Hartl Crusher case study

1. HARTL CRUSHER – CASE STUDY
TEAM FINLAND FUTURE WATCH REPORT, JANUARY 2016
DIGITALIZATION EXAMPLES FOR THE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY
Case-kuvaus verkossa: bit.ly/digicase-hartl

2. HARTL CRUSHER – THE COMPANY
• Hartl Crusher (www.hartl-crusher.com) is a small
company of 19 employees, which sells bucket
crushers, bucket screeners and screen plants. The firm
is based in Mauthausen, Austria, and is owned and run
by two brothers, Dominik and Alexander Hartl.
• The Hartl family has a long tradition in the crushing
industry, going back to 1935. They used to
manufacture bigger track-mounted mobile crushers,
but sold the business to Atlas Copco in 2010.
• The current company HARTL Engineering & Marketing
GmbH was established in 2011, but the first products were
introduced at the Bauma fair in 2014.
• Hartl products are mostly sold through their dealer
network. The company has close to 40 dealers, which
sell Hartl products in 44 countries.
Team Finland Future Watch Report – Digitalization Examples for the
Manufacturing Industry – www.insyke.fi
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Dominik and Alexander Hartl

3. HARTL CRUSHER – DRIVERS FOR CHANGE
• After selling their previous company, the Hartl
brothers wanted to stay in the crushing
business and utilize their expertise, but at the
same time set up a totally different kind of
company.
• They wanted to create a modern business,
which would be easy to manage and which
would offer better customer experience for
both the dealers and the end customers.
• Selling the old business allowed them to invest
in setting up the new company; including
setting up the online platform for running the
operations.
Team Finland Future Watch Report – Digitalization Examples for the
Manufacturing Industry – www.insyke.fi
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4. HARTL CRUSHER – THE CHANGE
• Company operations have been built around their online platform, which automates all core
business processes.
• The most important part of the platform is the web store for handling orders, spare parts delivery and
warranty claims. The store has been connected to the finance system to minimize accounting and reporting
work.
• Both dealers and end customers can view their purchase history and easily order spare parts. There are also
extensive installation, operation and service instructions with plenty of visual materials, such as photos,
graphics and videos.
• To make managing the business easier, all manufacturing has been outsourced to trusted
partners. Hartl is responsible for stocking products and operating a global spare part warehouse
at their headquarters.
• Hartl sells most products and parts via their dealers, all of which use the online platform, but also
end customers can place orders directly using the web store.
• Allowing end customers to access the online platform directly sets Hartl apart from their competition. End
customers can order spare parts without going through their local dealer, if they wish, and also access all
product documentation.
• Moving to an online sales channel has also meant that product and part prices are openly seen by
everyone. This makes it faster and easier for the end customer to see their investment cost. At the
same time, this means that the prices have to be the same in all markets and countries.
Team Finland Future Watch Report – Digitalization Examples for the
Manufacturing Industry – www.insyke.fi
4

5. HARTL CRUSHER – BENEFITS
• Better customer experience – Open pricing, real-time inventory levels,
shipment tracking, and good product documentation help to improve
the customer experience. Also the processes are faster, as everything
is automated, and online payments enable fast shipments.
• Less non-productive work – The number of interactions has been cut
from about 6-8 to an average of just 1, as the orders are placed in the
web store. This saves a lot of work, as there isn’t as much need to
handle exceptions and correct mistakes.
• Dealers and end customers see real-time inventory levels and can place
orders in the web store, and get DHL tracking codes for each order, so there’s
no need to send queries about order status. Also the possibility to order
wrong spare parts has been minimized by a spare part selector based on
product serial numbers.
• Business scalability – The platform makes it possible to serve more
dealers and end customers without hiring more employees. Dominik
Hartl estimates that they could double their business with existing
staff.
• Differentiation – Online platform accessible directly to end customers,
open pricing and excellent after-sales support set Hartl apart from
their competitors.
• Self-service – Most end customers wish to maintain the equipment
themselves. Using the online platform they can order the spare parts
easily and have access to the maintenance and repair instructions.
Team Finland Future Watch Report – Digitalization Examples for the
Manufacturing Industry – www.insyke.fi
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6. HARTL CRUSHER – LESSONS LEARNED
• Still few direct orders – Most end customers still prefer to order through their local dealer; most end
customers are small contractors who are not very web-savvy and typically have a long and trusted business
relationship with the dealer.
• Need to educate the dealers – An online store, which is open also to the end customers is something the
dealers are not yet familiar with, so Hartl needs to go through the pros and cons with them before signing
them up as a dealer.
• Global and open pricing – Previously the end customers had to ask a dealer for a quote to see the pricing, and
the prices varied country by country. Now the prices are shown openly and are fixed globally, which has been a
big change.
Team Finland Future Watch Report – Digitalization Examples for the
Manufacturing Industry – www.insyke.fi
6

7. Team Finland Future Watch Report – Digitalization Examples for the
Manufacturing Industry – www.insyke.fi
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HARTL CRUSHER – COMMENTS ON THE CASE EXAMPLE
Business impact
• As the company is still very young, business impact of the change can’t be really estimated based on annual revenue
growth. And much of the future growth will depend other things, for example building the dealer network.
• Though commonplace in B2C industries, online platforms are still rare in small-to-medium sized manufacturing companies.
Several of Hartl’s competitors have their own online portals, but those are open just for their dealer networks.
• The online platform acts as an enabler, enabling both excellent customer experience and scaling of the business, without
the need to hire more employees. These benefits will be gained most in the medium to long term.
Effects on employees and management
• Well-defined processes and availability of real-time business data on any device makes the company much easier to
manage and lead.
• With the previous company, managing the orders and manufacturing the products amounted to a lot of non-productive
work. Now the company can focus more on value-adding things – that is serving their customers and building the best
possible sales organization and dealer network.
• Hartl had an unique opportunity to build their new business from scratch utilizing their long experience in the field. For
existing companies a similar change can be quite a bit more challenging due to business and technology commitments
already made and resistance to change – both inside and outside the company.
Open and globally fixed pricing
• Product and spare part prices are visible to both dealers and end customers in the web store. This means that the prices are
globally fixed, which is unusual in this industry. Differences in operation costs are taken into account in dealer commissions,
which means that dealers in high-cost countries get a bigger cut of the sale than ones in low-cost countries.
Hartl is a good example of utilizing digitalization to benefit everyone: the company itself, their
dealers and of course the end customers.

8. Laura Nurmi, Tekes
laura.nurmi@tekes.fi
+358 29 505 5623
Harri Lakkala, Intosome Oy
harri.lakkala@intosome.fi
+358 45 260 3884
Digitalisaatioesimerkkejä teollisuudelle
-raportti verkossa:
http://bit.ly/digiesimerkkeja-teollisuudelle