MAHLE: digital boost in Aftermarket maximizes customer benefits

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26 Feb 2019

Category: Articles, Company News

MAHLE: digital boost in Aftermarket maximises customer benefits

Stuttgart, January 2019 – The automotive industry is in the midst of a digitalization process. Everyone is talking about connectivity and autonomous driving, which are developments that offer wholesalers and workshops additional sales potential. However, anyone whose job it is to efficiently and reliably diagnose, calibrate, and maintain a large number of different vehicles requires a competent service partner. With the digital solutions from MAHLE Aftermarket, service and diagnostic tools are interconnected and always up-to-date. The CustomerCare portal, available from mid-2019, and the well-established online catalog ensure instantaneous identification and ordering of the correct parts as well as direct contact between the wholesaler, the workshop, and MAHLE. And following the order, a digital, automated logistics system makes sure delivery is reliable and on time.

“As far as we’re concerned, the specific added value for our customers is the focus of the development of our digital services,” explains Olaf Henning, Corporate Executive Vice President and General Manager MAHLE Aftermarket. “Together with the workshops and the wholesale trade, we’re in the middle of the digital transformation. And we’re moving forward in areas where our customers will see real benefit—through the rapid provision of information, quality assurance thanks to Industry 4.0 in our plants, and the direct transfer of our digital expertise from the OE segment into products for the aftermarket.”

Digitalization has been part of the production of components and service solutions at MAHLE for a long time. This technology helps to ensure constantly high product quality as well as excellent reliability of supply and processes. With pilot projects on subjects including predictive maintenance, data analytics, and mobile plant maintenance, MAHLE is driving Industry 4.0 forward. In doing so, the company is addressing topics such as machine learning or the smart factory in order to make process flows in the production plants more efficient and more effective. This expertise naturally also flows into the development of MAHLE Aftermarket Service Solutions. Processes and innovations are thus adapted even more quickly and more effectively to meet the constantly changing requirements of the market and customers. Specifically, this relates to the latest generations of MAHLE Service Solutions, such as improved Connectivity/Remote Services. With Wi-Fi and Bluetooth fitted as standard, the equipment can be directly integrated into the workshop network. This therefore enables automatic updates, service alerts, information about the next service, and remote diagnostics.

Use of MAHLE’s online catalogue is often the first time workshops come into contact with MAHLE’s digital services. From cylinders and pistons to air conditioning compressors and cabin air filters: the product range featured in the online catalogue for Europe, Africa, and the Near East currently contains more than 38,000 products from areas such as engine components, mechatronics, air conditioning compressors, thermostats, and exhaust gas turbochargers—with more on the way. The online catalog gives wholesalers and other B2B customers the benefit of an intuitive interface, an advanced search facility, product comparisons, and a news-feed.

From mid-2019, the MAHLE Customer Care portal will offer the wholesale trade a wide range of information and services via a web portal. Our business customers will be able to access their own personal MAHLE dashboard to see an overview of sales and progress toward targets, delivery performance, and the delivery status of orders. All these services will be accessible at any time via a PC or mobile device.