Combilift, the largest global manufacturer of multi-directional forklifts and a leading provider of long-load handling solutions, has announced a partnership with Infor. As part of it, the company will start sing using Infor Coleman AI-driven parts recommendations, in combination with Infor CloudSuite Industrial, in order to boost equipment uptime and customer service while increasing employee satisfaction.

“With new hires and less experienced staff in the parts department, we knew that there were missed revenue opportunities because of inaccurate quoting,” said Kenny Gilmour, Global Parts Manager at Combilift. “For example, if someone wants a water pump, a trained employee knows to add a gasket. But a new hire would not, leaving the customer to go to another vendor to purchase a gasket. We are excited about the parts recommender getting smarter and smarter, so we can bring in more revenue while keeping our customers happy with a first-time fix.”

Combilift has 60,000 unique trucks in operation and being bale to manage such a diverse set of trucks creates servicing complexities and requires expertise to accurately quote the right set of parts to ensure a first-time fix. The company seized on the opportunity to leverage Infor Coleman AI with Infor CloudSuite Industrial, to further improve the customer and employee experience by having the AI system, utilising three years of historical data, help generate the right set of parts for service quotes.

“Our global parts department relied on a knowledge-based, manual process in determining the sum of parts needed to service a truck,” Gilmour added. “This approach is not always accurate and consistent, especially with less experienced staff. With the global staff shortages, trying to recruit people who are already trained is quite difficult. But with Infor Coleman AI, we can train the system and, in-turn, it can train us.”

Within 60 days of the solution being deployed, Combilift predicts a 30% increase in first-time fixes, a 40% reduction in costs for service jobs, and a 30% increase in revenue per transaction. With Combilift continuing to grow rapidly, Coleman AI can not only improve the efficiency and accuracy of parts recommendations, but it also can scale the service quote process, which can help reduce stress on staff and can help ensure first-time fixes for customers.

For the future, one of the company’s key initiatives, according to Combilift’s Global IT Manager, Fearghal McCorriston, will be vendor performance tracking with Infor Coleman AI to help improve the supply chain. Through this technology, the company will make sure parts arrive on time to meet growing production schedules.