New MTU customer care centre

Rolls-Royce Power Systems has opened a new customer care centre in Friedrichshafen, Germany, marking the next step in the transformation of MTU’s global customer service.

Engine manufacturer MTU is owned by Rolls-Royce Power Systems, and it is in the process of developing a new service and digital strategy, called Customer Service 4.0. The aim is to transform the company’s global customer support service so that it becomes a complete solutions provider.

Andreas Schell, CEO of Rolls-Royce Power Systems, said, “With our service and digital strategy, we intend to deliver an exceptionally high customer-focused improvement in both our services and products.”

The new customer care centre in Friedrichshafen joins two other centres – one in Singapore and the other in Novi, US.

Digitalisation was said to play a key role in Customer Service 4.0, with an in-house digital solutions team driving the transformation.

The team of more than 40 people has been joined by employees from across the business, external experts, service providers from the start-up field, and app developers.

It was said that digitalisation was helping to link the company more closely with its customers, while also generating added value for customer support and product development by analysing additional information obtained from field engineers.

The first digital products – MTU-Go!Act and MTU Go!Manage – were designed specifically for individual applications and to meet customer needs, regardless of whether they are used for ships, trains, dump trucks or power generation.

With the system linked up to a data logger, MTU’s staff and customers are able to remotely monitor the performance of engines, schedule maintenance work, analyse operational data and determine what action is required.

However, Jürgen Winterholler, who is in charge of the digital solutions department at Rolls-Royce Power Systems, said the new products did not simply provide remote monitoring and error reporting.

“They provide the communications between the operator, service personnel and experts, collect the information at one location, and help the customer and our organisation to optimise the use and operation of our products,” he said.

In addition, it is the job of the digital solutions team, working in tandem with the IT team, to ensure that all the technical requirements – such as cloud infrastructure, data management and digital links – are in place, with cyber security and data protection held as top priorities.

At the new care centre in Friedrichshafen, service agreements are also processed. Preventative maintenance work is scheduled to ensure that everything runs smoothly, and maintenance intervals are co-ordinated and an optimised.

Matthias Vogel, executive vice president of service, network and business development at Rolls-Royce Power Systems, said, “The customers benefit in terms of reliability, operational efficiency and maximum service life for their propulsion or energy system.”