Heinrich Georg Maschinenbau strengthens digital service

 In the newly created "Service" product area, Georg combines all service activities that were previously divided into three different areas. In this way, the Kreuztal-based machine builder and process optimizer raises service to the same level as its machines and systems in demand worldwide, thus giving it more weight. With a powerful service team and digital tools, the technology company wants to make service faster, more effective and more efficient.

In recent years, Georg has largely digitized the service in the "Transformer Systems" product area with "Georg connectedservice" and online communication. Now the logical next step has been taken: All employees who previously worked in the customer service of the three product areas "Conveyor Systems", "Machine Tools" and "Transformer Systems" now form the new "Service" business unit.

The team, which has been supplemented by additional experts, uses the same digital tools for all three product areas. Thanks to the resulting synergies, Georg significantly shortens response times and further increases the availability and profitability of customer systems over their entire service life.

Axel Sturm, Head of the new Service product area, sees great benefits for his customers: "In the new team, the service employees for all three product areas work together under one roof. For users, this means that we put service requests in the fast lane much faster, because we can more flexibly rely on a larger pool of service technicians and engineers as well as master straighteners. In addition, the internal paths to design and purchasing are significantly shorter. In this way, our customers' systems go back into operation more quickly after a service call."

For several years now, Georg has also been increasingly moving to digital communication channels for service. In the "Transformer Systems" product area, for example, the experts have already processed 80 percent of the service orders resulting from software or electrical engineering exclusively from the Kreuztal site in the past two years.

Georg has also carried out commissioning of new plants and complex conversion projects entirely online from Kreuztal. At Hulamin in South Africa, for example, Georg carried out the comprehensive conversion of a cut-to-piece line into a combined cut-to-piece and rewinding line in the "Conveyor Systems" product area without having its own personnel on site. The pre-commissioning of five roll grinding machines of the "Machine Tools" product area for Baowu Steel Group Corp., Ltd. at the Zhanjiang site in the Chinese province of Guangdong was also carried out completely remotely from Kreuztal.

The technical heart of "Georg Life Cycle Management" is the "GEORG connectedservice". It includes all service activities from online error analysis to commissioning, online support and, if necessary, work on the system to billing.

Mark Georg, The Managing Director of Georg, relies on the digital tools: "Someone doesn't have to get on the plane every time there is something to do in a plant. With "GEORG connectedservice" we have already avoided many on-site assembly assignments. And we are currently expanding the service with further digital tools: for example, with a digital spare parts catalog or proactive service. Many machines already contact us autonomously when services are due or a spare part is needed. The customer then generates a service request online, everything is much faster than before with paper and pencil."

Axel Sturm and his team will significantly expand the spectrum of the business unit: "With a wide range of services, we accompany the customer throughout the entire life cycle of his plant so that he can get more out of the investment overall: more safety, more productivity, more returns. That's why we are increasingly offering online training with webinars, consulting services as well as modernization and conversion of plants."