Kässbohrer Geländefahrzeug AG

Kässbohrer Geländefahrzeug AG is the global market leader for vehicles for grooming ski slopes and cross-country ski trails, cleaning beaches, and for utility vehicles in rough terrain. More than 24,000 PistenBully vehicles ensure perfectly groomed slopes in ski resorts worldwide. In Europe, 80 mechanics are on duty to service the vehicles of around 2,480 customers. The orders involve externally billable services such as customer service, repairs or training, warranty work, maintenance, instruction with handover of vehicles, as well as internal work such as used vehicle repairs or conversions at the plant.

Standardization and digitization of global service processes

In Germany and France, the mechanics previously worked with a solution developed individually for Kässbohrer. Over the years, however, the effort required for further adjustments became too high and cost-intensive. All other countries still worked with paper. The mechanics were controlled partly centrally via Excel, partly decentrally. The processes in resource planning and order processing also varied from country to country, with country-specific mapping in SAP.
In order to digitize and standardize service processes at an international level, Kässbohrer began searching for and selecting an up-to-date field service management solution in 2018. This was to be an offline-capable, intuitive standard solution with a low adaptation effort, offer multilingualism and guarantee high support availability from the provider. It should also be possible to map the various product groups in the mobile application. Checklists, cost feedback and documentation with photos were also on Kässbohrer’s wish list.
Since mobileX’s field service management suite best met Kässbohrer’s requirements, a proof of concept was carried out in 2019 and the mobile app mobileX-CrossMIP was introduced in 2020. In the process, the rollout took place on schedule in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy and France despite the Corona pandemic and during the ski season until 2021. The introduction of mobileX-Dispatch then followed at the end of 2021.

International use for PistenBully and BeachTech

In addition to the use of mobileX-CrossMIP in European ski resorts for the PistenBully product group, the mobile app has already been used in Antarctica, Pakistan, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Slovenia, Romania, Bulgaria, Dubai, Qatar, Egypt, Oman for the BeachTech product group. These are vehicles and equipment for beach cleaning, for cleaning areas with sieveable subsoil in agriculture as well as for playgrounds and sports fields.
For the most part, the Kässbohrer mechanics arrange their assignments themselves with their customers. For this purpose, they create a local order in mobileX-CrossMIP. However, there are also centrally controlled fitters who receive their orders from the dispatchers of the respective national companies via mobileX-Dispatch. In this case, planning usually takes place at short notice with a lead time of a few days or a few weeks. On average, two orders are scheduled per day.

Uniform, mobile order processing with intuitive app

With the introduction of the Field Service Management solution, the mechanics’ hardware was also standardized. As a result, they now all use iPhones, via which they can create orders themselves in the mobile app or receive them from the dispatchers, view information on the vehicles and customers, and finally create their feedback with photos and documents as attachments as well as service reports.
Depending on the product group (PistenBully or BeachTech), the service reports are displayed appropriately. The mechanic fills out the report in the customer’s respective language, which the customer optionally confirms with his signature and then receives by e-mail. The fitters also record the material consumption via their feedback in mobileX-CrossMIP. Replenishment to the fitter is planned uniformly via SAP MM. Despite the standardization of the service processes, individual settings per plant or per division, such as different order types, service types or service reports, can be mapped via the mobile app.
The mobile app has been very well received by the fitters, mainly due to the clear and modern interface and intuitive operation.

Conclusion: Faster order processing and invoicing

After a year of using the Field Service Management solution, Manfred Gritsch, Business Applications Manager at Kässbohrer Geländefahrzeug AG, draws a positive conclusion:
“The completion of transactions is now much faster and we can invoice the orders one to four weeks faster. The input effort in the office has been significantly reduced and our colleagues can now deal more intensively with customer inquiries. In addition, our appearance to our customers is now much more professional with the mobile app.”

Outlook: Rollout in the U.S. and introduction for other product groups

The next step is the rollout in the USA with a further 20 fitters. In addition, mobileX’s checklist solution, mobileX CrossForms, will support fitters in the processing of maintenance orders in the future. In addition, the application will also be used for the SNOWsat and PowerBully product groups in the future.

www.kaessbohrerag.com