Improving Efficiency at the Spare Parts Distribution Center: Optimization for Jenbacher Services
“Jenbacher engines are always used wherever decentralized and reliable energy supply is required,” says Christian Balduhn, Principal Consultant at io. Jenbacher systems from the INNIO Group are designed for high availability and long service lives. To ensure this, parts and consumables must be a precise fit for the Jenbacher system and always reflect the latest state of the art. To this end, Jenbacher Services offers a comprehensive range of original manufacturer spare parts. To handle international shipping, the INNIO Group operates a central distribution center for spare parts in Nuremberg. “We’ve revamped how it’s organized,” reports Balduhn. “We analyzed basic logistics data—inventory levels and movements—across the entire supply chain, from the supplier to the end customer—and were then able to develop a concept, in collaboration with Jenbacher Services as the operator and a contracted service provider, that improved structures and material flows.
”The concept was implemented in 2021. Balduhn’s team consolidated the distribution center and optimized it for efficiency, for example by changing aisle widths, repositioning racking, and installing a narrow-aisle warehouse. Support from io was provided remotely due to the pandemic, according to Balduhn. “That was definitely a challenge. Nevertheless, everything went according to plan—on time and within budget.” To this end, warehouse processes—including IT—were closely examined over a period of one year.
New Approaches to Spare Parts Logistics
But that’s not all: Following the project for the main distribution center in Nuremberg, io continued to pave the way for even more efficient spare parts logistics processes at Jenbacher Services, “for which we examined the regional network structure,” as Balduhn continues. Based on global sales forecasts, a target vision for the future network structure was developed and further detailed in the form of a roadmap outlining the various initiatives. For example, one of the key points was the establishment of a new service hub in Singapore to serve the growing Asia-Pacific region. The individual activities, from early planning through to implementation, were coordinated directly by io.
Among other things, this helped increase customer satisfaction. Balduhn summarizes the overall initiative with the following words: “It’s all a matter of transparency. Those who understand their internal processes and how they fit together, and who establish the necessary data foundations, can take the right actions.”
