On the way to becoming a global solution provider

Aschaffenburg, 3/4 February 2011 – The objective of setting the benchmarks for the service sector is not new to Linde Material Handling. What's new is the intensity in which they are pursuing this objective. With a new organisational structure, pioneering strategies and a great deal of motivation, the forklift manufacturer wants to intensely promote the growth of market and customer orientated services.

The extent to which Linde MH is bringing Service into focus alone shows the level of changes that have taken place within the organisation. What used to be called After Sales can now be found in the newly formed company business segment of Customer Services. Here there is a clear structure of four technical areas ambitiously engaged in implementing internal and external strategies. Roland Hartwig, Vice President of Customer Services is in charge of deciding which objectives take priority: "We want to become a global solution provider that can provide the best complete solution for each customer and every challenge. We are working on creating global standards and we are making sure that we take regional conditions into account. The primary objective is not just to meet customer expectations, but to exceed them."

The reasons for strong investment in the development of the service sector are many and varied. One of them is the impact of high-quality service on the new vehicle business, and another is the substantial volume of turnover on the global market. Linde still has approximately 650,000 industrial trucks in operation worldwide and around 550,000 of those are in Europe. In terms of the service potential arising from this, the 2009 market share was around 61 percent and in 2010 this was able to increase to approximately 67 percent. A respectable value, which Roland Hartwig nevertheless would like to improve upon: "We want to continue to intensify our service activities over the coming years. A premium service is after all the foundation that we need to be able to really make the most of the superior Linde technology."

More than 7000 service technicians worldwide

This is an ambitious objective, which can only be achieved if Linde is able to offer the fleet operators a first-rate maintenance and service solution whatever the conditions. To deal with the current situation the departments have intensely analysed the global markets and the challenges that they set. Roland Hartwig outlines the results and measures arising from this: "The analyses have shown that we are very well placed in some relevant areas. Our customer orientated service level as well as our high market presence are examples of this. We can draw on over 7000 service technicians in over 700 service centres worldwide — this mean a guarantied customer focus. However in terms of fleet management and full service, we want to continue to develop our performance." Furthermore, work is being done on extending the stock range of original spare parts, the development of a global standard, as well as on customer orientated innovative service solutions.

Even in the areas where Linde has already set the benchmark they do not want to rest on their laurels. Take for example the global replacement parts warehouse in Kahl: according to Roland Hartwig, given that there is 24/7 access or replacement parts on hand 24 hours a day, seven days a week, the potential for improvement in terms of workers is limited, yet the availability of replacement parts can still be optimised further. Even though current availability is around 95 percent, that value should rise, believe it or not, to 98 percent in the next few years. "And then we will have a look at those last two percent", adds Hartwig. "Because if you think you're good enough already, you have already lost!"