PETpla.net Insider 12 / 2014

14 PET planet insider Vol. 15 No. 12/14 www.petpla.net PETPLANET AWARD 2014 Service Performance, Developing Countries PETplanet Award 2014 Investments in machinery are frequently made on the basis of a whole spectrum of decision criteria. In addition to the price/performance ratio, however, ‘soft’ factors such as the sound nature of the supplier relationship, operational reli- ability of the plant/lines and the supplier’s performance in terms of service are often of crucial importance too. The overall winner of the PETplanet Grand Award 2014 is Husky. Further Awards go to the winners in the various cat- egories: Husky, Krones, Netstal, KHS and Sidel. Hitherto there have been very few solid insights paving the way to under- standing the decision to purchase machinery against the background of the specified ‘soft’ criteria. Reason enough for PETplanet to undertake a more in-depth examination of the drinks packaging market in the form of a questionnaire. The plastics technol- ogy team at the Technical University of Ilmenau, Germany, whose mem- bers have a wide range of experience of the machine / plastics packaging and beverages industries, carried out the study which is described below. The focal point of the survey was to assess the quality of the service pro- vided by the machine manufacturers in the PET packaging technology sector. The questionnaire was addressed to approx. 1000 participants in 334 com- panies. Packaging materials manufac- turers (bottles, preforms, closure caps) were also included, as were bottling/fill- ing companies and beverages compa- nies. Special attention was paid to 102 countries with rapidly growing markets but which are not classified as major industrial nations of the western world. The objective of one online question- naire was to assess customer pref- erences in respect of the after sales service policies of machinery suppliers and to appraise the level of service provided by PET packaging systems manufacturers. Various detailed ques- tions were asked about these aspects in particular. We conducted a survey among our readers of 10 important criteria for aftersales service based on a 5-level scale ranging from Very Good to Poor and covering the following points:  Reachability  Responsiveness  Competence  Technician close to my plant  Spare parts availability  Effective training  Pricing and volume discount on aftermarket products  Friendliness  They know me  Supplier addresses my need We evaluated the positive responses of Very Good and Good. I found it amazing that, in many areas, user expectations are not being ful- filled. And, even though we have in each case acknowledged the best suppliers within a category, there is still quite a lot of room for improve- ment in practically all sectors. Here are the categories in their order of rating: In general, the suppliers are adjudged to have a high level of “Competence”. Here 78% of our read- ers rated the suppliers as Very Good or Good. 3 out of 4 readers responded positively to the statement “They know me”. But when it came to “Reach- ability” and “Responsiveness“ only 69% expressed satisfaction. Never- theless, there would still appear to be some gaps in the universally vaunted 24/7/365 service. PETplanet Insider Award at Brau Beviale 2014 f.l.t.r.: Mr Alexander Büchler, PETplanet Insider, Ms Marina Martens, Communications Specialist, EMEA Husky, Mr Nicolas Rivollet, Director Business Develop- ment, Husky