customer-service

Spare part sales

With expertise and passion

It’s a million-euro operation of a particular logistical type: We’re talking about items worth millions, which wait day after day for the moment they're needed in Europe alone. This occurs when a component fails in one of the large Starrag machines. That's when the clock starts for “Service Spare Parts and Logistic” at Starrag Technology GmbH in Mönchengladbach and Bielefeld. 

The numbers show how important this is: Worldwide, the experts look after 3,000 large machines in operation, for which 6,300 different items are held in the central warehouses in Mönchengladbach and Bielefeld. To enable faster delivery, Starrag also holds additional stock in the USA (Dallas), Korea (Incheon) and soon also in China (Shanghai).

“Our experienced staff in spare parts sales have the necessary technical expertise for both old and new machines”, says Thomas Weyers, Head of Service Spare Parts & Logistic at Starrag Technology GmbH in Mönchengladbach. “We are proud of the very close cooperation between employees in upstream and downstream departments such as design, purchasing, warehousing, shipping, internal and external installation services. This is how we achieve a fast supply chain.” 

Weyers sees it as an additional benefit that his team in Mönchengladbach and Bielefeld don’t simply work in an impersonal call centre. The eight spare parts sales people work in small project teams like the key account managers, who handle each activity as a project. They know the spare part product because they can see it in the warehouse. This allows them to advise the customer with passion and expertise. A team member may then consult the designer to find out precisely which task an urgently required component carries out in a machine. This meticulous procedure doesn’t just apply to expensive, important components like motor spindles, whose importance even a layman would understand, but also to smaller, seemingly insignificant components, such as switches. 

Service theory is dull, but here is a “colourful” example: A regular customer in Northern Germany needed a replacement motor spindle immediately as their machine had broken down. Without any red tape, Starrag sent the part immediately by taxi courier even though the written order hadn’t yet arrived from the customer’s maintenance personnel. Weyers: “This only works because we have a good relationship based on mutual trust and confidence.” 

“We are proud of the very close cooperation between employees in upstream and downstream departments such as design, purchasing, warehousing, shipping, internal and external installation services. This is how we achieve a fast supply chain."

- Thomas Weyers, Head of Service Spare Parts & Logistic at Starrag Technology GmbH in Mönchengladbach