Engel UK to start “logical” seven-day operation

Engel UK has announced it is to commence a seven-day operation from its service department at the company’s headquarters in Warwick.

With effect from May, customers will be able to contact Engel’s field service team during the weekend, with a response scheduled over a seven, as opposed to five-day, period.

“This is a big step, but a logical one,” commented Graeme Herlihy, Managing Director of Engel UK. “There has been a disconnect in the supply chain, particularly with respect to the automotive industry. The tier one suppliers are working 24/7 with the potential for equipment breakdown to cause a line stoppage at the OEM, and yet machine suppliers could theoretically leave a machine down from Friday evening to Monday morning. We have always offered a level of support for emergencies on an ad hoc basis, but there has never before been a real structure. This can’t be considered acceptable”.

Technical Manager, Bob Horscroft, added: “We considered having the team on a standby rota for emergencies, but decided that wasn’t enough to provide the service that the market expects from us. So we decided that the only way forward is to go the whole hog and run the department as a seven day operation.”

In addition to manning Engel UK during daytime hours, the nightshift for customer support is covered by parent company, Engel Austria, operating a 24/7 hotline.  Completing the picture as far as out-of-hours services are concerned, the company says there will also now be the possibility to ship spare parts during the weekend using special transport, either from Engel UK in Warwick, or from Austria.

Herlihy also drew attention to Engel’s “e-service.24” Internet-based, remote support facility. This, he explained, provides remote connection to the customers’ machine for fault finding by Engel technicians, either in Warwick or in Austria. “Especially when the customer allows us remote access to the machine through e-service.24, we can now offer the level of out of hours service that the industry has been waiting for,” he concluded.