Mercedes-Benz has opened what it says is the largest parts warehouse in the luxury car industry and also setting up the company’s largest retail training academy in South Asia, christened as the ‘Mercedes-Benz Academy’.

The parts warehouse and the Mercedes-Benz Academy were inaugurated by Dr. Till Conrad, head-region overseas Mercedes-Benz Cars at Daimler and Roland Folger, managing director and CEO, Mercedes-Benz India.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Till Conrad, head-region overseas Mercedes-Benz Cars at Daimler commented, “India remains one of the bright spots for Mercedes-Benz and this critical expansion of infrastructure and investment in retail training signifies our strong customer centric approach and long-term vision; which underlines our confidence in the Indian market. Mercedes-Benz is not only expanding its world-class infrastructure here in India, but also strategically developing the skill-set of its workforce, ready to capitalise the future growth of the luxury industry. We are glad to support such strategic decisions and are confident, that initiatives like these will make the India growth story more inclusive, making the brand future ready.”

Roland Folger, managing director and CEO, commented, “Creating the largest parts warehouse in the luxury car segment equipped with state-of-art technological processes, automations and also inaugurating South Asia’s biggest Mercedes-Benz Academy, are significant accomplishments for Mercedes-Benz India. These initiatives are result of our focused customer orientation that will help create a long-term value to our discerning patrons, giving us a competitive edge in this dynamic market. At Mercedes-Benz India, it remains our relentless endeavour to build-on to the strong foundation we have created for the brand, and further develop a sustainable future for our partners and employees. Investing in the infrastructure and also in people is a hallmark of a fundamentally strong brand like Mercedes-Benz, and this strategic decision, will play a pivotal role in our future growth in India.”

Mercedes-Benz parts warehouse:
The parts warehouse is spread across 16,500 square metres and can accommodate up to 44,000 stock keeping units (SKU’s)
It is equipped with LED lights for energy saving with motion sensors
Wi Fi provision around the entire warehouse for continual connectivity
Multi-tier shelving system (G + 2 Levels) with in rack sprinklers in shelving system at every three metre
10 outbound docks for loading and dispatching the material, six inbound docks for receiving materials
50+ locations catered through newly built warehouse
Modern material handling equipment (MHE) like high level order picker (HLOP), low
Level order picker (LLOP) and reach trucks (RT)) for efficient operations
Spare parts automation (SPAN) update to showcase operational efficiency/SPAN 1.0 wholesale, spare parts automation at wholesale
Systems designed considering future requirements in warehouse (with efforts towards paperless warehouse operations)
World class equipment (RD devices) for operations
SPAN mapped with modern MHE’s to improve operational efficiency
Warehouse equipped with specialised safety features like VESDA (Very early smoke detection alerts), in-rack sprinklers, air handling unit (AHU), etc. 

Mercedes-Benz Academy:
Mercedes-Benz’s retail training division has been actively contributing in developing, nurturing and mentoring retail manpower effectively for the last two decades. Be it establishing the in-house Mechatronics School, successfully driving the ADAM course at Government Polytechnic in Pune, Aurangabad and Government Engineering College Trivandrum, or developing training content creating virtual learning platform for global training of Daimler. The retail training has been the backbone of developing manpower required to support future business growth. Mercedes-Benz India now consolidates its retail training division and inaugurates its largest training facility in South Asia, christened as the Mercedes-Benz Academy. The key objective of this academy will be to pursue the cultivation of knowledge and support retail manpower growth. Some of the key highlights of the Mercedes-Benz Academy are:
Trainings for 225 participants per day at any given time
Combi-bays: Four large bays that can accommodate two vehicles per bay, two small bays that can accommodate one vehicle per bay
It hosts classrooms, aggregate room and an eLab

Vehicle preparation centre:
The VPC is created to cater to vehicle storing requirement of Mercedes-Benz India till 2024 and will aid the company’s vision to deliver “Zero defect customised vehicles with customer delight.

At VPC, the vehicles are stored, maintained and prepared for dealer dispatches following the stringent VPC guidelines laid down by Daimler. Apart from these guidelines, the system is subjected to process audits, integrated management system (IMS) audits and various inventory audits. All the vehicles are subjected to stringent checks during take-over from production, periodic maintenance and SVC (standard vehicle check) before dispatching the vehicles to the dealers. Some key highlights are:
Use of an unique inventory management software which eases the monitoring of the movement of vehicles, their maintenance schedules and also this software has features such as automatic UPN (unique parking number) generation as per model and colour
Entry is restricted only to authorised vehicles and drivers through automated boom barriers, digital board displaying parking occupancy status, etc.
Automated key storage and vending machine for safety and faster retrieval of required key
Automated conveyor system for automatic car wash machine which removes human intervention while placing the car in auto car wash
State of the art underground exhaust extraction system in workshop
Nine productive bays comprising five scissor lifts and four two post lifts and a facility to lift guard vehicles
Exclusive storage facility for VPC loose parts, welcome kits for customers
A world-class paint booth, paint preparation station for paint repair jobs
A supreme car modification centre to carry out value added jobs like AMG styling, decal kits, specialised car upholstery, specialised paints, other fitments etc.