualified employees must also be able to work as a team, have a good understanding of customers and be able to deal with customers confi dently. In addition, service employees must ideally be in a position to be deployed globally and work to a highly fl exible schedule: We support this fl exibility with corresponding working time models. 

And what characteristics and experience do you contribute as the head of this team of specialists and the “Customer Service” business unit?

Günther Eller: I am certainly not one of the specialists because I have never worked on services projects on-site at a customer’s premises. I studied technical physics and started out selling components and machines. I have dealt with service in a management role for 20 years. The experience I gained from working for many years at an international level has been useful to me for virtually my entire career and still helps me today. 

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