Strategic priorities

Customer Relevance

Growth through customer relevance means that we shall deliver outstanding customer experiences and retain technological leadership in our field. We always work to drive progress and anticipate the best way forward, for our customers and for the environment. By building seamless solutions with relentless innovation, we can overcome the toughest challenges and drive change together.

Customer relevance starts day one in any business relationship. For Alfa Laval, it is all about understanding the true needs of our customers. Customers should feel that Alfa Laval offers the best possible overall experience with an attention to detail at every step – from initial contact and technology expertise to subsequent service needs once the products are in operation.

Doing business with Alfa Laval should be easy. Customers want us to be a partner working closely together throughout their business process. Our global reach and strong local market presence, in combination with deep end-customer understanding through a commitment to service, product development and customer care, allows us to build long-term relationships. We aim to respond quickly and professionally to customer and offer appropriate solutions on time. This is true irrespective of whether the solution is a standardized component or a more advanced system for customers with specific needs. To be truly successful, we have to look beyond just selling and servicing products and solutions. We work relentlessly to make the purchasing process as convenient and responsive as possible and to have a truly solution­-oriented approach to urgent or unexpected events.

In our endeavour to optimize our customers’ processes as a company that is easy to do business with, Alfa Laval’s products are central. But customers also prioritize other criteria when they evaluate their overall experience with a supplier. By meeting the customer’s expectations and needs, from the initial contact and the sales process to delivery and even aftermarket, the conditions are created for a positive customer experience. This makes it more likely that Alfa Laval will become their first choice for their next procurement.

Alfa Laval works broadly to simplify customer collaboration. This requires an organizational structure to ensure short decision-making and faster customer responses and increased on-time deliveries. It also involves the establishment of three standardized business models to address customers’ differing needs, challenges and purchasing processes.

1. Standard – sale of standardized components through channels and online, with a focus on easy accessibility and lead times.
2. Configured – defined from standard components, we are able to customize the product to suit specific customer needs.
3. Project – customized systems and solutions for customers with specific requirements.

Adapting to new demands

How we do business and what is required from us when doing business are changing rapidly, both by the introduction of new tools and processes and through legislation and regulations. Our ambition is to ensure that all customer interaction, whether digital or physical, is as seamless as possible and supports the increasingly stringent and ambitious sustainability requirements.

Product leadership

Product development and engineering expertise is at the core of Alfa Laval and is the most important factor to secure the company’s strong position and enable profitable growth. With increased customer emphasis on improving existing processes and exploring new technology areas at an accelerated pace, our commitment to develop highly reliable, efficient and sustainable products and solutions that meet their new needs and requirements is more relevant than ever before.

As societies, industries and citizens strive to take better care of the planet we have inherited, great technological steps have been taken and many more will be needed to ensure the more efficient and sustainable use of the world’s resources. Our equipment is a key enabler in many areas such as the energy transition, wastewater treatment and production and usage of new alternative fuels. Being a technology leader in our industries means that we are well positioned to push industry standards in areas where we believe we can make a difference for customers, people and the planet.

Meeting customer needs often involves optimizing an industrial process in which our technology is essential in promoting energy efficiency, durability and productivity. The pace of our development efforts has been increasing in recent years. R&D investment now accounts for about 3 percent of sales and covers not only new technologies and products, but also product improvements and upgrades to meet industry standards. With a rapidly growing demand for more efficient solutions and the development of entirely new technologies such as hydrogen, power-to-x and wind propulsion for marine vessels, we continue to accelerate our investments in innovation.

Our core technologies as a platform for growth

Our deep technology competence in the core areas of fluid handling, separation and heat transfer has been the driver for our successful historic performance and will remain as the foundation for future growth. As we see new technologies and new applications develop rapidly, Alfa Laval needs to make sure that it continues to invest throughout its product portfolio.

This includes more traditional industries where the development of new and improved generations of products helps existing customers to improve, as well as in completely new industrial partnerships and technology areas likely to play a part in the emerging energy landscape. We call this Evolve, Expand, Explore.

Evolve

Evolve includes the majority of Alfa Laval’s product and service portfolio, with solutions and customers in end-markets where Alfa Laval has been a leading solution provider for decades. Large parts of Alfa Laval’s product platforms and product programmes have been replaced over the past five years and we continuously work to improve operational efficiency and enhance performance. Product development for solutions in this category is tilted towards constant progression rather than technological leaps.

Expand

Expand covers end-markets that are growing at an accelerated pace driven by the greater emphasis on energy transition and decarbonization. These markets are rapidly expanding Alfa Laval’s addressable market for its core technology portfolio. The need for energy efficiency solutions is illustrated by growth in heat pumps, the development of district heating and district cooling systems and the shift to more advanced cooling solutions in data centres – which all require heat transfer equipment to achieve greater energy efficiency. The opportunities related to decarbonization are notable in growing areas such as the use of multi-fuel solutions in the marine industry, increased need for biofuels in the transportation sector and carbon capture in emission­-intense applications. Product development mainly focuses on the specific engineering challenges attributable to the respective end-customer requirements with our key technology platforms as a base.

Explore

The industry is now at the cusp of breaking a number of technological boundaries in the urge to find ways to reduce carbon emissions. In several of these development projects, completely new competences, technology assets and metallurgical knowledge are required. Investments in these new technology programmes have accelerated in recent years to make Alfa Laval a technological leader as well as being considered a committed partner. Opportunities in areas such as hydrogen, fuel cells, wind propulsion for marine vessels and long-duration energy storage can be significant over the coming decade, and a focus on product development in all these areas remain a priority.

Power-to-X and fuel cells will play an important role in the global transition to green energy stored in hydrogen and derivatives such as ammonia, methanol, and methane. AlfaNova GL50 with its patented AlfaFusion technology, is the first Alfa Laval heat exchanger specially developed for fuel cell systems and advanced electrolyzer solutions where it increases efficiency and minimizes energy losses.

Methanol is emerging as a frequently chosen alternative fuel that can assist the marine industry in reducing emissions and achieving decarbonization targets. Alfa Laval’s portfolio of multi-fuel boiler systems has now expanded to include methanol-fueled steam boilers. These are the world’s first boiler systems that offer the fuel flexibility to accommodate methanol as fuel.

The Alfa Laval Life-cycle Assessment Solution is a subscription-based software solution that calculates, analyses and validates the environmental impact of food and beverage products, offering full supply-chain transparency. It will help food and beverage customers to specify necessary data demonstrating their environmental impact and compliance with the coming EU directives.

Service excellence

When turning to Alfa Laval for services and support, we strive for customers to experience readiness, reliability and great expertise that save time and money – while making a responsible choice for safety and environment. Combined with our unparalleled product and application knowledge, this is why Alfa Laval is a trusted service partner. Our experts are your asset, working tirelessly to bring you performance and peace of mind.

Alfa Laval aims to always be available to customers when and wherever needed. With a local presence in more than 100 countries, we are ready to service and support our customers at all times. A comprehensive and continuously growing network of people and competence where service and maintenance are performed by skilled technicians is an integral part of our offering.

The Alfa Laval 360° Service Portfolio

The services and solutions in the Alfa Laval 360° Service Portfolio help customers to get the best return on their equipment investment throughout its life cycle. We partner with them in every aspect, from start-up, maintenance and support to improvements and monitoring services over time.

Our offering

Technical documentation

With our accurate technical documentation, customers can ensure proper equipment handling in their day-to-day operations and perform maintenance procedures correctly. Having the right documentation on hand also facilitates certification and auditing when needed – and shortens lead time when ordering spare parts.

Troubleshooting

Our skilled and experienced troubleshooters are the direct route to solving any issue related to customer equipment. Working on site or remotely, they find the cause of unplanned shutdowns and help customers get the best possible operation from their equipment.

Training

Purchasing Alfa Laval equipment means buying reliability. But peace of mind depends just as much on the equipment’s operators. Our skilled training experts extend and develop their competence for increased and prolonged performance.

Spare parts

Using Alfa Laval genuine spare parts ensures optimal productivity. Manufactured with knowledge and precision, our parts deliver function and uptime that prolong equipment life and lower ownership cost. We deliver them on time worldwide through an extensive logistics network.

A broader service scope

Growth in the service business is driven by our high pace in innovation, with demand for new and more sustainable technologies that drive the adaptation of services to meet new needs. At the same time, new generations of products are equipped with more serviceability, digital capabilities and contracted services as part of the purchase proposition. This creates more opportunities to touch more products, more often.

Strategically located service centres and partners ensure that local expertise and equipment are close to our customers whenever they need us. Our local service centres provide preventive maintenance and innovative service solutions that improve processes, minimize unplanned downtime and improve the operating economy of the equipment. Our service centres engage in well-developed sustainability activities, where the focus is on low water consumption, treatment of process water and the safe disposal of chemicals and cleaning fluids as a value-add service.

In recent years, Alfa Laval has built dedicated service organizations to tend to the needs of our customers. The International Marine Service organization was established in 2019 and comprises an international marine service team of more than 200 technicians supporting marine customers with the availability of fast and competent global service 24/7 – every day of the year. This approach ensures outstanding service experience and enables Alfa Laval to meet its brand promise to customers.

The growing demand for digital ways of working creates opportunities to serve customers in new ways. Digital tools are being introduced in the service business that enable service engineers to connect to customer equipment, identify needs and provide preventive maintenance. The introduction of more digital services also improves the productivity of the service organization, as more routine matters are handled remotely and the time spent on site at the customer can be focused on developing the customer relationship.