DLL (formerly De Lage Landen) received the Product and Service Innovation of the Year Award from Leasing Life, one of the top leasing industry journals in Europe. This award recognizes the company’s pioneering Life Cycle Asset Management (LCAM) program and other proactive efforts to support a ‘usage-based’ future. It is a direct result of the company’s ongoing drive to understand the heart and soul of their partners’ businesses and find original solutions that will sustain success for all stakeholders for generations. DLL delivers original, integrated financial solutions that support the full asset life cycle from leasing, vendor and commercial finance to end of lease and remarketing.

The Award was presented to Dirk Hoffmann and Frits Engelaer representing Schmitz Cargobull AG and DLL on November 27 at the Leasing Life Conference & Awards 2014 Dinner, held at the InterContinental Hotel in Warsaw, Poland.

Engelaer, Sustainable Business Developer at DLL says: “In a resource-constrained world the linear economy of 'take, make and dispose' is unsustainable. We need to reshape business models to a more circular economic model, where goods and materials are reused and recycled continuously. This requires a global shift from ownership to usage, thereby enabling professional refurbishment and remanufacturing by manufacturers. Governments and manufacturers have begun to realize this and are changing their mindset. DLL facilitates its partners in this by financial solutions as Lifecycle Asset Management (LCAM), in which manufacturers can extend the life of their products through reuse, remanufacturing and recycling and move their customers from asset owning to paying for a service.”

The Product and Service Innovation of the Year Award recognizes the truly innovative steps taken by DLL to address the changing needs of their customers by offering a pioneering Life Cycle Asset Management program, and by proactively engaging manufacturing partners in projects and pilots to support and create a usage-based future.

The DLL LCAM program covers the economic management of assets throughout their entire technical life. This is accomplished by providing tailored financial services (e.g. operational lease, swapping of assets, extended usage, redeployment, 2nd life finance). LCAM makes proactive use of the repair, maintenance and refurbishment skills of manufacturing partners. When executed properly LCAM enables manufacturers, dealers, end users and DLL to extract more value out of the quality of the assets.

In 2014 DLL carried out a number of LCAM pilots to further develop its skill set and product offering across different countries and manufacturers. An excellent example of what can be achieved is the project carried out for the transportation industry with Schmitz Cargobull AG the leading trailer producer in Europe. In this conservative industry, margins are under pressure and there is a continuous need to produce more efficiently and at lower costs.

Ulrich Schuemer, CEO of Schmitz Cargobull AG says: “DLL and Schmitz Cargobull AG developed a Life Cycle Trailer Management program that offered a full operational leasing solution for refurbished trailers and recycling solutions for end of life trailers. These new offerings met the growing need for more flexible, usage-based solutions, rather than ownership based solutions for end users in this market. As the first refurbished product offering in this segment, this program helped Schmitz Cargobull AG increase their strategic value to their end customers. Offering end of life treatment increases the quality and reduces the average age of trailers, while lowering cost of usage for end customers”.