Customer Care | Simone Ducceschi

Proactive approach and spare parts warehouse: the future of customer service

A production line, to operate optimally, should keep its machines at maximum efficiency. However, even with meticulous maintenance, breakdowns cannot be avoided with absolute certainty. By implementing a proactive approach you can significantly reduce the likelihood of these happening.

In the case of sudden breakdowns, it is important to be able to rely on a well-prepared and competent customer service, able to minimize the impact on productivity, thanks also to a warehouse capable of ensuring the immediate availability of the necessary spare parts.

Reactive and proactive approach: what changes?

Having the certainty that the machines of a production line are totally fault-free is a utopia. The unexpected can happen at any time and, often, the problem arises at the most inconvenient time. It therefore becomes necessary to intervene as quickly as possible to limit the damage, involving customer service so that it can act quickly and solve the problem.

In this (reactive) approach, the competence of the technical teams and the assortment of spare parts in stock play an essential role, as demonstrated by A.Celli’s customer care, which within a few hours of the breakdown report is able to repair the machines and restart production.

Alongside this more “traditional” approach to maintenance is the proactive approach, which aims to prevent a breakdown by intervening before it occurs.

To achieve this result, it is necessary not only to maintain your machinery always at their peak conditions, but also to organize maintenance that allows you to replace components in advance that are most likely to wear out or break down, depending on the type of work performed.

In this way, not only is the likelihood of a breakdown reduced to a minimum, but it is also possible to schedule maintenance or component replacements at times when the impact on production is minimal. This is exactly A.Celli’s goal: to guarantee its customers production continuity.

The role of the Key Account

The proactive approach involves continuous monitoring of the machine’s status and its components. Although this task can be performed by the user if they have the necessary abilities, it is preferable to delegate it to the machine’s manufacturer. This is due to both the manufacturer’s greater technical knowledge of the machinery and their experience gained over the years, which enables them to understand when it is necessary to intervene before excessive wear or breakdowns occur.

A.Celli entrusts the task of visiting customers to check the machine’s status, offering any necessary component replacements or interventions, to their Key Accounts. These can also suggest possible updates and additional services to improve the machine’s performance and increase its versatility and productivity.

Predictive maintenance and scheduled interventions

Today’s technology allows for the automation of the monitoring previously performed by people, which is the foundation of proactive maintenance. This results in even more efficient and accurate control through what is known as predictive maintenance, which can be achieved through a high level of automation in the production line and the integration of Industry 4.0 features, such as sensors and IoT.

These technologies allow for real-time monitoring of the machine’s operation, giving control over the production capacity and the state of the various components. In fact, predictive maintenance makes it possible to establish with a high degree of precision if and where failures may occur, or if a component is nearing the end of its useful life. It is thus possible to act in advance to carry out the necessary interventions aimed at avoiding a sudden interruption of the activity, maintaining a production line in optimal conditions.

However, due to the characteristics of individual facilities, predictive maintenance may not always be possible. For this reason, and to reduce the duration of scheduled machine shutdowns while preventing unexpected ones, A.Celli also offers the option to subscribe to specific maintenance plans, a service offered for both new machinery and those already installed.

Of course, in the case of machinery that has been in use for some time, a team of specialized technicians must analyze the plant and all its components, the customer’s production needs and the machine’s history, in order to assess its conditions. At that point (and in the case of new machinery, for which an inspection is obviously not necessary), the customer will receive a detailed description of the interventions that A.Celli technicians will need to perform during the subsequent scheduled machine shutdowns, along with a list of parts that will need to be periodically replaced with original spare parts to ensure proper plant operation and maximum performance over time.

Assistance and troubleshooting

Often when a malfunction or breakage of a component occurs, it is not immediately possible to determine the cause and, especially, the possible solutions. To help its customers in this task, A.Celli makes available a 24/7 troubleshooting service.

Being the first point of contact when a customer encounters a problem, the troubleshooting service is provided by highly specialized technicians in mechanics, electronics, and programming who are able to quickly identify the cause of the problem and immediately propose a possible solution. Alternatively, if the problem requires on-site intervention by the A.Celli’s team, the procedure for replacing the component will be started immediately.

The role of the spare parts warehouse

The spare parts warehouse plays a crucial role in assistance. Traditionally, it was managed according to a logic that provided for a minimum assortment, with the option of ordering the necessary spare parts based on a specific customer request. However, this mode lengthens the time required to repair the machines.

The spare parts warehouse must therefore operate proactively instead of reactively, so as to anticipate the customer’s needs. This, in practice, means always having the necessary components available to avoid serious machine downtime. In a period like the present one, when the availability of spare parts is difficult and can result in waiting times of several months, it is strategic to be able to rely on a supplier able to provide any necessary piece in a short time.

For this purpose, A.Celli has set up a new automated warehouse containing the consumable parts and the most sold critical components of the last 7 years. In both cases, these are parts that, if deteriorated, prevent the machine from functioning. Since downtime is an event that can occur despite all precautions, the new A.Celli warehouse always has the adequate spare in stock, allowing customers to restart activity as soon as possible.

It should be emphasized that A.Celli not only ensures the immediate availability of the necessary spare parts, but also offers the assembly and testing service, to avoid any possible problems during installation and, therefore, to contain machine downtime to a minimum.