It was early in 2021, with much of the world just beginning to grapple with supply chain disruptions stemming from the global pandemic, that MacDon Parts leaders undertook an exercise to develop a purpose statement to help keep their teams aligned and focused on a common goal.

“Provide world-class support to our global customers through convenient and timely delivery of quality parts at competitive prices” is what the team ultimately came up with, and even now, several years later, that statement can still be found around the office as a reminder.

 — MacDon Parts Team Purpose Statement

“In terms of MacDon Performance Parts, our purpose is to have service parts readily available when and where they are needed to ensure that a MacDon machine continues to perform to its original design and performance levels throughout the life of the machine,” explains Doug Meister – Vice President, Global Parts and Service.

“So we're here to really optimize and extend the life cycle of a MacDon machine, and make sure farmers get the most out of it for as long as they own or run a MacDon.”

“Performance Parts” is the trademarked name MacDon uses to promote official MacDon replacement parts which face the same rigorous testing and performance checks as the factory parts originally in place when the MacDon machine was new.

Previously, service parts were promoted as “MD Genuine Parts,” but a rebranding effort around 2015 culminated with the name change to MacDon Performance Parts.

“We try to differentiate ourselves on the superior productivity and durability of our machinery and I think that MacDon Performance Parts branding helps us reinforce that these factory original parts are equivalent to what you’re going to get when a new machine leaves the factory. We believe it is possible to maintain exceptional harvesting performance long term by using MacDon Performance Parts which provide better performance versus aftermarket will-fit solutions out there,” says Meister.

In addition to the individual parts themselves, customers can purchase more conveniently packaged service kits, guard kits and knife assembly kits, as well as filter kits and rotary disc service kits.

“MacDon equipment is very highly engineered, quality machinery. Someone who is investing into a quality piece of machinery like that, we want to ensure that when parts wear out – because inherently with farm machinery, parts that are engaging with crop do wear out – we want to assure our customers that when the time does come to replace, the MacDon Performance Parts name stands for that quality and durability,” adds Andrew Grossart, Manager of Parts Sales and Marketing at MacDon.

“It's been tested and verified through engineering and testing in crop conditions around the world. So, it gives you peace of mind that if you're investing in the MacDon Performance Part, you're going to get the associated performance that you would expect on a new MacDon machine.”

Grossart joined the parts team in 2016, and a big focus since that time has been on education – to educate dealers, who can then educate their customers, on the benefits of purchasing MacDon Performance Parts. A number of brochures have been produced over the years to highlight various products, including an annual Performance Parts guide that’s available for dealers to order (and it’s also available for attendees at events and farm shows MacDon attends).

Another significant aspect of this education strategy moving forward is preventive maintenance. In an effort to emphasize the importance of addressing small issues promptly, or even before they arise, to prevent more costly and time-consuming problems, the MacDon team is creating a series of how-to videos to educate customers about warning signs and simple fixes for product maintenance.

MacDon How To Playlist

For example, a recent 10-minute video on cutterbar maintenance goes through how to spot worn guards and knife sections, explains why it’s important to replace them, and how to complete that task correctly when the time comes.

“These new how-to videos are about helping tell that story and to help educate our customers on, ‘What am I looking for?’ You’ve got this new or new-to-you machine, and a lot of people intuitively see something is worn out but we really wanted to start telling the story of, ‘Here's what happens when it is worn out, and if you don't change it, here are the downsides,’” Grossart says.

The team decided to go with a video series in order to have something more easily sharable online and on social media, meeting their customers where they are at. Previously, much of the preventative maintenance-type communications came in text form, but Grossart is hopeful the video series will be more engaging and impactful.

“Part of that is building trust and helping to show we're not saying that our parts don't wear out because, of course, they will. It's also about empowering customers to realize and understand when they do wear out, if you don't change them, or if you wait too long to change something, you're going to have a performance decrease in your machine,” says Grossart.

“And it's about teaching the value of preventative maintenance and how regular upfront investment can save you more money in the long run. The last thing you want to do is break down over something that could have been a simple pre-season replacement, and now it's left you down in the middle of harvest.”

Meister agrees, saying MacDon has historically focused on ensuring parts are always available so that a customer, farmer, or operator can refresh and keep their machine performing to its original factory-intended specifications throughout its lifecycle.

“So, while our job is to make sure those parts are there when they are needed, we're pivoting to be more proactive in educating farmers and operators as to why and how they can do preventative maintenance, inspect and replace worn parts off-season to reduce the chance of a costlier failure – both in downtime, but also in damaging or wearing out costlier parts if you wait too long,” says Meister.

Because this preventative maintenance focus is still a very new initiative, feedback is fairly limited, but Grossart notes that dealers are always grateful for any type of educational materials or resources MacDon produces, and for the videos specifically, there seems to be excitement around that content as a new tool in the box to share with customers.

As the initiative moves forward, future plans include producing more how-to videos to expand the knowledge and resources that support preventative maintenance. In addition, Grossart says they’ve created a Draper header inspection checklist, which they hope to replicate for other products as well.

MacDon Performance Parts - Draper Header Inspection Checklist

“We do have continued plans for expansion with the program. We're still in its infancy; we're still evolving, but we really want to tell the whole story of preventative maintenance, what to look for ahead of the season, and then what you should look for post-harvest,” he says, adding they want to also work with the dealers to encourage their customers to bring that preventative maintenance window ahead and address any issues in the off-season rather than wait until they need to use the machines again.

“A lot of times you hear stories of customers coming into dealers and, ‘Oh, I forgot this was an issue at the end of harvest last year, and can you get this new part for me?’ And they want to start harvesting in a week, right? If we can work to change that mindset to, ‘OK, we just got through harvest with this, we should get this fixed and taken care of in the off-season so we're ready to go come harvest next year.’ That’s what we want from this campaign.”

Ultimately, the how-to videos and preventative maintenance campaign directly align with the first part of the MacDon Parts purpose statement: providing world-class support to MacDon’s global customers. While sales, of course, are important, building trust and loyalty with customers and dealers is always the priority.

“I think we have some really impactful opportunities there to help extend the life of our harvesting products and actually lower the cost of ownership. Ultimately, we want to maximize harvest uptime and crop recovery by being the trusted source of replacement parts so customers don't go elsewhere for their repairs thereby jeopardizing the performance MacDon is known for,” says Meister.

For additional resources visit MacDon Performance Parts.