Page 14: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (September 2013)

14 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News ? SEPTEMBER 2013 FIVE MINUTES WITH WOLFGANG SCHMID, ZF MARINE PROPULSION SYSTEMS ZF is a $20 billion, foundation-held industrial colossus with a strong reputation of providing en- gineered solutions in the diversity of Þ elds that it serves. While the company reaps the majority of its sales in the automotive sector, it is making a concerted push through its Marine Propulsion Systems unit to expand its offering and pres- ences in the commercial maritime business. Wolfgang Schmid, Head of Marine Propulsion Systems Re- gional North America and Central America, last month hosted MR in the company?s gleaming North & Central American HQ to explain. By Greg Trauthwein, Editor ZF Marine Propulsion Systems Making a strong thrust into the commercial workboat sector Wolfgang Schmid has for nearly two de-cades worked for ZF, with the Þ rst 10 spent on the company?s automotive side, the last eight leading its North and Central American marine propulsion division. When he took over the division in 2005, business was booming, and while Schmid admits that he likes the cyclical nature of business, what he, the company and the world were set to experience went above and be-yond normal cycles. ?I like change, because change keeps us on our toes. But I like change in a manage-able fashion. What happened in 2008/2009 was an avalanche.?The avalanche was the cumulative effects of the global economic collapse and lingering bad econo-my. With the lion?s share of the ZF Marine Propul- sion System business on the consumer side of the led-ger, Schmid and his colleagues felt the effects deeply and immediately, as consumer spending dried up nearly overnight. ?I?ve seen the ups and the downs in those eight years. We hit the heights in 2007 as many other industries did, and we saw the worst in 2009,? Schmid said.Prior to the global economic shock, ZF maintained a network of small service centers in North America, a network that would prove unsustainable in the new business environment. ?We reacted immediately in the way we approached our aftermarket strategy,? Schmid said. ?(Today) we have 100 people in this company, and one-half is aftermarket related. Before, we had 13 small service centers, but as the volume dried up it was impossible to keep those open. We sat down and looked at our footprint, and reconÞ gured into a three branch strategy, maintaining our signa- ture high level of service while reducing our cost structure tremendously.? So from adversity emerges success, as ZF Marine Propulsion Systems has emerged stronger on the ß ip side. Backed by a large company which holds techni- cal excellence and global vision as core tenets, ZF Marine Propulsion System became more lean, open-ing its Miramar, FL HQ four years ago and establish- ing three additional U.S. hubs in Philadelphia, New Orleans and Seattle for service and spares. ?Dur- ing the boom days, you have to really stash away,? Schmid said. ?Yes we want to grow, but our philoso- MR #9 (10-17).indd 14MR #9 (10-17).indd 149/5/2013 10:13:41 AM9/5/2013 10:13:41 AM