Digitalising spare parts management “is just the beginning”

Christhard Bongers, MAN PrimeServ’s head of spare parts sales, noted that the introduction of digitalisation into spare parts procurement is likely to lead to a transformation in customer behaviour. But Bongers insists that MAN PrimeServ’s recently launched MyPlace portal is not intended to be just a platform for spare parts procurement and management, but also a portal that provides wider range of features and services.

These additional functions build upon MyPlace’s core order management functionality, which provides registered customers with the ability to request quotations and for authorised users (the portal offers multiple levels of access, which can be tailored to individual customers’ internal procurement policies) to place and authorise orders. Naturally, prices and leadtimes, including quantities available ex-stock, are provided as well, as a result of real-time scanning MAN’s ERP-system.

The order management functionality also permits users to access a full history of all quotes, which facilitates repeat orders, if desired. The orders can be connected to individual vessels and to individual assets, such as engines, on board vessels. “So it’s very easy for our customers to see the sales history or the purchasing history from their perspective for each for each engine”.

Currently, MyPlace offers unique features on top of spare parts, such as the latest technical status of their equipment or their engines and their maintenance status. As you would expect, MAN ES will also support their products with an up-to-date user manual, as well as the latest digital spare part catalogue.

“We’ll finally put the days of outdated PDFs or even old paper versions behind us”, Bongers added. He noted that the system would also consider the latest status for retrofitted engines, offering the correct associated spare part deliveries.

The MyPlace portal also supports the entire range of MAN 2-stroke and 4-stroke engines, including brands such as B&W, Holeby and Pielstick.

Direct access to the technical excellence and expertise offered by MAN PrimeServ engineers was another advantage. It is also easy to get in touch with the technical support team or technical service engineers in case of questions in regard, for instance, an upgrade on retrofit as a solution.

“It’s all about developing a more proactive closer relationship with customers,” Bongers said.

Peter Tobberup Brandt, MAN Business Intelligence and Analytics, discussed some of the areas where MyPlace was looking to leverage such relationships to improve the user experience, by improving the speed of spare part orders.

“Our next step would be to go beyond the existing kits for a cylinder head inspection or maybe a fuel pump inspection or overhaul for an engine and to include regular maintenance intervals. We are working on offering engine release related versions of maintenance interval kits, for 36,000 running hour maintenance overhauls, including all relevant spares, which you could order with just one single mouse click.”

These platform will allow customers to define the exact running hours on a specific service package drop down, so that customers have the flexibility to define requirements in line with the specific operational requirements.

Brandt noted that the development was focused on ensuring that the packages of spare parts would be correctly aligned with the varying needs of different releases of an engine.

Brandt added that the introduction of some PrimeServ retrofit solutions was another solution under consideration. “We have a broad range of retrofits, ranging up to more complex ones, but also more straightforward solutions for certain assemblies, which we also intend to include in MyPlace as well.” The introduction of expedited spare part orders linked to a corresponding bill of materials, including all relevant components, was likely to be offer significant added value for customers.

Among the retrofit products that are being rolled out is an application called Software as a Service, which would allow you to order an upgrade or update of your engine software.

But Brandt added that the development of closer relationships with customers might lead to users engaging with the MyPlace portal at an earlier stage. This might eventually lead to proactive warnings to users around lead times ahead of scheduled maintenance, or to recommendations around spare part orders, based on remaining time before the next scheduled maintenance interval.