7 Questions You Must Answer Before Building a Successful Reman Program

Preparation and planning, are key to building a successful remanufactured program. Below are 7 important questions you should answer before starting one, from Susan Olund our OEM & Service Programs Manager.

1. What are the scope and long-term goals of the reman program?

   This is a great opportunity to partner with the customer and supplier to establish a plan of what you are hoping to accomplish. Remanufactured programs are powerful tools that, run well, can offset fixed costs and provide high ROI.

2. What will the customer find most valuable in your reman program?

   Setting goals is important, but ultimately you need to build the reman program for your customer. Reman should not be a one size fits all situation - every dealership and fleet is different. Customers see the benefit of avoiding down-time and gaining peace of mind with a warranty as the biggest benefits. However, cost savings, core ownership, labor recovery, and of course quality all play a factor in successful programs.

3. Start with the critical….the longest lead time repairs.

   Look at the most critical systems of equipment: Hydraulics and Powertrain.

   Determine the following:

   - What level of expertise will the customer need to make the repair? - What repairs can be made easily in the field? - What is the ease of component removal and reinstallation? - What failures will lead to secondary failures or system contamination? - What is subject to internal hard part damage? - What parts are off-the-shelf and what is custom designed.

   All of these factor into a successful program and should be considered in advance.

4. When do you expect the critical systems to begin having problems?

   Consider how many hours critical systems will be under extreme conditions, and how much of that time will be problematic. Expect and plan for 10-20%. Make sure to communicate to customers critical system failure prevention methods. By tailoring your Preventative Maintenance Service recommendations around critical systems, and offer incentives to dealerships who identify potential problems early.

5. What can be offered to the customer to prevent equipment failures in the future?

   Determine if there are additional services that can be included that provide full system filtration at the same time when regular service is performed. Research repair kits in advance of failures for critical system components. Determine if seeded cores will be necessary long-term.

6. What can be done to make this Reman program cost effective for the customer?

   Work with the component supplier to help with cost of starting a reman program. It's important to select the right remanufactured component partner early and work with them to design options that work for the customer. Can you offer incentives to dealers who use the reman program? Plan for turns to increase within reman program as equipment ages. Consider discussing long-term value of the equipment during the purchase cycle and make recommendations of a component rebuild schedule based on manufacturer recommendations.

7. What steps can you take to better prepare the customer for reman?

   Open and early and frequent communication will help your customers along the way. Design reman programs early, and utilize reman as a value-added tool to sell the long-term value of your equipment. Work with your reman partner to educate dealers on the value of the program, and do so from the start. When the time is right, reach out to customers and make recommendations for preventative maintenance steps that can be taken.

Palmer Johnson has been designing, implementing and maintaining turn-key reman programs for nearly 40 years. Over the years, we have partnered with many of the leading equipment manufacturers to design programs for them. Some of these Equipment OEM’s include: John Deere, CAT, AGCO, CNH, Mi-Jack and Normet. Palmer Johnson is also a factory direct Service Provider for: Twin Disc, Dana Spicer Off-Highway, Funk Manufacturing, Kessler, Carraro, AxelTech, JLG, Genie and many others.