German luxury car maker Mercedes-Benz has inaugurated a new parts warehouse and vehicle preparation centre in Pune. The company has also opened the Mercedes-Benz Academy, which is the largest integrated Retail Training Centre in South Asia and is located at the car makers premises in Chakan.
The Parts Warehouse is spread over 16,500 sq. metres and can accommodate up to 44,000 Stock Keeping Units. It is equipped with LED lights for energy saving with motion sensors . There is Wi-Fi across the entire warehouse premises. There is a Multi-tier shelving system (G + 2 Levels) with in rack sprinklers in shelving system at every 3 metres. Over 50 locations are catered to from this warehouse. There is Spare Parts Automation (SPAN) update to showcase operational efficiency SPAN 1.0 Wholesale – Spare Parts Automation @ Wholesale. The warehouse is equipped with specialized safety features like VESDA (Very early smoke detection alerts), in-rack sprinklers, Air Handling Unit (AHU), etc. 
The Vehicle Preparation Centre 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 Customized 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 takeover from production, periodic maintenance and SVC (Standard Vehicle Check) before dispatching the vehicles to the dealers. Some features include:
- 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 authorized 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
- 9 productive bays comprising 5 scissor lifts and 4 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, specialized car upholstery, specialized paints, other fitments etc.
The Mercedes-Benz Academy is the largest retail training academy in South Asia. Some key highlights of this academy are:
- Trainings for 225 participants per day at any given time
- Combi-bays: 4 Large bays that can accommodate 2 vehicles per bay, 2 small bays
that can accommodate 1 vehicle per bay - It hosts classrooms, aggregate room and an eLab
