Original Date: 05/12/1997
Revision Date: 01/18/2007

Cincinnati Milacron’s Service Parts Division (SPD) provides post sales service and supplies all repair parts for milling, grinding, and turning machines built since 1884. The SPD consists of customer communications, technical services, inventory control, expediting, purchasing, pricing, microfilming, programming, assembly, shipping, and warehousing. Growth of this division has occurred mainly through the Original Equipment Manufacturer Sales; Repair and Exchange; and Engineering Service Departments. Essential to the SPD’s operation are accessibility and part availability.

A few years ago, the SPD conducted a study on accessibility. Customer feedback indicated that 44% of initial telephone calls were handled by an answering machine. Despite the advances in telecommunications, customers still prefer to talk to a live representative from customer service. Based on the findings, the SPD revised its telephone system and installed the Automatic Call Distributor (ACD) system. The ACD system calls to the first-available open line and reduces the number of messages handled by an answering machine. In 1997, the SPD had an 11% abandon rate (number of messages left on an answering machine), with a goal of 5%. The abandon rate, measured on a daily or hourly basis, is continuously monitored to enhance the SPD’s post sales service.

Parts availability is also critical to customer satisfaction. The SPD maintains the records on more than 280,000 different parts, and the bin locations for about 70,000 different items. Inventory is based on usage and service levels (the number of parts in stock when requested by a customer). The SPD also performs daily reviews of its active and obsolete stock. If available, parts ordered by customers are shipped daily. Cincinnati Milacron measures the success rate of its parts availability at the service level. Currently, the SPD has an 86% service level, with a goal of 90%.

For more information see the Point of Contact for this survey.