Having recently completed a three-year project to overhaul the infrastructure at its UK and Irish headquarters, Claas invited us over to the UK to check out its new premises and give us an update on its new connected systems cloud-based platform.
Based at Saxham, in the southeast of England, the Claas UK and Irish headquarters and their local dealer, ‘MANNS of Saxham’ has been completely redeveloped in recent years.
Central to the €25m investment is an impressive 33,000m2 state-of-the-art building. The new 16.5m-high building incorporates a full height, glass-fronted Technoparc machinery showroom and a host of offices for accounts, IT, finance and parts. The site has a huge amount of machinery on display, ranging from a 1946 Super combine that was fitted with wheels from a World War II fighter plane to modern-day foragers, combines and tractors.
Power and heat for the premises are sourced from solar panels and a nearby AD plant. To the rear of the office building is a new 10-bay workshop for MANNS and a large 4,336m2 parts warehouse for Claas UK, that supports largely its dealers in the UK.
Central to the €25m investment is an impressive 33,000m2 state-of-the-art building.
The new parts warehouse replaces five individual buildings. It houses over 47,000 line items or 850,000 individual items, totalling 700 tonnes. Claas UK sends some parts to Ireland, but due to red tape since Brexit, Claas said it is quicker, easier and cheaper to send parts directly from its factories in Germany and France.
Its most popular selling items are bolts for the header section on its combines, of which it sold 55,000 pieces last year.
Since opening the new premises, Claas has added a new field training and demonstration area, known as its customer experience centre (CXC).
Located at the back of the grounds, it features an all-weather track for testing loaders, telehandlers and tractors. Since opening, Claas has welcomed 15 to 20 customers from all over the UK and Ireland to the centre weekly, over the last 20 weeks.
Claas has added a new field training and demonstration area, known as its Customer Experience Centre (CXC).
“Our CXC is our Lamma Show, it’s our Cereals event. We want customers to come to us. Our all-weather test area means customers can visit us all year round,” said Trevor Tyrrell, Claas senior vice-president for western Europe.
Claas Academy
The Saxham site is also home to the Claas Academy, which provides training for dealer sales, service and parts staff and customer operator training.
A team of 11 staff provide over 4,000 hours of training each year, both on-site and remotely. The academy is officially recognised as a training body, and the manufacturer runs its own in-house four-year apprenticeship training programme.
The course is 20% college-based and 80% workshop-based. Claas said that its programme has a lot of hands-on focus, especially around fabrication using lathes.
It said it wants its trainees to be able to fix and repair machines, not just replace every part.
With seven academy workshops on site, every apprentice working with a Claas dealer in Ireland and the UK will spend time learning at the academy, in three-week blocks.
With seven Academy workshops on site, every apprentice working with a Claas dealer in Ireland and the UK will spend time learning at the academy, in three-week blocks.
With 85 apprenticeships qualified through the school so far, Claas said its target is 30 apprentices per year, and it has a retention rate so far of 90%.
A team of 11 staff at the Claas Academy provide over 4,000 hours of training each year, both on-site and remotely.
According to Trevor Tyrrell, for every machine fitted with an engine that Claas sells into the UK and Ireland, Claas has put at least 15 hours of training into its staff. Claas has 130 people employed on the site, including a large number of Irish staff.
The new 16.5m-high building incorporates a full height, glass fronted Technoparc machinery showroom and a host of offices.
More Irish faces to the fore
Claas UK has always had its fair share of Irish faces.
The business is headed up by Trevor Tyrrell, who’s from just outside Edenderry. In addition to his role as CEO for Claas UK, Tyrrell also has responsibility for France, Spain, Italy, Greece and neighbouring markets, along with the Oceania market.
Claas has 130 people employed on the site, including a large number of Irish staff.
Kildare man David Thornton has moved from the tractors and material handling side of the business to the role of digital solutions consultant responsible for Scotland and Ireland.
Co Down man Conor Trimble has moved from the role of a service trainer into the role of product manager for foragers, greenline and balers for all of Ireland and the UK.
And, finally, Cork man Patrick Frawle
According to Claas, for every machine fitted with an engine that Claas that sells into the UK and Ireland, Claas has put at least 15 hours of training into its staff.
y has been promoted to product manager for large tractors.
Claas in Ireland and the UK
Giving us a brief update on the Irish and UK market, Claas said it estimates it has 42% to 45% of the combine market and 50% of the forage harvester market.
Claas welcomes customers from all over the UK and Ireland to come to its Customer Experience Centre.
It noted that 75% of new combines sold into the two markets are now fitted with tracks, while it outlined that 70% to 80% of new combines sold here are now fitted with some form of automation.
It’s an even 50-50 split between Lexion and Trion machines.
Approximately 65% of combines are now hybrid models, while the other 35% are straw walker models. It also noted that every one in two new forage harvesters sold in the world is a Claas machine.
In terms of tractors, Claas said the trend is definitely towards continuously variable transmissions (CVT).
The site has a huge amount of machinery on display.
The manufacturer builds its own EQ stepless transmission at Claas Industrietechnik GmbH (CIT) based in Paderborn, Germany, which is 70km away from Claas HQ at Harsweinkel. It first introduced its own CVT in 2015, and last year turned out its 10,000th piece. Its own EQ 200 and the EQ 220 are used in its Arion 500 and Arion 600 Cmatic tractor series.
Claas also supply these CVTs to the Same Deutz-Fahr (SDF) group.
Meanwhile, Claas continues to uses ZF CVTs in the larger models. Claas said that it sees big growth opportunities in the Irish and UK tractor markets.
A team of 11 staff at the Claas Academy provide over 4,000 hours of training each year, both on-site and remotely.
Claas soon ready
to launch new
cloud-based platform
Claas is in the final testing stages in a new single, cloud-based platform. W
ith a public launch date set for October 2024, it said it’s aiming to bring machine management, service planning and licence management with yield mapping, application maps and documentation together all on a single platform.
An all-weather track means customers can test loaders, telehandlers and tractors at any time.
Being named as the new Claas Connect, the German manufacturer believes it sees the ‘Next Step in Farming’ to focus on greater connectivity and user-friendliness and a closer relationship between customer, dealer, manufacturer and partners based on more effective communication.
The platform is a management tool based on data. It says this opens a doorway for the move towards autonomy and remote machine monitoring.
Since last October, a five-year machine connect licence was fitted as standard on all Arion, Axion Xerion tractors, Jaguar forage harvesters and Trion and Lexion combines. This opens the gateway for machine telematics, remote service via the digital service manager and CEMIS online transfer of files such as field maps and fertiliser application maps.
In terms of tractors, Claas said the trend is definitely towards continuously variable transmissions (CVT).
After the five years, users will have to pay a yearly licensing fee to use the platform, with that fee yet to be announced. Claas says that telematics isn’t new, but this is the next step to evolving it. Anyone who is using the current Claas telematics system will be transferred over to the new system.
All on one platform
The platform is divided into two main elements. On one side, you have machine connect and on the other you have fleet connect. Machine connect features all machine related data, while Farm Connect encompasses all field data such as yield maps and prescription maps, etc.
Claas said its goal is to gradually combine all digital solutions in a single, cloud-based platform with an emphasis on ease of use.
Rather than treating machine and digital fleet management as separate entities, the new Claas Connect system considers them as a whole.
Starting from the beginning, it offers advice and a quotation for a new Claas machine. If the customer is already registered with Claas Connect, they can access the Claas configurator directly via their Claas ID, and configure their desired machine and request a quotation or demo. The local dealership then prepares the quotation or provides a demo machine.
If the customer makes a purchase, the machine data is uploaded to the customer’s Claas Connect portal on delivery. This gives the customer direct access to the digital operator’s manual for their machine.
The loader and telehandler testing area.
They can also find out which lubricants their machine needs, as this information is automatically provided as well.
With the five-year machine connect licence supplied with the machine, the relevant maintenance intervals are automatically entered in the portal, alerting farmers and contractors to upcoming maintenance work and enabling Claas dealerships to plan schedules and capacities in advance.
Through telematics, machine performance data can be prepared, analysed and documented in Claas Connect.
Two washdown bays are for readying demonstration machines to move from the UK to Ireland and vice versa.
With a fleet connect licence, third-party machines in mixed fleets can be connected to Claas Connect via the DataConnect interface.
Claas Connect can be set up to notify the users local Claas dealer of tractor alarms, and automatically create a job card for that machine.
This will enable data such as location, machine status or current fuel and AdBlue levels to be displayed there. Machine data can be transferred to partner companies via the point data interface. To run other brands through the system, users will need to place connected modules on those tractors.
Pricing on this is also yet to be confirmed.
Performance data and settings for all Claas machines stored on the platform can be viewed and compared with one another, enabling adjustments to be made to maximise the performance of the overall fleet. The system can be set up to notify the user’s local Claas dealer of tractor alarms, and automatically create a job card for that machine. Its remote telematics feature is aimed at minimising user downtime.
The oldest machine on site is a 1946 Super combine that was fitted with wheels from a World War II fighter plane.
Precision farming and documentation
The add-on licences for Farm connect with Field connect and Fleet connect provide farmers and contractors with numerous options for precision farming applications.
With Field connect, farmers can access functions needed to prepare potential and application maps from geodata, such as satellite images or soil analyses.
The new parts warehouse features over 47,000-line items or 850,000 individual items totalling 700 tonnes.
Field boundaries and other master data can be imported as Shape or ISO-XML files.
Yield maps from different machines and manufacturers can also be incorporated. In a similar way, if two combines are working in the one field, the platform will merge the yield map data.
Fleet connect automatically documents field-specific task data relating to yield, constituents or application rate, enabling the status and progress of pre-planned tasks to be tracked in real-time on the user’s phone, tablet or PC.
Claas UK does send some parts to Ireland, but due to red tape since Brexit, it said its quicker, easier and cheaper to send parts directly from its factories in Germany and France.
It is also possible to create reference lines and plan tracks based on field boundaries in Fleet connect. Users will have access to all current data, anytime, anywhere.
The Saxham site is also home to the Claas Academy, which provides training for dealer sales, service and parts staff and customer operator training.
Each customer/user owns their own data. Their local dealer has no visibility, unless the user allows the dealer to access the platform. They can also choose to see what the dealer sees. In terms of security, Claas says this platform has the same military grade security as all its online sites. It says it gets targeted with up to 35,000 hacks each week, so high-grade security is essential.
To support this system, Claas UK has developed a new digital division.
The manufacturer is currently running through the final testing stages, with a launch date planned for October.
Based at Saxham, in the southeast of England, the Claas UK and Irish headquarters and its local dealer, ‘MANNS of Saxham’ has been completely redeveloped in recent years.
Having recently completed a three-year project to overhaul the infrastructure at its UK and Irish headquarters, Claas invited us over to the UK to check out its new premises and give us an update on its new connected systems cloud-based platform.
Based at Saxham, in the southeast of England, the Claas UK and Irish headquarters and their local dealer, ‘MANNS of Saxham’ has been completely redeveloped in recent years.
Central to the €25m investment is an impressive 33,000m2 state-of-the-art building. The new 16.5m-high building incorporates a full height, glass-fronted Technoparc machinery showroom and a host of offices for accounts, IT, finance and parts. The site has a huge amount of machinery on display, ranging from a 1946 Super combine that was fitted with wheels from a World War II fighter plane to modern-day foragers, combines and tractors.
Power and heat for the premises are sourced from solar panels and a nearby AD plant. To the rear of the office building is a new 10-bay workshop for MANNS and a large 4,336m2 parts warehouse for Claas UK, that supports largely its dealers in the UK.
Central to the €25m investment is an impressive 33,000m2 state-of-the-art building.
The new parts warehouse replaces five individual buildings. It houses over 47,000 line items or 850,000 individual items, totalling 700 tonnes. Claas UK sends some parts to Ireland, but due to red tape since Brexit, Claas said it is quicker, easier and cheaper to send parts directly from its factories in Germany and France.
Its most popular selling items are bolts for the header section on its combines, of which it sold 55,000 pieces last year.
Since opening the new premises, Claas has added a new field training and demonstration area, known as its customer experience centre (CXC).
Located at the back of the grounds, it features an all-weather track for testing loaders, telehandlers and tractors. Since opening, Claas has welcomed 15 to 20 customers from all over the UK and Ireland to the centre weekly, over the last 20 weeks.
Claas has added a new field training and demonstration area, known as its Customer Experience Centre (CXC).
“Our CXC is our Lamma Show, it’s our Cereals event. We want customers to come to us. Our all-weather test area means customers can visit us all year round,” said Trevor Tyrrell, Claas senior vice-president for western Europe.
Claas Academy
The Saxham site is also home to the Claas Academy, which provides training for dealer sales, service and parts staff and customer operator training.
A team of 11 staff provide over 4,000 hours of training each year, both on-site and remotely. The academy is officially recognised as a training body, and the manufacturer runs its own in-house four-year apprenticeship training programme.
The course is 20% college-based and 80% workshop-based. Claas said that its programme has a lot of hands-on focus, especially around fabrication using lathes.
It said it wants its trainees to be able to fix and repair machines, not just replace every part.
With seven academy workshops on site, every apprentice working with a Claas dealer in Ireland and the UK will spend time learning at the academy, in three-week blocks.
With seven Academy workshops on site, every apprentice working with a Claas dealer in Ireland and the UK will spend time learning at the academy, in three-week blocks.
With 85 apprenticeships qualified through the school so far, Claas said its target is 30 apprentices per year, and it has a retention rate so far of 90%.
A team of 11 staff at the Claas Academy provide over 4,000 hours of training each year, both on-site and remotely.
According to Trevor Tyrrell, for every machine fitted with an engine that Claas sells into the UK and Ireland, Claas has put at least 15 hours of training into its staff. Claas has 130 people employed on the site, including a large number of Irish staff.
The new 16.5m-high building incorporates a full height, glass fronted Technoparc machinery showroom and a host of offices.
More Irish faces to the fore
Claas UK has always had its fair share of Irish faces.
The business is headed up by Trevor Tyrrell, who’s from just outside Edenderry. In addition to his role as CEO for Claas UK, Tyrrell also has responsibility for France, Spain, Italy, Greece and neighbouring markets, along with the Oceania market.
Claas has 130 people employed on the site, including a large number of Irish staff.
Kildare man David Thornton has moved from the tractors and material handling side of the business to the role of digital solutions consultant responsible for Scotland and Ireland.
Co Down man Conor Trimble has moved from the role of a service trainer into the role of product manager for foragers, greenline and balers for all of Ireland and the UK.
And, finally, Cork man Patrick Frawle
According to Claas, for every machine fitted with an engine that Claas that sells into the UK and Ireland, Claas has put at least 15 hours of training into its staff.
y has been promoted to product manager for large tractors.
Claas in Ireland and the UK
Giving us a brief update on the Irish and UK market, Claas said it estimates it has 42% to 45% of the combine market and 50% of the forage harvester market.
Claas welcomes customers from all over the UK and Ireland to come to its Customer Experience Centre.
It noted that 75% of new combines sold into the two markets are now fitted with tracks, while it outlined that 70% to 80% of new combines sold here are now fitted with some form of automation.
It’s an even 50-50 split between Lexion and Trion machines.
Approximately 65% of combines are now hybrid models, while the other 35% are straw walker models. It also noted that every one in two new forage harvesters sold in the world is a Claas machine.
In terms of tractors, Claas said the trend is definitely towards continuously variable transmissions (CVT).
The site has a huge amount of machinery on display.
The manufacturer builds its own EQ stepless transmission at Claas Industrietechnik GmbH (CIT) based in Paderborn, Germany, which is 70km away from Claas HQ at Harsweinkel. It first introduced its own CVT in 2015, and last year turned out its 10,000th piece. Its own EQ 200 and the EQ 220 are used in its Arion 500 and Arion 600 Cmatic tractor series.
Claas also supply these CVTs to the Same Deutz-Fahr (SDF) group.
Meanwhile, Claas continues to uses ZF CVTs in the larger models. Claas said that it sees big growth opportunities in the Irish and UK tractor markets.
A team of 11 staff at the Claas Academy provide over 4,000 hours of training each year, both on-site and remotely.
Claas soon ready
to launch new
cloud-based platform
Claas is in the final testing stages in a new single, cloud-based platform. W
ith a public launch date set for October 2024, it said it’s aiming to bring machine management, service planning and licence management with yield mapping, application maps and documentation together all on a single platform.
An all-weather track means customers can test loaders, telehandlers and tractors at any time.
Being named as the new Claas Connect, the German manufacturer believes it sees the ‘Next Step in Farming’ to focus on greater connectivity and user-friendliness and a closer relationship between customer, dealer, manufacturer and partners based on more effective communication.
The platform is a management tool based on data. It says this opens a doorway for the move towards autonomy and remote machine monitoring.
Since last October, a five-year machine connect licence was fitted as standard on all Arion, Axion Xerion tractors, Jaguar forage harvesters and Trion and Lexion combines. This opens the gateway for machine telematics, remote service via the digital service manager and CEMIS online transfer of files such as field maps and fertiliser application maps.
In terms of tractors, Claas said the trend is definitely towards continuously variable transmissions (CVT).
After the five years, users will have to pay a yearly licensing fee to use the platform, with that fee yet to be announced. Claas says that telematics isn’t new, but this is the next step to evolving it. Anyone who is using the current Claas telematics system will be transferred over to the new system.
All on one platform
The platform is divided into two main elements. On one side, you have machine connect and on the other you have fleet connect. Machine connect features all machine related data, while Farm Connect encompasses all field data such as yield maps and prescription maps, etc.
Claas said its goal is to gradually combine all digital solutions in a single, cloud-based platform with an emphasis on ease of use.
Rather than treating machine and digital fleet management as separate entities, the new Claas Connect system considers them as a whole.
Starting from the beginning, it offers advice and a quotation for a new Claas machine. If the customer is already registered with Claas Connect, they can access the Claas configurator directly via their Claas ID, and configure their desired machine and request a quotation or demo. The local dealership then prepares the quotation or provides a demo machine.
If the customer makes a purchase, the machine data is uploaded to the customer’s Claas Connect portal on delivery. This gives the customer direct access to the digital operator’s manual for their machine.
The loader and telehandler testing area.
They can also find out which lubricants their machine needs, as this information is automatically provided as well.
With the five-year machine connect licence supplied with the machine, the relevant maintenance intervals are automatically entered in the portal, alerting farmers and contractors to upcoming maintenance work and enabling Claas dealerships to plan schedules and capacities in advance.
Through telematics, machine performance data can be prepared, analysed and documented in Claas Connect.
Two washdown bays are for readying demonstration machines to move from the UK to Ireland and vice versa.
With a fleet connect licence, third-party machines in mixed fleets can be connected to Claas Connect via the DataConnect interface.
Claas Connect can be set up to notify the users local Claas dealer of tractor alarms, and automatically create a job card for that machine.
This will enable data such as location, machine status or current fuel and AdBlue levels to be displayed there. Machine data can be transferred to partner companies via the point data interface. To run other brands through the system, users will need to place connected modules on those tractors.
Pricing on this is also yet to be confirmed.
Performance data and settings for all Claas machines stored on the platform can be viewed and compared with one another, enabling adjustments to be made to maximise the performance of the overall fleet. The system can be set up to notify the user’s local Claas dealer of tractor alarms, and automatically create a job card for that machine. Its remote telematics feature is aimed at minimising user downtime.
The oldest machine on site is a 1946 Super combine that was fitted with wheels from a World War II fighter plane.
Precision farming and documentation
The add-on licences for Farm connect with Field connect and Fleet connect provide farmers and contractors with numerous options for precision farming applications.
With Field connect, farmers can access functions needed to prepare potential and application maps from geodata, such as satellite images or soil analyses.
The new parts warehouse features over 47,000-line items or 850,000 individual items totalling 700 tonnes.
Field boundaries and other master data can be imported as Shape or ISO-XML files.
Yield maps from different machines and manufacturers can also be incorporated. In a similar way, if two combines are working in the one field, the platform will merge the yield map data.
Fleet connect automatically documents field-specific task data relating to yield, constituents or application rate, enabling the status and progress of pre-planned tasks to be tracked in real-time on the user’s phone, tablet or PC.
Claas UK does send some parts to Ireland, but due to red tape since Brexit, it said its quicker, easier and cheaper to send parts directly from its factories in Germany and France.
It is also possible to create reference lines and plan tracks based on field boundaries in Fleet connect. Users will have access to all current data, anytime, anywhere.
The Saxham site is also home to the Claas Academy, which provides training for dealer sales, service and parts staff and customer operator training.
Each customer/user owns their own data. Their local dealer has no visibility, unless the user allows the dealer to access the platform. They can also choose to see what the dealer sees. In terms of security, Claas says this platform has the same military grade security as all its online sites. It says it gets targeted with up to 35,000 hacks each week, so high-grade security is essential.
To support this system, Claas UK has developed a new digital division.
The manufacturer is currently running through the final testing stages, with a launch date planned for October.
Based at Saxham, in the southeast of England, the Claas UK and Irish headquarters and its local dealer, ‘MANNS of Saxham’ has been completely redeveloped in recent years.
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