Service on every continent, around the clock

1 Introduction

130 service employees from 20 countries are ready around the clock when needed worldwide. Their duties include the installation and monitoring of set-up, plant start-up, service and maintenance of machinery. While installation and set-up of new systems is done in close cooperation with customers or local partners, the start-up is done on site without exception by the specialists from the company itself. Experts assure optimum machine/plant settings and adjustments while taking the individual product properties and packaging to be used into account.

All service technicians are employees of Haver & Boecker. Half of them are based at the headquarters in Oelde/Germany and the others are based at the Haver service companies all over the world. They work in close cooperation with the headquarters in Oelde.

The range of services offered by Haver Service, however, goes well beyond the application area of the machine itself. “From plant concept to engineering, to production planning and research in the customer’s branch, and including the operation of trial machines, Haver & Boecker has been providing its in-depth knowledge for decades,” sums up Jörg Große Stetzkamp, Deputy Unit Head of the Service Unit, on the range of services. The extensive range of services offered by Haver & Boecker is rounded out by a detailed training program at the company’s own technical R&D Center and can take place either in Oelde or on site.

2 Inter-company service expertise

Using an IT supported deployment tool, service coordinators are able to call up the availability of service personnel in respective regions and thus coordinate service visits according to customer needs. Here customers not only benefit from the worldwide service planning in real time, but also from the comprehensive expertise of Haver’s service technicians, who are not only trained to offer service work on Haver & Boecker machines, but also on Newtec and Ibau products. Moreover service specialists remain on standby to provide rapid support in times of need and in all fields with the aim of quickly solving customer issues.

“We are aware that after the sale of a machine, customer satisfaction through the quality of our service is decisive,” emphasizes Jörg Große Stetzkamp. Haver & Boecker has set up a quality management system that is on par with its service and that is there to assure continuous quality over the long term. He is certain about the support by ­Haver employees: “With all those involved we will maintain the level we have reached so far and we will spare no effort to raise it further.” Also in this unit the company pursues the Total Quality Management principle: “Quality is about active efforts aimed at customers and is achieved by employees and units,” says the deputy unit head. “Quality is not a target in itself, but rather it is a continuous process for our products and services.”

3 Preventive maintenance slashes downtime

Regular maintenance helps ensure a reliable and smooth plant and machine operation. They prevent costly and nerve-wracking system downtimes, and in the worst case complete production shutdowns. Independent of the fact that service carries a price, the demand for service contracts by Haver customers has been increasing steadily. “As a result our customers are ensuring minimized downtime and maximum productivity with their plant and machines. Through regular service they are able to react immediately to adverse conditions that lead to reduced performance. This prevents significant losses in productivity,” informs Jörg Große ­Stetzkamp, further adding: “Fundamentally we have defined three service levels. However, we offer our customers the possibility of individually tailoring the scope of services in the contract so that they can suit their own wishes.” Also operator skill increases as a result of regular maintenance, as does the training of the personnel involved. ­Machine and plant downtimes are reduced, and operating lifetime gets extended.

4 Remote-Service means rapid customer assistance

Before on-site support becomes necessary, the Haver specialists are able to ideally prepare their service visits via the Internet using the Remote-Service to customers. “Thanks to webcams and our Remote-Service to programmable controllers, HMI, drive systems and weigher electronics, we are ­already able to get a very good advanced look at what is going on. This allows us to better assess what will be necessary to help the customer rapidly,” explains service specialist Matthias Ten Haaf. Remote-Service is often enough to provide rapid assistance when the customer’s machine operator, who is located thousands of kilometers away, is able to solve problems on site at his machine by himself using the instructions received from Oelde. The employees of the TKD technical customer service can dial directly into the machine and carry out comprehensive analyses. Remote-Service ­allows operating problems to be detected and removed efficiently. Defective components can also be identified, a production stoppage can be significantly minimized and service costs saved. The Haver Service-Pad can play a central role here.

5 Spare parts procurement

through SAP greatly streamlined

In addition to its central stock in Oelde, Haver & Boecker maintains more than ten spare parts stores on every continent worldwide. About 75 per cent of all common parts are available immediately. “With the switch to the SAP system we have greatly streamlined the spare parts procurement process and delivery. Moreover a web shop is now being set up and will provide another service feature with personalized access,” says Jörg Große Stetzkamp. Here stock levels, availability, delivery times and prices will be available at a glance, and accordingly promises to the customers can be binding. Should spare parts no longer be produced after years of availability, the service department assists with appropriate retrofitting so that older machines can continue operating.

6 Original spare parts ensure

top machine performance

In the spare parts business the use of original parts has played a major role for years: “Sometimes customers, with a view to price, forget that only the use of original spare parts can really ensure full performance and long operating lifetimes,” says Matthias Ten Haaf. Especially in training sessions this is an important topic when it comes to maintaining the productivity and operational availability of the machines and plants.

In the global cement industry the service technicians are foremost focused on optimizing machine performance, maintaining the achieved level over the long-term and discussing technical upgrades and retrofitting measures with customers. Replacing wear parts and setting the electronic control parameters of the machines to match the production conditions are among the core tasks of the service personnel. Here the Haver & Boecker service specialists fall back on their huge store of experience in handling machines and all the different flow properties, products and packaging.

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