MCI to guarantee Coach Critical parts shipped by next business day

Motor Coach Industries (MCI), Schaumburg, IL, is launching its first-ever Coach Critical parts guarantee, making parts deemed most essential to coach uptime available in stock to customers experiencing a coach-down situation. MCI guarantees it will ship the Coach Critical part or a suitable substitute by the next business day or credit 50 percent of the part price up to $150 to the customer’s account.

MCI says its $7 million Coach Critical list starts with 1,000 parts and will include 1,500 by June. The list compiled with the input of operators of MCI coaches and in-house technical experts includes both high- and low-volume parts, including those that are sometimes hard to come by but are nevertheless critical to coach operation.

“We are putting a guarantee on not only fast-moving items, but on vital items such as glass and slower-moving parts like radiators, driver’s blinds and electrical modules,” says Stan Dzierzega, MCI executive director of Operations Aftermarket Business. “Our customer service representatives have been trained to leave no stone unturned when it comes to finding and expediting items on our Coach Critical parts list. We have inventory and processes in place to get our customers’ coaches up and running.”

MCI also has formed a Coach Down Committee comprised of parts engineers and technical experts who meet by phone each morning to review any open coach-down customer situations.  “Due to the collective experience of our group, we’re able to come up with creative solutions to get a customer’s coach out of the garage and back on the road,” says Dzierzega. “We present the customer with available options; that way the customer helps to determine what will work best under the circumstances.”

He says the committee is usually able to resolve most open issues quickly, sometimes within the same day.

Related to its Reliability Driven culture, MCI has enhanced its parts procurement process to make dealing with coach-down parts orders simpler, quicker and more systematic, with more accountability, visibility and urgency across the board. Dzierzega says that fulfillment rates are at industry-leading rates, having risen 37 percent over the past year alone.

The Coach Critical parts list is available through an MCI customer service representative for private-sector operators who order over the phone and agree to pay for expedited shipping for their emergency order; web orders do not qualify. Additional terms and conditions apply. Visit www.mcicoach.com/parts.