Dortmund. The pump expert Wilo AG from Dortmund, Germany, offers a complete spare parts catalogue for the HVAC skilled craft firms within its new internet performance. The installer finds an extensive online portal at www.wilo.de – section 'Services' where spare part information with drawings as well as an order list function for several products are available. The data stock comprehends the areas heating pumps, water supply, sewage technology as well as cooling and air-condition technology.

 

The focus of the offer is primarily in the service area. It is the aim to facilitate provision of spare parts intensively within the three-stage distribution channel. 'Personal' spare parts shopping lists can be written in a quick and uncomplicated way with a shopping cart function – that saves a lot of time at the specialist wholesaler who does not need to do a complicated research.

 

With the online catalogue Wilo does not lastly allow for the very positive feedback of a corresponding prototype, which was presented on the ISH 2005. There HVAC skilled craft firms could intensively test the new internet perform-ance, which was activated  in October 2006, in a preversion. The function 'spare parts order' was evaluated as especially important besides other core components of the new Wilo website.

 

The catalogue offers an extensive technical and graphical documentation of any spare parts which are available for Wilo pumps. For this reason it is directly linked to the pump manufacturer's SAP system where all data considering spare parts and items is stored centrally and is always up-to-date. Double storage of data is therefore avoided and the dataset is available on the internet also outside working hours. Additionally, drawings are stored in the archive system for each of the almost 7,000 products and 4,000 spare parts. In some pump series motors of different suppliers are applied. These can be identified by means of the name plate and the corresponding spare parts can be actuated directly.

 

Wilo enables a considerably more comfortable and quicker spare parts service with this solution. Installers also get comprehensive documentation and spare parts catalogues in printed form and on CD-ROM. Naturally by this procedure it takes more time to identify the parts and to answer complex enquiries.

The portal is offered in three languages (German, English and French). In the meantime the spare parts catalogue has also been integrated in the Wilo internet performances of more than 20 other countries. In the long run the realised solution should enable a direct distribution in country markets without a three-stage distribution channel.