DMG machine support - review

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In response to customers’ high rating of DMG machines having a multi-operational capability and the wider use of ‘one-hit’ strategies on very complex components that position the installations as ‘key’ production units to maintain JIT type deliveries, DMG (UK) of Luton is expanding its front line service engineering team from 16 to 19 people.  This increase will also provide installation and service support for the newly introduced ECOLINE, low cost, but high specification and build quality machines, for which sales following MACH 2008 exhibition, have taken-off.

With the new appointments under Martin Woodbridge, UK Service Manager, there will be a team of 34 people plus service partners in Northern and Southern Ireland to cover the in excess of 1,600 installations in the UK. Each of these installations are verified under the Gildemeister Group’s BAAN integrated machine installation record database.  In addition, DMG (UK) also provides support and spares for Gildemeister, Deckel and Maho machines installed prior to the formation of the Group in 1992. 

Key to DMG (UK)’s customer support operation at Luton are the three technical ‘Hot Line’ engineers, two covering milling and one turning, that provide direct customer support while co-ordinating requirements with the spares department, field service and the applications manager with his team of six engineers.

Said Mr Woodbridge:  “One of the major successes from  the machines we are now installing is where customers are combining more and more operations into single cycles to reduce lead times, improve productivity and quality.  As a result, there has been a marked shift to regular service support in order to eliminate any risk of customer penalties for late delivery of contracts should they experience problems.  Also, in the subcontract area, many suppliers are now having to meet ever stricter customer quality audit requirements that are now including proof of maintenance, alignment checks and machine uptime.”

He has also received feed-back from customers that on key machines  they cannot afford any unreliability or breakdown, nor machines not able to achieve strict geometric and positional tolerances and surface finish requirements. He said: “We are responding to this need for regular checks being made by someone with in-depth knowledge of the machine tool.”

Due to the ever growing range of machines and control systems in the DMG portfolio and the high rate of product upgrade and new introductions, for instance some 15 of the 68 machines under power at last years EMO exhibition in Germany were new,  this means product training needs to be intense and on-going for the service team.  He said:  “With each of the DMG factories having its own central service operation to provide additional support when needed, every engineer has to attend training update sessions between two and three times a year.”