Know that sinking feeling of an unscheduled shutdown? Every hour costs tens of thousands and the clock is ticking. In the worst case, you are waiting for vital spare parts to be air-freighted in. Well, this scenario is one of many you can put to rest by opting to outsource your maintenance.
Yes. One good way to stay calm, free up your day, and still improve uptime is to outsource the job of keeping things running smoothly. A good service partner can take the worries off your shoulders by predicting costs reliably, so you get a maintenance budget you can count on. He does all the legwork in planning and predicting the timing of maintenance, upgrades, retrofits and replacements.
The newest of these service offerings are the DrivePro® service products from Danfoss Drives. These are services designed to help you get the most out of your systems. You get services that achieve more than simple troubleshooting, maintenance, repairs and replacements. They go beyond the ordinary to improve productivity, performance and uptime. And you can sleep well at night because there are no ugly unplanned costs.
At the Arla Foods Ingredients lactose plant in western Denmark, Maintenance Manager Simon Arentoft has first-hand experience of DrivePro® services. His opinion?
“We have one point of contact for drives and we know who to call in an urgent situation. We can rely on Danfoss to respond fast, and this means we can react fast to avoid delays in production, in the event of a problem.”
DrivePro® services cover the whole product lifecycle right from planning, through getting up and running, to end of life and replacement. By getting expert help at the right stages in the product life, you can really make a difference to the overall system performance and efficiency. Especially when we take a look decades down the track.
With DrivePro® services you get these benefits and more:
- The industry’s longest warranty coverage, up to six years
- Spare parts support well beyond the discontinuation of a product line
- 24/7 delivery from the factory or global stocks
- One call, one single point of contact
- Original equipment replacement parts
- Authorized service technicians
What’s the value of good service anyway?
But can you really place a value on something intangible like service? When your drives are operating within design limits, the typical lifecycle scenario is like this: each drive runs reliably, perhaps with a repair or two during the product lifetime if proper maintenance hasn’t taken place. Performance and value decrease gradually until, finally, the drive reaches its design life, is replaced, and the cycle begins again.
1. Drive lifecycle when operating within design limits
Under very harsh operating conditions, the drive runs outside its design limits and, after the expiry of the warranty period, your system rapidly experiences lost value due to performance below the intended level.
2. Drive lifecycle in harsh conditions
If, in addition to harsh operating conditions, the installation and commissioning processes are sub-optimal, then you lose additional value. A drop in performance occurs early in the life of the new system.
3. Drive lifecycle in harsh conditions with sub-optimal installation and commissioning
This is where we can see the true value of good lifecycle management by drives experts. With timely action in the form of maintenance, upgrade, and finally retrofit at the end of product life, your installation continues to increase in value and performance level.
4. Drives lifecycle with lifecycle management
The DrivePro® range of service products is designed to give you expert support to achieve the final scenario of good lifecycle management. While we take over responsibility for your drives maintenance, you can use your time on all the other operational issues, confident that the maintenance program is in good hands.
So, what can DrivePro® services do for you?
- DrivePro® services add value to your processes and business. You win efficiency, predictability and peace of mind.
- DrivePro® experts deliver know-how: they understand the special characteristics, needs and requirements of
your AC-drive applications, your industry and your business. - DrivePro® services ensure you have access to all the latest innovations in the form of upgrades or exchanges – and in this way they keep you at the forefront. Because we understand your application needs, we are confident in making recommendations for the future.
When uptime is critical, DrivePro® services simply keep you covered.
Author: Mika Kettunen, Head of Global After Market Services, Danfoss Drives