INTERVIEW RADEMAKER SERVICE MANAGER
Rademaker provides a full range of services during the operational life of the equipment. Service packages are designed to flexibly fit all customer needs, from delivering spare parts to call-out response and preventive maintenance, inspections and giving various training courses. Rademaker can support your production process in many ways. The thorough knowledge and experience Rademaker has gained over the last thirty years can work in your advantage. Rademaker Service Manager Mr. Hans Emmelkamp tells more.
Mr. Emmelkamp, can you briefly introduce yourself and tell us what your role is at Rademaker?
"In 2006, I started working for Rademaker. I started in the Service Department and have worked there for six years in various positions. Then I have worked as an assembly leader for three years. Now, I have been working as a service manager for six months, i.e. I added up, many years of Rademaker experience in a managerial role."
Can you tell us how the Rademaker Service Department is structured?
"We can offer our customers a full range of services. The starting point is that we can provide service to the customer at any time of day. Our free Service Helpdesk is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to ensure a rapid response and first line support. We have experienced service engineers who are ready for our customers at any time when they have urgent problems. Help is given by telephone, on-site or by calling in remotely through a modem. We can remotely dial in to the PLC system. In this way our service engineers have access to the full data of the machines and we can quickly identify the problem and work towards a solution. We ensure that the machine of the customer is operational as soon as possible. That is our drive!"
"Customers obviously expect that their equipment is functioning optimally with regard to usability, production capacity, efficiency and quality. To achieve this, Rademaker can overhaul the production line so that it functions optimally at all times. Optionally we can once or twice a year, visit the customer over a long weekend with a group of engineers for inspection and exchange of parts. This preventive maintenance cycleresults in only little unplanned malfunctions and increases the lifetime of the production line."
"An emerging trend that we see at our Service Department, is providing training courses to operators, technicians or bakers. The goal of our training courses is to improve the knowledge and skills at various levels in the area of maintenance, engineering or technology. We have existing and customized training courses; the choice of a particular training course depends on the needs of the customer and can take place in our Technology Centre in Culemborg, or at the customer’s site."
"Depending on the wishes of our customers, we are able to offer, customizable, recommended spare parts packages to them. For a fixed budget, we can also offer a custom-made component package to our customers."
And how is this spare parts package composed?
"This can be done in response to the data we have, but also as a result of inspection. Here certain parts sometimes turn out to be critical. Based on our findings at the customer’s site, we can make our special customer-specific offer."
A clear story Mr. Emmelkamp. The Rademaker Service staff thus plays an important role. What qualities must a Rademaker Service employee have to be successful?
"Our service stands or falls in having the right people at the right place. Rademaker Service employees must, first of all, be customer-friendly and pleasant to deal with. The customer is always our focus and that is the basic principle of all our service people. We see the service technician as the ambassador of Rademaker as he is in intensive and in close contact with the customer. Besides the fact that he must be well educated technically, the ability must be there to listen carefully to what the customer says and an adequately respond must be given. These are important aspects and most important criteria for us in order to guarantee our qualitative service."
Qualitative service is what is important. What distinguishes the Rademaker Service from other machine builders?
"Good question. Our technicians always set off well prepared, because a good preparation results in a rapid solution. This is a point that we often hear back from our customers.
Another strong point is our local presence. We have a very high commitment to our customers and are closely involved in the operational success after the delivery of the product. A customer can really call us 24 hours a day, 7 days a week throughout the year, even on Sundays and public holidays. This guarantees that we are always ready for our esteemed customers. This is self-evident to us, and it is not passed on to the customer. It is part of the Rademaker Service!"
That's a nice story, but how do customers experience the Rademaker Service?
"We often get positive feedback from our customers. You would like to communicate that to the market. Fortunately, we can really justify this because of the feedback we receive throughout the year from our customers. They praise us for our approach and the preparation of our team. Nevertheless, we remain critical to ourselves. We are constantly looking to take our service to an even higher level. The well-being of the customer always comes first."