Navistar has new initiatives to enhance customers’ ability to keep their trucks on the road and improve their bottom line, including a new after-truck-sale function to be led by Freidrich Bauman.
To expedite parts deliveries to customers, Navistar is establishing a new Parts Distribution Center (PDC) in Memphis, TN, while also enhancing its dealer parts inventory management system to increase the breadth of parts already on its dealers’ shelves. In addition, to facilitate optimal engine calibration, new International LT Series and RH Series models built after June with an International A26 engine will be able to make cellular over-the-air authorized updates.
“We keep finding new ways to set the industry benchmark for uptime,” said Michael Cancelliere, president of trucks and parts. “The actions we are launching today will make it easier for customers to keep their trucks on the road by providing quicker access to key repair parts while enabling remote, cellular calibration of their engines for peak performance.”
These new initiatives build on Navistar’s recent announcement of its exclusive partnership agreement with Love’s Travel Stops, which created the commercial transportation industry’s largest service network, with more than 1,000 locations in North America.
Navistar also created a new Aftersales function, to be led by Baumann, which will manage every facet of the business after the sale of the truck, including oversight of parts and service, uptime, warranty and dealer development. This enhanced alignment of multiple critical functions will drive improved customer Uptime.
“More actions that benefit our customers will be forthcoming,” Cancelliere said. “Company innovations including OnCommand Connection remote diagnostics, Fault Code Action Plans and the Diamond Edge dealer certification program have already assured that nearly 80% of vehicles powered by our International A26 engine are back on the road in the first 24 hours, and our goal is to take that number even higher.”
Distribution
To be opened later this year, the Memphis PDC will be the company’s seventh PDC in the U.S. and its 10th in North America. The new PDC’s location in Memphis will enable Navistar to deliver parts the next day to over 95% of its dealers’ service locations, the company said.
“Establishing our new PDC in Memphis will allow our dealers to place emergency orders for replacement parts as late as 11 p.m. ET, and receive the parts early the next day,” said Josef Kory, senior vice president of parts for Navistar. “Designed with lean and highly efficient processes, the PDC will offer industry-leading cutoff times for next-day parts delivery resulting in greater Uptime for our customers.”
“A later cut-off time, combined with a faster delivery time, gives me the ability to better serve my customers and keep their trucks running on the road,” said Travis Thompson, dealer principal for Thompson International, which has six locations in Iowa and Illinois.
Complementing the new later cut-off time for parts orders will be new enhancements to Navistar’s retail inventory management system, which will increase the breadth of parts maintained in dealer inventories while reducing the depth of parts dealers need to keep in stock. Having a wider array of parts on dealer shelves at the time of repair will maximize Uptime for customers.
The enhancements were piloted at seven different locations in U.S. and Canada. Every pilot location showed an improvement in dealer on-shelf parts availability, according to Navistar, with a double-digit percentage reduction in the volume of unplanned orders, which causes Uptime delays.
An additional Uptime initiative will start with new trucks built after June, when all new International LT Series and RH Series models equipped with an International A26 engine will include the capability to make remote cellular over-the-air updates to authorized engine calibrations and programmable parameters.
