Digital, faster and even closer to the customer - Gerhard Schubert GmbH, Crailsheim, to expand its service portfolio.
In view of rising prices for energy and raw materials, a sustained shortage of skilled workers and increasing production pressures, machine availability is becoming essential for manufacturing companies. Gerhard Schubert GmbH is tackling these challenges with a comprehensive expansion of its ‘4YOU Service’ portfolio, offering its customers measurable benefits in terms of efficiency, availability and sustainability – both in analogue and digital form.
“Our customers are facing enormous pressures – financially and in terms of personnel and organisation. As a machine manufacturer, we not only have to respond to this, we also need to proactively offer solutions that promote transparent, networked and efficient processes,” explains Uwe Galm, Director of Customer Services at Schubert. The result is a greatly expanded service portfolio that combines classic maintenance and repair services with digital services under the ‘4YOU Service’ umbrella brand at Schubert.
“Today, our customers dictate a tight maintenance window, but they also expect perfect preparation – and rightly so,” explains Galm. Any deviations are practically unthinkable. Machine manufacturers are required to ensure maximum precision in planning and implementation. Even brief interruptions in production can result in significant financial losses. When perishable products are concerned, unexpected downtime can even result in entire batches being discarded – a serious loss, also in terms of sustainability.
Schubert is successfully addressing these requirements with a rigorous, finely tuned concept: ready-to-go spare part kits, plug & play modules, precisely scheduled deployment planning and clearly defined processes all come together to make sure that maintenance work is carried out as efficiently as possible. The main prerequisite for this is full transparency of the lines themselves.
4YOUconnect now gives line operators and service personnel digital access to all relevant machine documentation, such as operating instructions, circuit diagrams, parts lists and 3D views of available spare parts. This makes them even easier to identify and order via the integrated web shop – for a service process that is entirely digital. Efficient processes also rely on networked systems: Schubert provides the required digital infrastructure with cutting-edge monitoring and analysis tools such as CARE 2.0.
The greatly expanded ‘Connection for Analytics, Reporting and Efficiency’ platform, to be introduced later this year, enables standard-compliant calculation of key OEE metrics for packaging machines. The company will be presenting this important building block for increased production reliability and business efficiency at Fachpack in Nuremberg. Maintenance that is smarter, more reliable and more sustainable To deliver even more customer benefits, Schubert plans to expand its digital service portfolio with additional offerings in the future. By interpack 2026, 4YOUconnect will include a shared maintenance calendar that will enable customers and Schubert to plan maintenance measures in a way that is precisely tailored to production processes.
“Our goal is a digital logbook that documents all work seamlessly and ensures a transparent service history in the long term – providing real added value, also with regard to audits and traceability,” explains Galm. Guided maintenance routines will complement the concept. This measure, which is designed to guide operators and maintenance personnel digitally through all necessary steps, enables Schubert to counteract the already noticeable impact of the shortage of skilled workers.
Additional specialist knowledge is provided by the company’s in-house learning platform, ‘Schubert Learning Space’, where machine operators can complete training courses on the main operating steps at any time and from any location and repeat them as often as they like – without incurring any travel costs, making a significant contribution to CO2 neutrality.
In addition to the 24/7 phone support hotline that has been available for two years, Schubert is also working hard on a digital ticket system for the 4YOUconnect customer portal. In the future, customers will be able to submit service requests directly online around the clock – regardless of hotline hours, waiting times or language barriers. “Another advantage is that customers can view the current processing status of their enquiry at any time, which is also helpful for further planning and implementation,” concludes Galm.
