Engines

Detroit Diesel Corporation won a productivity award for innovative materials handling at its one million square metre manufacturing plant in the USA following a R2,2 billion refurbishment.

Earlier this year Mercedes- Benz South Africa (MBSA) took the aftersales support for Detroit Diesel Series 60 engines in house, a move the company said at the time would improve parts availability and provide seamless support to its Freightliner customers. Andrew Parker looks at how it has all panned out. 

Until then Detroit Diesel Corporation (DDC), although owned by Daimler AG, had been a third party supplier to Freightliner in South Africa with support provided by an independent local distributor. 

Divisional manager of the Freightliner, Mitsubishi-Fuso and Western Star division of MBSA, Ian Riley, said at the time that the move would put MBSA in a stronger position to stand behind and fully support Detroit Diesel, strengthening both this brand of engine and, more importantly, providing definitive support to its customers who use Detroit Diesel as their engine of choice. 

FleetWatch approached Riley to find out what the current status quo is with this wellknown, award winning American engine. While FleetWatch heard that poor marketing was one of reasons MBSA decided to bring Detroit Diesel closer to home, Riley says this was not the case. “Detroit Diesel fared badly in South Africa because of poor support, hence the reason for MBSA’s decision to bring DDC in-house,” he says. “With regards to marketing, the Freightliner brand relies heavily on the dealer network to push the Detroit Diesel name and the improvements made from a customer support perspective, thus building on positive customer experiences. 

Over one million Detroit Diesel Series 60 engines have been produced since the range was introduced in 1987.

“Keeping in mind that budgets have been reduced due to the poor economic times, Freightliner has communicated to customers of the in-house integration of DDC and the benefits thereof. Positive PR is also a key factor in terms of educating the market and the measures that MBSA have implemented to best support its customers, which we continue to do as often as we can.” 

One of the steps MBSA said it would take would be to improve parts availability and provide seamless support to operators utilising these engines. This has been successfully accomplished with Riley describing the supply of Detroit parts as “excellent.” 

“MBSA has over 90% of the required parts in stock,” he reports. “In recent years, dealers and customers experienced ongoing delays with parts supply from previous parts suppliers. For example, a customer could wait up to four months for a Detroit turbocharger.” 

The Detroit Diesel Series 60 engine remains an industry leader due to its high performance, reliability and advanced fuel system featuring improved injection, faster response time and reduced emissions.

Riley explains that in the past the dealer network would have to carry its own stock of Detroit parts, plus the responsibility of the supply chain and inventory costs. MBSA’s DNI (Distributed National Inventory) system and supply chain process takes this responsibility away from the dealer. “MBSA,” Riley continues, “is responsible for service levels, stock holding and inventory planning, stock holding costs, supply chain and so on. Detroit parts are strategically placed at MBSA Freightliner brand and market centres around the country.” 

Riley says staff at MBSA’s dealer network have undergone training on Detroit engines, as well as on submissions of Detroit warranty claims. “MBSA is responsible for checking and submitting dealer claims to Detroit Diesel. The process is far more streamlined than in the past where dealers could wait months for Detroit credit notes. MBSA has a good relationship in place with Detroit Diesel Corporation and Detroit is adjudicating claims and passing credit notes more speedily than ever before. Special tools are available and MBSA has an ECU reprogramming station from Detroit to reprogram ECU’s.” 

Needless to say, Riley reports that from an after-sales perspective, the feedback from the dealer network has been extremely positive despite some initial delays experienced with Detroit Diesel Corporation in the USA. Riley says these delays were largely due to the fact a number of unforeseen issues cropped up as MBSA started integrating Detroit Diesel. 

In addition, due to budget constraints, MBSA could not send a representative to Detroit Diesel Corporation in the USA as initially planned to meet the Detroit people, build relationships and get to understand how their processes and systems work. Another problem was that Detroit Diesel Corporation also experienced staff cuts due to the economic downturn which compounded MBSA’s communication problems. Riley says after months of email and telephonic communication, MBSA has now reached the point where a good working relationship has been established with DDC and the way forward is positive. “The direct feedback that we have had from customers has also been positive,” Riley adds. 

Riley concludes by saying the fitment of the Detroit Diesel MBE 4000 engine into the freightliner Colombia is still on schedule for later this year. Other derivatives still to be introduced to South Africa include the DD13 and DD15 heavy-duty engines which will become available when ultra-low sulphur fuel is legislated between the 2012 and 2014 timeline.