Oct. 31, 2017—A smile stretched across Andreas Huber’s face on Tuesday, as AAPEX 2017 got underway in Las Vegas. Huber’s contentment is understandable, considering his employer’s recent growth.
Huber, a general manager for MAHLE Service Solutions, proudly spoke at the Sands EXPO about his company’s recent dealings―primarily its partnership with Christian Brothers Automotive to provide MAHLE FORUM software at each of their locations (the collaborative environment will be called CBA Connect), and its recent innovation with regard to the ArcticPRO suite of diagnostic and repair machines.
Huber said it’s a major point of pride at MAHLE to aid the efficiency of technicians.
“We’re combining technicians’ knowledge,” he noted, “automatically transferring vehicular-based information into the FORUM, into a calibration platform and having a research database on the back end, [and] also having other technicians and our own people to support ... in fixing problems.”
Huber expressed confidence that MAHLE’s partnership with Christian Brothers can greatly aid the automotive repair franchise.
“They’re utilizing our MAHLE FORUM,” he explained, “for all their franchise shops all over North America―160 shops―to calibrate all their shops. All their technicians in their shops [can] get together with their tech support to be more efficiently faster.”
MAHLE has noticed more and more contaminated refrigerant in vehicles recently, which helped inspire the company’s ArcticPRO suite which provides enhanced reporting, including refrigerant usage tracking based on specific OE vehicle identification numbers (VIN). The company has made a concerted effort, especially this week at AAPEX, to educate repair facilities on how to safely handle the 1234yf refrigerant, feeling that safety measure is something independent repair shops will need to focus on soon.
Many of the news items MAHLE is speaking about this week at AAPEX―including its ongoing expansion into the heavy-duty realm―are simply emblematic of the company’s steady ascent in recent years, according to Huber. The GM is proud, for example, to note that the company has expanded into India and China.
“We’re now globally represented,” Huber said, “which means we’re helping our customers [and] we’re learning from other markets, as well. We think that’s a big thing to understand what the technicians really need [for] their efficiency, and how to make their life easier and better.”
