Yanmar

Single source production of spare parts catalogues (paper, DVD, Internet)

Yanmar Construction Equipment Europe S.A.S builds and distributes construction equipment. The product range includes mini excavators, midi excavators, wheeled excavators, crawler transporters and wheel loaders. The company, which is based in Saint-Dizier in the east of France and employs around 220 people, develops and builds 10 different mini excavator models in various versions. The remaining machines are imported directly from Japan by YANMAR. Yanmar Construction Equipment Europe S.A.S serves the entire European market, especially France, Germany, Italy and Great Britain. Yanmar Construction Equipment Europe S.A.S guarantees support for delivered machines regardless of location. An extensive spare parts warehouse - more than 18,000 items are permanently in stock in Saint-Dizier - as well as a well thought-out logistics system set up together with the dealers, make it possible to service machines with the lowest possible financial outlay.

Initial situation

In the past, service and spare parts information at Yanmar Construction Equipment Europe S.A.S was provided separately in the form of printed manuals and catalogues. Spare parts orders were primarily received by telephone or fax. Identifying required spare parts from the paper catalogues was time-consuming and cumbersome. Searching for machine-specific spare parts was often difficult. It was not uncommon to have to contact Yanmar Construction Equipment Europe S.A.S. to place orders.

Optimising service information, simplifying spare parts orders

In line with the motto "Service creates and retains customers", Yanmar Construction Equipment Europe S.A.S decided to optimise the quality and availability of spare parts and service information. After all, qualified service stands and falls with access to the required data and documents. Spare parts information and manuals were to be made available to dealers, service technicians and customers in a single system that was highly up-to-date, machine- and variant-specific. While print catalogues were distributed conventionally, DVD and internet catalogues were to be available in future. The electronic media in particular should not only simplify and accelerate spare parts research, but also the ordering of spare parts.

Streamlining the catalogue creation process

Another goal defined by Yanmar Construction Equipment Europe S.A.S concerned the catalogue production processes. These were also to be optimised and largely automated. All catalogue media - print, DVD and Internet - were to be generated from one data source. Special emphasis was placed on the consistent use of existing data and the avoidance of redundancies. Data updates should be possible without great effort and should be reflected in all catalogue media.

Technology partner Docware

Yanmar Construction Equipment Europe S.A.S relied on the spare parts catalogue specialist Docware for the implementation of the above-mentioned goals. With PARTS-PUBLISHER, a standard software comprising database, workbench and viewer, Docware offers a solution that enables process-optimised and cost-saving management of both spare parts information and service documents. PARTS-PUBLISHER completely covered the needs of Yanmar Construction Equipment Europe S.A.S.. Customer-specific adaptations were only necessary for the integration into an existing service portal.

Single source production of catalogues

With PARTS-PUBLISHER, Yanmar Construction Equipment Europe S.A.S produces spare parts catalogues for paper, DVD and Internet in a single source process. This means that the data for all catalogue media comes from one data source, namely the PARTS-PUBLISHER catalogue database. All data and documents required for catalogue production - parts lists, drawings and manuals - flow into the PARTS-PUBLISHER Workbench. This is where the automated further processing and preparation of the data for catalogue output takes place. The process of automated catalogue creation is divided into the following individual steps. 1:

1. import of the structured parts lists (Excel), drawings (TIFF, JPEG) and manuals (PDF) into the PARTS-PUBLISHER Workbench.

2. automatic creation of hotspots on the item numbers in drawings, automatic linking of related data

3. automatic creation of the catalogue database

4. automatic generation of print, DVD and Internet catalogues

Only a few mouse clicks are needed to create the catalogues from the data import into the production environment to the ready-to-run DVD or Internet catalogue.

Hierarchical parts lists

For the automated catalogue creation with PARTS-PUBLISHER, so-called hierarchical parts lists are required. These represent the structure of the catalogues to be created. They contain the information about the relationship between BOM data and drawings. On the one hand, this is a prerequisite for linking related information and, on the other hand, it is crucial that each piece of information is placed in the catalogue where it belongs - in short, that the individual fields of the catalogue templates are filled properly.

Configuration options

PARTS-PUBLISHER offers the possibility to configure catalogues individually with a few mouse clicks. This includes, for example, defining the appearance of the viewer, naming the data fields for the parts lists (e.g. part number, name, price, etc.) and determining the order of the individual parts list columns in the catalogue. In addition, the languages to be included in the catalogue are determined. Search fields, search terms, order fields and filters are also defined. The configuration of the Yanmar Construction Equipment Europe S.A.S catalogues was done in cooperation with an application consultant from Docware during the system implementation and training phase. New catalogue templates can be created by Yanmar Construction Equipment Europe S.A.S at any time and without support. No programming knowledge is required.

Print, DVD, Internet Catalogues

Yanmar Construction Equipment Europe S.A.S provides print, DVD and internet catalogues. Customers receive a printed spare parts catalogue on delivery of a machine and, on request, a DVD with integrated search and order function. In addition, authorised persons can access machine-specific spare parts catalogues via the Internet Service Portal. The catalogue system contains all spare parts and service information on the entire range of Yanmar Construction Equipment Europe S.A.S. products. Descriptive service documents such as repair or installation instructions are also available integrated in the catalogue.

Service Portal

Yanmar Construction Equipment Europe S.A.S already operated an internet portal before the introduction of PARTS-PUBLISHER, which is hosted externally. The PARTS-PUBLISHER Internet Java Viewer was integrated into this portal, an individual solution, via OCI (Open Catalog Interface). In the integrated portal/catalogue solution, PARTS-PUBLISHER provides the catalogue functions (display, search, etc.), the portal provides the user administration and the shopping basket function. Whereas the shopping basket of the portal was previously filled manually, since the integration of PARTS-PUBLISHER it is operated from the catalogue system. Parts selected in the catalogue are transferred directly to the shopping basket for ordering by mouse click. This eliminates input errors and the associated incorrect orders.

Find parts quickly and accurately

Comprehensive search mechanisms are available in the electronic catalogue for efficient identification of the right spare part. To find the parts you need, you can search by name or spare part number, for example. Simply enter the corresponding term or number in the search mask and the required part is displayed within a few seconds both in the parts list and in the drawing. If the exact designation or part number is not known, this is no problem. This is because the electronic catalogue enables the purely visual identification of a spare part in the technical drawing of the machine: a mouse click takes you from the overview drawing of the complete product to detailed views of assemblies and components. Thanks to the infinitely variable zoom function, drawing areas of particular interest can be enlarged and viewed in detail. The overview in large drawings is ensured by an overview window that shows, parallel to the zoomed view, from which part of the machine the detailed view originates. Zooming and flexible navigation in the drawing make it possible to quickly find spare parts based on their appearance and placement, even purely visually. By clicking on the respective item numbers in the drawings, all necessary ordering data is displayed in the parts list. Thanks to the complex and reliable search options offered by the electronic catalogue, research times and telephone enquiries for spare parts procurement have been reduced.

Ordering 24 hours around the clock

Not only the identification, but also the ordering of spare parts is easier than ever with the new catalogue system. Orders can be placed directly from DVD or from the Internet catalogue. In both cases, transmission errors, which used to occur when paper catalogues were used and part or assembly numbers had to be copied, can be avoided.

Catalogues in local language

Yanmar Construction Equipment Europe S.A.S provides internet catalogues in 4 languages with the corresponding documentation in 23 languages. With the PARTS-PUBLISHER catalogue software, no programming knowledge is required. Multilingual catalogues can be generated within seconds without additional time expenditure. The display of all world languages - including Asian or Eastern European characters - is possible at the click of a mouse thanks to a modern language coding standard called Unicode. When calling up the catalogue, the catalogue user can select the desired language from the languages stored

Convincing results

With the introduction of PARTS-PUBLISHER, Yanmar Construction Equipment Europe S.A.S increased the efficiency of documentation creation. The quality of the service and spare parts documentation provided was also improved. The clear and structured presentation of complex information is rated positively by the users of the catalogues, as are the ease of use and the up-to-dateness of the catalogues.

„Having a single information system in which all service and spare parts information is collected and linked in a meaningful way greatly simplifies the search for required spare parts including the associated service documents. Comprehensive search functions and the possibility of graphical navigation have significantly shortened the search times for required information in the event of service. And as far as the error rate for spare parts orders is concerned, we have noticed a decrease.“

Pascal Guay, Project Manager GDT, Yanmar Construction Equipment Europe S.A.S.