How to exceed expectations

By Stuga’s Steve Haines.

Nearly 20 years ago Danny Williams from Pioneer Trading purchased a Stuga Flowline sawing and machining centre.

The Flowline revolutionised production at the Pioneer factory, and was so successful that a second one was purchased a couple of years later.

These faithful servants have stood the test of time ever since but nearly 20 years is enough even for a Stuga Flowline to get tired, and so a decision to look into replacing the machine was taken, and after considering other options Danny thought “why change a winning formula?”, so decided to talk to Stuga.

The Flowline was so tried, tested and trusted that Danny enquired about rebuilding his original machine, which Stuga can easily do, but the problem was that Pioneer couldn’t be without one of their machines for the six weeks Stuga needed to rebuild a Flowline.

Stuga’s solution was to offer a Flowline that was already in stock from a trade-in situation to be rebuilt and swapped when ready, so this was duly ordered and eventually the machines were rapidly exchanged to keep the downtime to the absolute minimum.

The original Pioneer Flowline was kept by Stuga as part of the deal and will be used for a rebuild in the future. This a popular ‘service exchange’ deal with Stuga and its customers.

When rebuilt, the Flowline was upgraded to a ZX3 specification and was fitted with the Stuga Tru-Loc gripper system as used on the ZX5 range. This gripper system is superior to previous systems and not only gets away from gripper slip but also considerably improves accuracy and general performance.

As with all Stuga factory rebuilds, the machine was supplied with a full 12 months parts and labour warranty and a first year service contract. The Flowline/ZX3 comes with on-board cameras that Stuga can monitor and check, in order to reduce downtime and enhance the customer experience.

When the machine was ready for shipment Danny and his operations director visited Stuga to see the machine being tested at Stuga’s new factory in Great Yarmouth before shipment and commissioning was all agreed.

Our guests seemed impressed with Stuga and the whole machine exchange process.

Danny later said: “I don’t give compliments easily but I am totally impressed with the way that the machine we have purchased is presented. With the upgraded operating system, new pusher and high-speed ring, it’s actually better than it was when new. I have dealt with Stuga for many years – it is the only company you can give a 20-year-old machine to for refurbishment and get a new machine back. And it’s the same people you deal with every time. The only negative is that they are so busy I have to wait when I need anything.

“When I walked through to the factory and saw the machine, I didn’t realise at first that what I was looking at was my machine. I had trouble suppressing my grin. At first glance I believed I was walking past a new machine; the work done by the Stuga engineers exceeded my expectation. I was also very impressed with Stuga’s new premises. A great company that I enjoy doing business with.”

At Stuga we are very pleased to have such a well-known voice in the industry give such praise and we will continue as always to go above and beyond in our quest to provide a top-class customer experience.

Pioneer are nice people to do business with, which makes dealing with them a pleasure.