When a bottling plant in Western Australia urgently needed a replacement Schaeffler INA flange housing unit for a critical piece of equipment, Motion Australia made it happen in record time.
Phil Kitto is a Sales Representative at the Welshpool branch in Western Australia. He collaborated with the Motion Australia and Schaeffler’s customer service teams to source the specific part required which resulted in reduced downtime hours at the plant.
“There was a requirement to use the Schaeffler INA flange housing unit on the blow moulder machine – a vital piece of equipment in the plant. When the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) could not supply this component in a suitable time frame, the customer contacted us,” explains Phil. “We got in touch with the Motion Australia customer service team and they were able to source the part and delivered it in less than two days. The customer wasn’t expecting such a swift result and was very impressed.”
Duane Hackett, part of Motion Australia’s Customer Service team was the person Phil managed to connect with. In his role, Duane leverages not only the Motion Australia branch network but also the relationship with Schaeffler Australia, a key supply partner to Motion Australia.
“We’re basically here as a tool for the branches – they come to us with requests and we source products for them in the quickest manner possible, as more often than not the situation is quite time-sensitive,” says Duane.
With 30 years’ experience in the bearings industry, Duane has a good understanding of the customer’s critical requirements and pulling all stops to assist them find the right parts for their machines.
“We’re largely here as an emergency procurement service and it’s usually for parts that are less common and therefore less available,” he explains. “We’re set up to assist branches, and they communicate directly with our end users or customers. This ensures the branches have the supply of what they need, but they can also send a sales engineer or technical support person out to the customer to check the part is working on the application – so it’s a collaborative package that makes up ‘customer service’ here at Motion Australia.”
In the case of the bottling plant, the required unit was a Schaeffler RCJO40-XL four-bolt flanged housing unit. These cast iron assemblies are renowned for their robustness and performance. Because of their design, they are also easy to maintain. Additionally, the INA flange housing units have a wide range of sealing variants and lubrication, which can be matched to specific application requirements.
This is why Schaeffler’s INA flanged housings were specified by the OEM to deliver the required performance for this application; and so, it was what the customer required.
“We were happy to follow up and work with our customer service crew to supply this particular unit,” he says. “And even though Duane is on the other side of the country in Victoria, while we’re over here in Western Australia, I feel proud to be part of the same team at Motion Australia.”
Duane reiterates this sentiment.
“We take a collaborative approach at Motion Australia, where our goal is to put the customers first and go above and beyond for them. I’m just glad we were able to come through for this particular customer and save them on costly downtime. That’s exactly what we did by delivering the product in a record time of under 36 hours, with the support of Schaeffler as our reliable supply partner.”
