Service shortens repair times

Fol­low­ing a series of opti­miza­tion mea­sures at its Cen­ter of Excel­lence in Oelde, Gea has already began sig­nif­i­cant­ly reduc­ing the gen­er­al repair times of its sep­a­ra­tors. Infra­struc­ture and orga­ni­za­tion­al improve­ments, as well as the appoint­ment of an Assess­ment Coor­di­na­tor, have enabled numer­ous syn­er­gies, result­ing in inspec­tion and repair times being reduced by up to 40% world­wide. For par­tic­u­lar­ly urgent cas­es, the com­pa­ny is now offer­ing a Fast Lane Ser­vice, which enables affect­ed sep­a­ra­tors to be repaired in less than 10 days, depend­ing on the requirements.

Even the short-term break­down of a sep­a­ra­tor can, in worst-case sce­nar­ios, halt the entire pro­duc­tion which can result in heavy eco­nom­ic loss­es for com­pa­nies. Such sit­u­a­tions require quick analy­sis and repair. In most instances, the sep­a­ra­tor must be trans­port­ed to a cer­ti­fied Gea work­shop to ensure autho­rized repair by the orig­i­nal man­u­fac­tur­er, which includes the nec­es­sary safe­ty tests. Ship­ment, report­ing, repair, inspec­tion and return require a cer­tain time frame, which can be bridged via bowl rentals or spare parts – how­ev­er, this is not always the opti­mal solu­tion for cus­tomers. The com­pa­ny has there­fore devel­oped a Fast Lane Ser­vice for par­tic­u­lar­ly urgent repairs, which are han­dled by a ded­i­cat­ed team who take care of these pri­or­i­tized requests. These employ­ees work along­side Gea’s reg­u­lar diag­nos­tic and repair ser­vice teams, but have the advan­tage of being able to exclu­sive­ly han­dle pri­or­i­tized cas­es more quick­ly. The Fast Lane Ser­vice is offered for sep­a­ra­tors in all appli­ca­tion areas with a sur­charge based on bowl diameter.

The Fast Lane offer is cur­rent­ly lim­it­ed due to capac­i­ty and time con­sid­er­a­tions. For this rea­son, a small steer­ing team will decide on the urgency of each repair based on diverse cri­te­ria. Once a repair is pri­or­i­tized, the oper­a­tional team takes over the order, man­ag­ing the entire process which includes coop­er­at­ing with the spe­cial­ist depart­ments as well as arrang­ing for the dis­patch of parts and repaired machines – reduc­ing over­all lead times by up to 80%. With its con­sid­er­able reduc­tion in repair times and option­al Fast Lane offer, Gea has achieved an impor­tant improve­ment in its ser­vice which is a clear plus for cus­tomer satisfaction.