Ottevanger and Propeller Digital Commerce Platform

Ottevanger Milling Engineers is a leading machinery manufacturer that designs and builds complete feed mills. With over 100 years of experience, this family-owned business provides innovative solutions to the feed industry worldwide. In addition to high-quality machines and installations, Ottevanger supports its customers with comprehensive spare parts management to ensure efficient and reliable production. This service is essential for minimizing downtime and maximizing machine lifespan.

Challenges and Approach

Ottevanger faced several challenges in improving its customer service. Language barriers and time zone differences complicated direct communication with international customers. At the same time, customers expressed a preference for independently ordering spare parts. To address these needs, Propeller developed a digital commerce platform that simplifies the process for customers.

The platform enables customers to manage their machinery easily using technical drawings. Starting from factory layouts down to factory lines, machines, and individual parts, customers can zoom in on specific components and order them directly, resulting in a more efficient and user-friendly ordering process. The personalized portal integrates with the ERP system, displaying customer-specific prices and inventory levels. For custom parts, customers can request quotes directly through the portal.
During the project kickoff, it became evident that internal processes were not yet optimized. As Jorn Bruggink, Senior Services Manager at Ottevanger, highlighted:

It is essential for the data structure to be consistent, replicable, and scalable. Master data must be accurate to enable proper filtering.

The installed base was not always fully documented, and the overview of spare parts per machine was sometimes incomplete. This issue was addressed by applying the ’80-20 rule’: with relatively little effort, most of the missing data could be supplemented. For the remaining missing data, a cost-benefit analysis was conducted to determine whether further effort was justified.

For the final percentages, you have to ask yourself if it’s worth the effort to complete them fully.

The improved process requires all data to be correct and complete from the outset.

Innovative Developments and Ambitions

The next step in the collaboration between Ottevanger and Propeller involves integrating Ottevanger’s PLM system with the platform. This will make it possible to display machines in 3D, allowing customers to zoom in directly within the 3D model to identify and order the correct parts. This not only offers an intuitive user experience but also reduces errors in part selection.

Ottevanger is also exploring the implementation of punch-out connections with customers’ ERP systems. This integration provides even greater convenience for customers when ordering, while simultaneously increasing cross-sell and upsell opportunities.

We are already seeing an increase in cross-sell and upsell with our current e-commerce platform. With punch-out connections, we expect to strengthen this trend further.

What is a Punch-Out Connection?
A punch-out system links customers’ purchasing systems directly to suppliers’ webshops. Customers select products in the webshop, and the order is automatically sent back to their system. This enhances ordering convenience, reduces errors, and aligns with customer processes. For suppliers, it enables more efficient transactions, stronger customer relationships, and increased sales opportunities.

Vision

Ottevanger looks beyond optimizing e-commerce processes. Predictive maintenance is seen as a key pillar to help customers minimize downtime. Ottevanger aims to assist customers in performing maintenance at the right time. Proactivity is required to order and dispatch parts via the web portal before failure occurs. Determining the right moment can be achieved through telemetry.

Experimental projects in telemetry have already begun, exploring ways to integrate this technology into the platform. For example, continuously monitoring the temperature of specific components can reveal potential failures when temperature increases unexpectedly.
Additionally, augmented reality (AR) is being explored. While previous tests during the COVID-19 pandemic were not successful, Ottevanger does not rule out future technological advancements improving AR’s potential.

We continue to innovate and experiment to better serve our customers.

Ottevanger envisions a future where machinery manufacturers operate a factory as a “managed service” for their customers, with guaranteed uptime as a core value. A viable business case remains a prerequisite for implementation.

Conclusion

With Propeller’s digital commerce platform, Ottevanger has made significant progress in enhancing its customer processes and meeting the needs of its international clients. Future plans, including 3D integrations, punch-out connections, and technologies like predictive maintenance and augmented reality, demonstrate that Ottevanger continues to innovate and remain customer-focused. The vision to offer factories as a “managed service” reflects their ambition to stay at the forefront of the industry.