Reman: Increase Customer Satisfaction and Equipment ROI

As an OEM there is tremendous pressure to differentiate your product from the rest. But no matter how many bells and whistles there are, up-time and maintenance costs are the keys to equipment ROI. Purchasing a better product may cost more up front, but pays off in the long run as higher quality equipment is less likely to fail over time.

Reman = faster repairs

OEM’s need to make sure their equipment is built with the highest quality components to and provide high ROI in the long run, as well as being easy to repair. Using remanufactured (reman) components is a fast way to speed up and streamline some of the most difficult repairs. Having the right component when you need it can reduce a 3-4 week repair to just hours -- keeping your customers up, running and happy.

The following factors are putting pressure on the equipment industry, making OEM’s rethink equipment ROI and reman repair:

• Contractors of all industries are now leveraging technology to run their companies with minimal service and support staff.
• Equipment technology is advancing so rapidly that there is a shortage of experienced mechanics in the industry to maintain modern fleets.
• It is expensive to train mechanics on all of the advancing technologies of modern equipment.
• Contractors in a highly competitive technical environment may not have the time or resources to properly maintain equipment.

For OEM’s it’s more important than ever to provide quick solutions, and reman components is one of them. The most essential and abused components in your equipment are the best candidates for reman replacement. Failures to critical systems like powertrain and hydraulics cause the longest down time, yet are highly preventable in most cases.

Since these problems can be costly, customers avoid them and often the problems get worse. It’s important to let your customers know to address the problem as soon as it starts to happen. For example, a simple clutch pack failure can be rebuilt if addressed right away, for 25-40% of the cost of new. However, if a customer waits, the transmission could give out completely – adding significantly to the repair cost, time and customer frustration.

There is a simple and cheap solution to this - Palmer Johnson OEM reman programs.

There are several factors that go into designing a reman program well so it will begin to pay for itself in the first few years. Below are three major considerations for implementing a reman program:

Properly Designing Equipment: One of the biggest factors is ensuring your equipment is designed to hold up during customer abuse and when it does fail that you are able to limit the hard part damage and cost. Also, understand the failure and do a good job of explaining it to the customer for future prevention.

Keeping Repairs Cheap: Another consideration - can you keep the repair cheap enough that the customer can see the value in removing and replacing the component early? This is also done by understanding what is going on in the component and explaining confidently the consequences of continuing work when there is a high risk of failure.

Building Customer Confidence with Early Education: Lastly, seeding the right cores early and educating at the dealership and customer level is key to long-term success. As equipment ages, the reman program will begin to offer its biggest return to the OEM. Having the right components in stock and ready will build customer confidence. Warranty and fast turnarounds at the dealership level will help ease the cost of repair as the equipment ages.

Palmer Johnson Power Systems has been designing and delivering Reman programs for over 35 years. We specialize in Off-Highway powertrain component service. Give us a call today to discuss your needs and let our expert’s help you design a program that can lead to long-term profitability for you and your customer.