A recent awareness initiative has helped to educate SKF authorized distributors in the United States about the ongoing problem of counterfeiting. The campaign reached out to over 200 individuals through an inventive series of events and has been very well received. It is set to expand even further in 2014.
Recent figures confirm a rise in the counterfeiting trend in the United States. Fake bearings are now arriving “in brown boxes at your front door”, in the words of the SKF Project Manager, not just via ‘conventional’ ocean routes as traditionally seen. Since January 2013, there have been 68 seizures in the US by authorities at various locations.
The seeds of the SKF awareness project were sown in the middle of last year, when SKF in the US began thinking about original ways in which to reach out to their distribution network with the anti-counterfeit information.
An SKF Project Manager was made responsible for the campaign entitled ‘Understanding the risks of counterfeit’. She states; “We felt that the information we’ve previously communicated at the distributor corporate level was not trickling down to their inside and outside sales teams. These are the people procuring bearings and talking to customers every day. They need to know about the risks of counterfeit and how this problem can be tackled”.
Focused activities to educate and advise
What took place in December 2013 is what the SKF Project Manager refers to as a ‘two-week blitz’ of activity. Online sessions formed part of the information-spreading strategy. Each session included a 30 minute presentation followed by a question-and-answer session. Furthermore, authorized SKF distributors across the United States were offered the opportunity to complete the anti-counterfeit awareness course in the online training tool “SKF Distributor College”. Those distributors who completed the 30 minute training course then took a certification test. Since the first session, over 187 people have successfully completed the course.
The presentations offered distributors an overview of the global counterfeiting problem, and presenters shared individual industrial cases where counterfeit bearings negatively affected customers. Photos were shown of shops in Asia where some counterfeit bearings have originated and information was shared about the terrible conditions found in these shops, further emphasizing the importance of buying products from the SKF authorized distribution channels.
According to the SKF Project Manager, the whole exercise has been extremely worthwhile. “We are very pleased with the outcome. Over 200 people took part in the online sessions. The number of questions asked was overwhelming, which tells me the distributors are very interested to learn about this topic. Follow up is also very important. After the sessions, an email was sent out to participants with a video of the session for their review and to share with others. Also included in the email was a question-and-answer sheet and information on who to contact if counterfeit is suspected. SKF’s counterfeit awareness brochures were then sent to our sales teams to share with their distributors. It was important for us to include our SKF sales and customer service teams in the campaign since they are also a good vehicle to spread the word about counterfeit. At the same time that we rolled out the awareness campaign to our authorized distributors, we also held several sessions for our internal teams”.
Knowledge vital in reversing the trend
Initial feedback from those who participated in the activities has been very positive and the plan is to extend the awareness campaign even further in 2014, to focus on industrial end users and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).
It is important that no one is put at risk from using counterfeit bearings. If someone suspects a case of counterfeiting, they are advised to send an email to genuine@skf.com with photos and other information that could be valuable to the investigative process.
