“Schrottis” (Scrappies) have risen to Service Project Managers. Service Engineering – a systemic Answer to future Customer Orientation.

The history of development – a service project manager reports:

In the past, we have been the “Schrottis” of our factory, because our office has been situated on the factory premises in an old production hall, near production and within the works manager’s area of responsibility. It was our job to replace machine parts, we were the contact persons for old plants and we have carried out repairs in the hall or at the customer’s site. We were called “Schrottis”, because our work was always about existing plants, so we only dealt with “old stuff” und did not „make any deals.”

In the 90s, it became obvious that we had an important function as customer adviser and problem solver and our customer-orientated work was finally recognised as service. We had been promoted from “Schrottis” to customer service providers. A separate department with a team made up of 8 members and its own team leader was founded. Our customer service was well received with market members and customers. That’s why our development went on, and in the beginning of 2000, our customer service evolved to after sales business with defined service products and service features. By providing this service, we established customer retention and advising structures, which had previously not been possible within distribution.

From service organisation to service project management:

Due to the fact that service management has continually increased in importance during the last years, we continued to develop into our own service organisation within our company. 

Meanwhile, we have become service project managers of the customer management, providing our customers with a comprehensive service portfolio, which includes amongst others advising on our service offering as well as handling and acceptance of services rendered. This means: nowadays, our customers are buying problem solutions and services that are firmly embedded as intangible services into functions, quality and characteristics of our service strategy. This includes having our own service and sales representatives, who keep records of the demand and acquire the services to be rendered by the service project management. Service project managers are responsible for rendering customized services and they schedule, control and handle these services for the customer. As service project managers we are in particular responsible for issues concerning resource-conserving materials, packaging and logistics. In addition, we advise customers on aspects of sustainability, security and ergonomics, thus service project management may comprise repairs, maintenances, conversions, repairs and modernisation. Due to our excellent project management know-how, we are able to transform such expertise into added value for our customers! And this is where again the “Schrottis” take the stage. We are consistently applying the experiences gained during our “time as Schrottis” and incorporate them into our service project management. In this way we can render services that stand out from our competitors!

Target: service engineering

On our way from “Schrottis” to service project managers we have implemented rewarding changes in the company during the last 20 years. During joint development stages, we have systematically expanded the knowledge of our employees as a competence, so that cross-generational learning within a group of employees has meanwhile become natural. Our organisation gained its experience by excellent project competence. Due to our service project management competence in organisation and staffing, we are able to further develop towards Service Engineering.