Proactive customer service

Leading global manufacturer of press systems and complete wood-based panel plants Dieffenbacher Maschinen- und Anlagenbau GmbH from Eppingen, Germany, has approximately 1,850 employees at 19 production, service and sales locations around the world.

These locations include Austria, Brazil, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, India, Malaysia, Poland, Russia, Thailand, Turkey and the US. The locations are designed to help customers benefit from local and global expertise, ranging from the first consultation to flexible customer service.

In 2012, the US subsidiary Dieffenbacher Customer Support (DCS) was established in Alpharetta, Georgia, as the new central service company for all Dieffenbacher customers in the US and Canada. In 2022, DCS celebrated its 10th anniversary.

“2012 was the perfect time to set up a service company in North America,” recalled Rolf-Dieter Krey, who has been with DCS from the beginning.

He started as customer service manager and today is director of after sales.

“It was the first time since the financial crisis of 2007 and 2008 that the North American wood-based panels industry increased its sales,” he added.

“DCS began as a small subsidiary but has become our thriving US headquarters by consistently focusing on customer needs,” said Dr Bernd Deffland, who joined the company in 2014 as controller and now leads it as president and CFO.

“DCS has come this far thanks to dedicated long-term employees who enjoy a family-like work environment and are always willing to help one another. We have had strategic growth in both people and parts with more than 100 talented people in North America and 80,000 spare parts housed in our warehouse.”

DCS places great importance on having team members who have knowledge and experience in the wood-based panel plant environment and who know what customers expect from Dieffenbacher.

“Our people come with a great attitude, go the extra mile and put the customer first. We make it a point to stay on top of the newest technology trends by attending trade shows and conferences to ensure we’re providing the best options and services to our customers. We pride ourselves on being proactive, caring, accurate and fast,” said Dr Deffland.

2017 RELOCATION AND EXPANSION

The year 2017 marked a big step for DCS, as the company moved to a new location in Alpharetta. Previously, DCS and Dieffenbacher USA Inc were two separate entities.

With the move, the two organisations were combined into one operating company.

Spare parts, service, modernisation, new equipment sales, engineering and senior management worked under one roof, allowing everything to run smoother and faster. Warehouse space was expanded by 75% compared to the old location, dramatically improving the availability of spare parts for Dieffenbacher customers in North America.

After the relocation, DCS increased its focus on parts availability, delivery and service.

“We have since optimised our warehouse space to hold 50% more value, and we try to make it as easy as possible for customers to obtain parts,” said Mr Krey.

“We’re constantly communicating with customers to understand what they want and when they need it, to keep them running smoothly.”

To help customers assess risk and reduce downtime, DCS maintains lists of critical parts that must be on site. DCS also implemented a programme to laser engrave item and part numbers on the parts. This saves customers time trying to look up parts numbers, assists them with reordering and lessens the lead-time on these parts. Express service is standard at DCS, including same-day shipping for stocked parts.

THE COVID PERIOD CHALLENGE

Of course, as for everyone else, the Covid-19 pandemic was a major challenge for DCS.

“Luckily, in 2018, we decided to change from desktop computers to laptops. This helped tremendously during the pandemic when we immediately pivoted to having everyone work remotely,” explained Jenny Vickers, finance director at DCS.

Office workstations were cloned for use in home offices, and the team went completely paperless to increase efficiency. Warehouse team members were the only ones in the office during the pandemic, helping to ensure a safe environment.

“We also enhanced our virtual meeting capabilities by using Microsoft Teams, having weekly virtual meetings with the entire team to stay in touch, maintain the family work environment and keep up morale with team building events such as virtual wine tastings where we shipped bottles of wine to each colleague,” said Ms Vickers.

Long before Covid, however, DCS held frequent virtual calls with Dieffenbacher’s headquarters in Germany to discuss, work together on, and finalise solutions for North American customers.

“It’s important that we listen to our customers and understand what they need to make their businesses successful,” said Colin Folco, director modernisation North America at DCS.

“If we here in North America develop a solution that we believe would suit our customers’ needs, we work together with our German colleagues to finalise the concept.

We also have a very strong and good cooperation with Dieffenbacher North America Inc in Windsor, Ontario, in Canada.

I know the production site and its capabilities very well, having been the manager there for six years before joining DCS in 2013.”

Today, DCS supports Dieffenbacher customers in North America (United States and Canada) and Mexico. An installed equipment base of US$1bn makes DCS the largest subsidiary within the Dieffenbacher group.

While Dr Deffland oversees the entire subsidiary, the other three directors lead the finance, after sales and sales teams. The after sales team consists of personnel who support customers in their day-to-day operations, including customer support specialists who visit customers frequently.

The sales/key account management team has specialists in modernisation, plant operations and new line sales. The finance team ties it all together. “We strive to have the right people in the right places at the right time so we can provide the best possible solutions for our customers,” said Dr Deffland.

DCS frequently participates at trade shows throughout North America, including IWF, APA, CPA and PELICE. The team also regularly attends MEM Industrial in Mexico and joins the global Dieffenbacher team for Ligna in Germany every two years.

“Trade shows give customers the opportunity to speak with our experts face-to-face. The virtual world allows for improved communication throughout the year, but it’s no substitute for in-person conversations at the shows,” said Mr Folco.

“The shows also help us build long-term relationships with customers,” he added. DCS is well-connected with regional and national organisations and associations. At the end of October, for example, Dr Deffland and his team will host the first meeting of the woodworking section of the German Mechanical Engineering Industry Association VDMA in the US.

DATA ACQUISITION AND AI

Currently, DCS is seeing a greater focus on reliability in the North American wood-based panels industry, which is driving interest in data acquisition and artificial intelligence (AI) products.

Panel producers increasingly depend on data to make sound business decisions. With finding and retaining personnel becoming more challenging, companies are turning to AI and data acquisition systems to do the repetitive tasks in their plants and using their skilled personnel for other tasks.

“Several of our customers believe this is mission-critical and have created standalone control centres where they can monitor all of their mills in real time,” explained Mr Folco.

In its 11 years of operation, DCS has seen its customers evolve from pure panel manufacturers to more integrated valueadded companies. Simultaneously, DCS has evolved from an equipment and parts supplier to a complete plant solutions provider. By doing so, the team has moved from a transactional type of relationship with customers to a more integrated partner type of relationship.

“Along the way, we have shifted the focus to be more proactive with our customers, and view ourselves as a valueadding partner rather than just a vendor,” said Dr Deffland.

“We always take our customers one step further in what they do,” he summed up.