By Nathan Mitchell, Marketing Coordinator, MacDon Industries, Ltd., Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
1. Product Quality — MacDon continually strives to have the best quality products in the marketplace. The company has added many lean manufacturing practices to all departments across the company, including new assembly line procedures guided by those lean principles.
2. Parts Availability — MacDon invested in a brand new Parts Distribution Centre located in Winnipeg. The state of the art building is 98,700 square feet but with 40 feet of clear height and offers 3.95 million cubic feet of space for parts distribution. MacDon has also invested in stocking more parts in Kansas City, Mo., as well as other distribution centers around the U.S. MacDon has upgraded its facilities in Western Canada as an owner of Westward Parts Ltd. to offer a better level of service to dealers and the ag market. MacDon continues to invest in facilities, people and enhanced online tools for parts dealers.
3. Parts Quality — MacDon has upgraded its quality control, storage, packaging and protection of new parts waiting for dealer shipment. New packaging guidelines have been introduced to ensure the dealer receives a quality performance part on arrival. Many of the new lean principles have guided the updates in our parts quality systems.
4. Product Technical Support — MacDon has added more product support representatives who live in-territory with the dealers they are supporting. They are continuing to hold robust dealer training programs on all MacDon products and encourage dealers to attend sessions by using convenient locations at different times of the year to fit demanding schedules.
5. Responsiveness to the Dealer — MacDon has upgraded its computer systems with new features to an online dealer portal website, including a new online settlement tool for dealers, and the company is continually offering more online training. MacDon’s mission is to be dealer- and customer-focused with an overriding goal of being easy to do business with.
6. Recent Changes Impacting Dealer Network — MacDon has offered more customer-focused dealer open house events and has increased the number of dealership field demonstrations to help educate and expose customers and dealers to the products. MacDon also hosted a 65th anniversary celebration for dealers in 2014 in Nashville, Tenn. This event gave dealers a chance to hear the vision of the company directly from its executives during a panel discussion, as well as visit with MacDon personnel from most departments across the company.
7. Key Initiatives for Coming Year — Recently MacDon has renewed its focus on a dealer council to get direct feedback on how to improve dealer relations in the future. MacDon is also making a major investment in its computer systems throughout 2016 and 2017 to enhance what is offered to dealers. MacDon recently announced to their dealers an upcoming product launch and business meeting in 2017. At the meeting, dealers will get a first look at new coming products and get to hear about the investment MacDon is making in research and development to continually improve its product offering. Recently, MacDon opened a facility in Madison, Wis., dedicated to research and development efforts as they continue to grow worldwide.
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