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Expect the Unexpected

It is the nightmare of every printer. The order book is full, the press lines are running continuously, and then production stops suddenly due to a machine malfunction. This can cause long downtime and major damage. An on-site stock with crucial spare parts can significantly reduce such a risk.

Contiweb has a large service team with over 40 trained experts, who are available 24/7 to help customers when needed. With the help of advanced diagnostic systems, it is often possible to quickly diagnose and to initiate the correct intervention. If customers have spare parts in stock, that is of course a big advantage. We can illustrate this with the practical example below.

Defective dryer in Spain

The Technical Support department was recently called on a Friday evening by a customer in Spain. Their dryer had stopped, and the customer was not able to get it back up and running. A dryer that is down throws out production planning completely and is therefore a big problem. The flame on the dryer kept going out after a short time and the dryer automatically stopped the supply of gas. This is a built-in safety mechanism to prevent the dryer being fully pumped with gas.

According to the first telephone diagnosis of the Technical Support employee, the problem was the burner controller, flame detector or sensor. Replacement would probably solve the problem quickly but unfortunately the customer did not have these crucial parts in stock and they had to be sent by courier to Spain. The courier was dispatched directly with two drivers so that they could drive continuously. A day later the parts arrived on site. To prevent further delays, it was also decided to send a Contiweb field service engineer to Spain. Arriving at the customer, using the supplied parts, it quickly became clear which part was faulty. After almost 2 days of downtime, production could be resumed.

Huge damage

The customer was very satisfied with Contiweb’s prompt and competent handling. Nevertheless, due to the downtime, the costs of sending the courier and the field service engineer, a loss of € 80,000 was incurred. If the customer had had the spare parts on site, he could have exchanged them himself with telephone support from Contiweb. The problem would have been solved much faster and the damage limited.

The case above is unfortunately no exception. Many customers only have a very limited number of spare parts in stock. A bigger stock of course requires a certain investment but having crucial parts on site means problems are quickly resolved and downtime reduced dramatically meaning the initial outlay is earned back quickly.

Are you considering to build a larger stock, but do not know exactly which parts are eligible? In our next blog we offer 5 tips to achieve an optimal stock of spare parts.

Alternatively, you can ask Contiweb for support. Based on 40 years of experience, we can put together a tailor-made Uptime Kit with spare parts suited specifically to your machines and your budget.