EXIDE Customer Story

Exide Technologies provides world-class stored energy solutions across Europe. Prior to their digital transformation, Exide's service technicians were manually filling out paper and Excel sheets. Although this process was manageable (on average they successfully completed 60,000 cases a year), they wanted more insight into their service business.

“We had very little knowledge of history on the products and prior service visits since everything was in paper form.” Max Hemmingsen, Director of Digital Tools, says. “It was hard to maintain a clear overview and the ways we were gathering data were costly and inefficient.”  Leadership wanted more accountability over the field service teams and to better understand how service affected the overall business.

“After reviewing four software providers, Exide Technologies chose ServiceMax and went live in 2014.  “Some people are frightened by technology and the adaption required,” Mark Varley-Burton, Manager Digital Tools EMEA, says. “However, we rolled it out successfully in ten countries by doing some pilot training.”

Varley-Burton manages a group of superusers in each country. These superusers coach and encourage the technicians in their country. As languages and communication best practices vary from country to country, working with a superuser in each location made the implementation process much smoother.

Exide uses ServiceMax’s core, out of the box functionality. “We use ServiceMax Installed Base quite in-depth. Our business is centered around the asset,” Varley-Burton shares.

“Along with that, we also focus on preventive maintenance options. We take the management of the asset away from the customer and manage it ourselves. We’ve got close to 4,000 preventive maintenance plans across Europe with about 30,000 installed pieces of equipment.”

The Exide senior management team is fond of the timesheet functionality ServiceMax provides. “It allows us to pull accurate utilization data and focus on hotspot areas where we can look to drive greater efficiency.”

Over time, the service team and department has become extremely accepting of ServiceMax and have started providing suggestions and enhancement ideas for the future. "Our engineers have felt very empowered by the introduction of this tool. ServiceMax driving an increase in efficiency, reducing complex paperwork, and taking away several user manuals. By putting all of that digital onto the iPad and the mobile solution, the engineer is able to quickly get the information he or she needs," says Varley-Burton.

Today, Exide’s service organization in Europe is operating in a standardized way, which does not include paper and pen. “With the digitalization of our service organization in Europe, we now have a view into the repairs we’re making, the products we’re using, the distance we’re traveling, and the time being spent with the customer. This allows us to focus on inefficiencies on a country-to-country level,” Varley-Burton explains.

Currently Exide is focusing on their proactive measures. With the help of IoT, Exide wants to identify and solve customer issues before they're even noticed, with the goal of zero unplanned downtime.
 
They are also focusing on outcome-based service. Hemmingsen shares, “We’re moving away from serving as a traditional battery producer and looking to be the one to deliver power to the market. The digital tools we use for this transition, like ServiceMax, will play a vital role as we work towards this goal.”