Johnson Controls is launching its EasyParts online chiller and air conditioning spares platform in Germany, followingsuccessful roll-outs of the award-winning Amazon-style system in the UK, Middle-East and northern Europe.
The website has expanded significantly since its launch in 2013, and now gives installers and contractors access to 30,000 spare parts and accessories for YORK chillers and cooling systems.
To access the site, contractors simply create a user name and password, and apply to set up an account, either through EasyParts or by sending a direct enquiry email. Once an account is set up, they can access details on prices, lead times and a full ordering module for parts. The site can be
accessed here.
EasyParts transforms the speed with which contractors and service companies can source essential spare parts for chillers and air conditioning service and maintenance.
The site includes components such as compressor parts, valves, motors, bearings and consumables. Top selling items include York PureOil (pictured left), oil filters, temperature sensors, cylinder head gaskets and drier cores. Even large items such as crankshafts and replacement condenser coils can be purchased online.
Alpesh Trivedi, Parts product manager at Johnson Controls, says: “In markets where we have been actively promoting EasyParts, more than 60per cent of customers have now migrated to ordering their spare parts online using EasyParts.Contractors have switched from traditional channels as it is easy to use and offers other significant business benefits.”
The advantages for engineers include:
- Speed of response: The site gives 24/7 access to spares with expedited delivery, important in situations where plant has suffered a breakdown. Orders placed before 2.30pm can be delivered next day, subject to stock availability.
- Transparency and traceability: Users can see real-time stock levels for replacement components, and the current status of orders, enabling engineers to track deliveries. It also provides access to order history and associated paperwork, such as invoices.
- Quick identification: The site has photographs of spares to provide visual confirmation of the relevant part. It includes 30,000-plus pictures relating to the company’s active lines of stock. This helps engineers identify the items they need, through visual confirmation and matching with the correct official part number.
- Direct enquiry support: If customers have a query relating to a part or project, they can enter it directly within the EasyParts site. The JCI support team follows-up and responds in real time to ensure the query is answered and resolved promptly.
- Comprehensiveness: Every York chiller ever made is included within the database, with new ones constantly updated, with all component parts identified and available to order online.
- Access to unusual items:EasyParts enables engineers to source unusual items such as the correct RAL-coded paints to touch up chillers damaged during use of maintenance, and official labels for chillers that may have come adrift or become unreadable.
Kelly Nash, Customer Services Manager at Johnson Controls’HVAC Parts centre, says: “The aim was to create an Amazon-type site for the refrigeration and air conditioning industry, as most people are familiar with it and comfortable using it. Since being set up, thousands oforders have been placed with the site by 3000-plusactive users, and the user-base is growing all the time.”
“Having proved the system, we are now rolling it out in Germany – an important market for many of the brands EasyParts supports – to give contractors full access to the benefits. We believe it will prove useful and help companies meet the needs of their own customers, in terms of delivering timely and right-first-time repairs to chillers and air conditioning systems.”