Pool workshop in Plant 2 Maintenance. A fully automated and economical production system requires efficient and flexible maintenance with highly qualified and motivated employees. The range of tasks includes both "classic" maintenance activities, such as -   Servicing, - Inspection and - Repair, and additional activities, such as -   Machine start up, - Modifications, - Deficiency analysis and - Problem solving tools to improve utilization. For the two main competence areas -   Machine and plant technology and - Building and energy supply technology all responsibilities are fully defined and organized in every factory. One particularly interesting and demanding aspect is the increasingly intensive support, for planning and procurement of new, low-maintenance machines and systems to technical staff and engineers, provided by our maintenance specialists. Modern organizational structures and methods, efficient procedures, the latest technologies and equipment and many years of using software maintenance solutions bring our in-house customers competitive advantages, such as increased plant efficiency, reduced production costs, fewer unplanned downtime, lower investment costs and short response times.

How do you organize your maintenance department? Our maintenance department is a mix of centralized and distributed maintenance, where even the operator is required to carry out certain specific maintenance tasks, such as fixing minor problems and regular operator care. Are maintenance operations scheduled only during holidays and the Christmas period? No. The maintenance department agrees with the internal customer on the most evenly distributed utilization of capacity over the business year. How does the large number of more than 110 employees in maintenance affect STIHL's product costs? By concentrating on core competencies, efficient organizational structures and procedures, and with the high qualification levels of our maintenance engineers we can ensure low downtimes and thereby compensate for the personnel costs. Does that mean in other words that maintenance is not a source of costs but in fact makes a significant contribution to cost savings? Yes, because due to the wear conditions no machine can be operated without maintenance. Moreover, our maintenance engineers very actively support the full breadth of our operations continuous improvement
process.