Linde wants to continue improving its performance in terms of fleet management and full service.

Linde Material Handling, which has implemented a new organisational structure, wants to intensely promote the growth of market- and customer-oriented services.

Roland Hartwig, vice president of customer services, says the German forklift manufacturer wants to become a global solution provider that provides the best complete solution for its customers.

"We are working on creating global standards and are making sure that we take regional conditions into account. The primary objective is not just to meet customer expectations, but to exceed them," he says.

What used to be called After Sales is now found in Linde Material Handling's newly formed company business segment of Customer Services. Linde says its reasons for strong investment in the development of the service sector are "many and varied".

One of them is the impact of high-quality service on the new vehicle business and another is the substantial volume of turnover on the global market. Linde has about 650,000 industrial trucks in operation worldwide, and around 550,000 of those are in Europe.

In 2009, Linde's marketshare for service of those trucks was about 61%. In 2010, this increased to around 67%.

"We want to continue to intensify our service activities over the coming years. A premium service is after all the foundation that we need to be able to really make the most of the superior Linde technology," Hartwig says.

He explains that Linde's department analyses have shown that the company is very well placed in some areas. "Our customer oriented service level as well as our high market presence are examples of this. We can draw on over 7,000 service technicians in over 700 service centres worldwide."

However, Linde wants to continue improving its performance in terms of fleet management and full service. It is working on expanding the stock range of its original spare parts, developing a global standard and customer-oriented, innovative service solutions.

Linde has a global replacement parts warehouse in Kahl, Germany, with replacement parts on hand 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The manufacturer boasts a current replacement parts availability of about 95%.

"That value should rise to 98% in the next few years ... and then we will have to look at those last two percent. Because if you think you're good enough already, you have already lost," Hartwig says.