Automating spare parts sales – the JBT case study

John Bean Technologies Corporation (JBT) is a leading global provider of technology solutions to high-value areas of the food and airline industry.

From the first sprayer to the complex process machines hitting the market today, JBT is committed to developing innovative solutions and improving existing technologies in every sector it competes in, as well as its own internal structure.

Innovations in the after-sales area have been supported by the partnership with Sygest, particularly with regard to the sale of spare parts.

The first solution implemented by JBT was Spare Parts Catalog Builder (SPCB), a tool developed by Sygest to automatically create interactive spare parts catalogues with the support of a customised connector. The connector is a tailor-made software developed by Sygest for each project in order to retrieve its customers' technical design information directly from CAD, with the possibility of further integration with PDM/ERP.

The natural output that Spare Parts Catalog Builder can generate is a 2D or 3D Stand Alone PDF, from which both JBT and its customers can dynamically select spare parts to generate a request for quotation to be printed or emailed.

The email that is produced displays a clear summary of the order and contains as an attachment an .xml file that can be imported directly into the ERP system.

In this way, JBT was able to reduce the risk of errors thanks to an optimised information flow, thereby increasing the efficiency of its customer service.

Given the complexity of the machines designed, JBT later expanded the Sygest Suite by replacing the 3D Stand Alone PDF with Digital Advanced Visualization (DAV), a powerful desktop application on which to publish the catalogues generated with Spare Parts Catalog Builder.

The performance of Digital Advanced Visualization as a visualiser allows JBT's large 3D machines to be managed with improved resolution and an increasing level of automation: directly from CAD information, JBT can generate catalogues with Spare Parts Catalog Builder and publish them on Digital Advanced Visualization without the need to generate the drawing or make manual changes.

DAV allows a dual navigation of the catalogue, from the viewer and from the bill of materials, with the added possibility of managing attachments such as operating manuals, videos, pdfs and procedures, or rather interactive animations that act as guides for the maintenance technician during assembly or disassembly operations on a line. As the procedures are interactive, they can be interrupted at any time to explore the machine's details and make cart inserts.

The DAV is therefore a support both for a maintenance technician/operator, who can consult the catalogue and identify faulty components, and for customers, who can generate a request for quotation in various formats: .pdf, .xls, .xml.

Together, these solutions have permitted JBT to strengthen its aftersales department, reducing operating costs and improving efficiency.