Parts, everywhere parts

MAN Truck & Bus South Africa has opened a new Parts Distribution Centre (PDC) in Johannesburg, a move that will allow the company to meet the needs of its customers like never before.

“Availability of spare parts is a fundamental demand of our customers that we as a manufacturer must meet,” says Anders Nielsen CEO, MAN Truck & Bus AG. The statement was made at the November opening of the company’s new PDC in Isando, Johannesburg. Located a mere four kilometres from the company’s head office, the 16 700 m2 warehouse (with adjacent 1 000 m2 office space) will handle over 90 percent of all spare parts for MAN and Volkswagen Trucks in South Africa and supply the company’s sub-Saharan customer base.

“Our PDC here in Johannesburg clearly symbolises the expansion of our global spare-parts logistics network to fulfil our customers’ demand for parts worldwide. Within the network of other MAN logistics locations, this PDC will ensure an improved, fast and smooth supply of spare parts, in particular for the southern African region,” Nielsen continues.

The new facility represents an investment of R180 million and began operating in August. The target for the facility is to have a 91 percent pick rate and a 90 percent fill rate.

To accomplish this, the warehouse features a new racking system as well as a 1 600 m², three-level mezzanine area for smaller parts. It will operate on MAN’s advanced parts platform system, and will be the first regional warehouse outside Europe to be integrated within the MAN IT system. Networked with other MAN logistics locations, the new PDC enables improved supply of spare parts to a growing base of operational centres in southern Africa.

Parts stock is, therefore, scheduled centrally and the dealers are given support in ensuring optimum availability and ranges of parts in stock for their customers. “Stock will be scheduled in accordance with a dynamic forecast,” says Nielsen. “These measures will make major improvements in availability at the point of sale and the Service Desk without tying up a disproportionately large amount of stock.”

Geoff du Plessis, executive chairman, MAN Truck & Bus South Africa, says, “With its close proximity to O.R. Tambo International Airport and state-of-the-art warehousing technologies, the new facility will enable our Central Parts Division to improve on its already impressive customer service delivery record. It will now be able to fly in urgently needed parts from MAN’s international production centres and courier them to our customers with greater efficiency and speed, providing our Support Division with an enviable competitive advantage.”

The new centre is a Super Group facility and was designed and built by commercial property developer, Intaprop. To limit its carbon footprint, the new building incorporates a specially designed roof to allow as much natural light as possible into the warehouse. It is also fitted with special lighting and thermal insulation to reduce the building’s overall energy requirements.

“The new facility has been designed to comfortably allow for future expansion of MAN Truck & Bus SA into the sub-Saharan region, particularly as MAN’s global strategy gains momentum with the introduction of new models. The new facility will also be geared to comprehensively support existing and forthcoming truck and bus derivatives from MAN and Volkswagen,” concludes
Du Plessis.