Jungheinrich: Central Spare Parts Warehouse a Success

New level in spare parts logistics achieved / Availability up to over 98 percent / More than 4,000 service engineers worldwide

Jungheinrich clients are reaping the benefits of a highly efficient, in-night delivery service for original spare parts. In September 2013 the Hamburg-based enterprise transferred its central spare parts depot and spare parts management from the previous location at Norderstedt to a newly built spare parts centre at Kaltenkirchen. “This move took Jungheinrich’s spare parts logistics to a whole new level,” remarked Dirk Schulz, Head of After-sales Services at the Jungheinrich Group. “This has made us the trendsetter for our sector of industry,” he added.

The project was planned and implemented by the Jungheinrich logistics systems division. In addition the project was actively supported by the Automatic Systems and Spare Parts Logistics Systems departments as well as the Jungheinrich Sales Centre North. The Warehouse Management System (WMS) and control technology were likewise in-house contributions. Based on its high level of automation, productivity at the Kaltenkirchen spare parts centre was already up 60 percent just a year after going into operation. “Our central spare parts centre is already a major success story and a wise investment in the future,” continued Schulz.

By building the spare parts centre at Kaltenkirchen Jungheinrich has laid the groundwork for an even better fulfilment of future market requirements. This includes 24-hour delivery readiness 365 days of the year. According to Schulz: “Our new spare parts centre will guarantee an even faster and more efficient supply of spare parts worldwide.”

The investment volume for the Kaltenkirchen spare parts centre totalled 35 million euros. Erected on property of some 65,000 square metres, the warehouse measures some 22,000 square metres of floor space and includes a high rack storage area which is 31 metres high. The facility can store over 65,000 warehouse articles in a total of 110,000 storage slots. At a rate of up to 1,000 positions per hour, the spare parts centre can deliver spare parts to many different time zones (the Americas, Central Europe and Asia). As Schulz remarks: “This has helped us clinch our competitive advantage in the spare parts business, and we have already succeeded in increasing the availability of original spare parts for our globally active clients to a rate of over 98 percent.”

More than 4,000 Jungheinrich Service Engineers

To guarantee this high rate of availability, Jungheinrich also relies on its own global network of highly skilled service engineers. To utilise these engineers as efficiently as possible, the company employs software-driven route planning for extremely fast reaction times and the shortest possible distances to the client. According to Schulz, the company just recently hired its 4,000th service engineer. “This allows us to improve the density of our service network and guarantee a high level of operating security for our clients,” he commented. Service engineers already represent around one third, and the After-sales Service division almost half, of all Jungheinrich employees, which numbered some 12,500 by the end of 2014. Achieving revenues of more than 700 million euros, the Jungheinrich After-sales Service division also contributes a bit less than 33 percent of total group sales. As Schulz sees it, “this underscores the value of after-sales service to our enterprise and Jungheinrich’s strategic dual role as a service provider with manufacturing operations!

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