Montracon Expert View – INVESTING TO DIFFERENTIATE

Dean Ridgill, Marketing Manager at Montracon offers his expert view on the investment Montracon have made to make them stand out in the crowd. Montracon are exhibiting at the Microlise Transport Conference at the Ricoh Arena on 15th May 2019…

INVESTING TO DIFFERENTIATE…

Established in 1977 from humble beginnings Montracon have seen substantial changes within our industry from state of the art production facility, at our head office in Doncaster, to the growing expectations for our customer base.

During 2017 Montracon Doncaster underwent a major investment of £5m to introduce a single flow production line to improve quality and order throughput. The board decision on this investment did consider product performance, quality and customer service. These are all closely linked and over the last eighteen months of production within the line we’ve seen improvements within all areas.

The product performance within the Doncaster facility has not only being steadily improving towards the eighty units per week but the mix of product has grown since this investment in 2017. Since the new line inception we were initially producing fairly standard box and curtain trailers, we are now producing step frame double deck box and curtains, fridge chassis come through the line with assembly now also on the Doncaster site from the end of 2018 and with a flat trailer build to be trailed down the Doncaster line in May 2019 there isn’t many trailer types we can’t build, especially when you also add in our specialist trailer plant in Mallusk Northern Ireland.

Since the  introduction of the new line we have seen an improvement within quality both in measurement and equipment being produced which has reflected in more repeat orders, less warranty downtime and lower warranty costs. Warranty and quality are closely linked and we do measure both, which has meant that we can relay any issues direct back to the actual operator on the line or to the engineering team allowing product enhancement. Quality inspections are carried out at each stage by team leaders, line managers and a QC team; also in conjunction with Akzonobel every trailer has a QC paint inspection by our own paint inspectors. Investment in new software and tooling allows us to share QC information with our management team, board and customers and this is starting to differentiate us from our competitors.

We’ve seen a shift over the last two years with customer expecting more throughout the whole sale process. We are constantly reviewing and enhancing our buying experience with customers from constant customer communication, automated build updates, online CSI surveys, online warranty, digital marketing explosion, online sales ordering and face to face customer selling. The success of this new rounded approach to customer requirements has manifested itself not only in the increasing number of new customers, but also in the increasing numbers of customers who return with repeat orders. A clear endorsement of what the customer wants and that we have to keep up with the ever changing customer ways to purchase.

 

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