Here the supply of spare parts becomes key, and these can be divided into three groups: original spare parts, compatible spare parts after the original equipment has expired and assembly replacement pools. In order to be close to customers all over the world, main and regional warehouses in Europe, Asia and North America along with logistics partners are able to supply customers directly. Eller: “We rely on sophisticated inven- tory management and highly profes- sional, pre-installed global logistics processes – instead of the usually not very helpful and expensive part stockpiling by customers.”

Take three: Strategies for spindle failures

For very special spare parts there is an extra service: This means motor spindles, since workpiece quality, productivity and safety rise and fall with their availability and reliability. The Starrag Group therefore not only develops and builds customised spindles, but complements them with a tailored, three-stage spindle revision including customised maintenance measures, collision protection systems and a replacement pool for motor spindles.

But some failures can be avoided in advance. Preventive maintenance is a growing trend, acting before any failures occur. “For example, there is a big increase in preventative annual maintenance with condition monitoring, which should definitely be carried out by our people because of the levels of experience and knowledge needed,” says Eller. “The successes can be measured: The number of unplanned outages and larger, avoidable faults reduces significantly, while reliability and productivity rise.” Proactive operations of this type can be planned within the framework of service contracts, which Starrag individually customises from standard service modules.

• Spare parts supply
• Teleservice and remote diagnostics
• Service staff permanently on customer premises
• Operator and maintenance training
• Response time (depending on response time agreement)
• Availability guarantee
• Production support
• Preventive maintenance, status-oriented maintenance
• Warranty extension

The retrofit is a special service component that has developed into a successful service provision in the Starrag Group. Almost 50 specialists work in the Retrofit service at the Mönchengladbach site alone: The Starrag Group has its own construction department for machine modernisation. After creating the concept for the machine overhaul, the experts plan the retrofit and its sequence in detail together with the customer. The advantages of retrofitting in comparison to a new purchase are lower costs (usually 50 % lower), shorter delivery times (usually 60 % shorter) as well as rapid re-commissioning with significantly increased dynamism and productivity.

A particularly successful example occurred in a factory belonging to the machine tool manufacturer Schuler in Weingarten, Germany: Together with the customer’s mechanical maintenance, the retrofit team renewed an almost 30-year-old Wotan Rapid 6 large boring mill, on which components have to be machined very precisely. The maximum permissible deviation over the entire ten metre length (in the X-axis) is 60 μm. Many aspects of the Wotan that were critical from the operator’s point of view were modified. The large boring mill thus received a completely new bed saddle with a double pinion drive and two electronically tensioned drives. For Schuler, the key advantage of the Starrag Group was that “they weren’t just relying on the inventory documents, they were prepared to fundamentally consider the whole technical concept of the plant”. And this only works when Service thinks and feels like a customer.