SCHAUMBURG, Ill. Motor Coach Industries has announced a "guarantee" program designed to get critical parts into customer hands sooner and more reliably.

The coachbuilder said its Coach Critical parts guarantee is a first for the industry and represents an investment of $7 million.

"The Coach Critical program guarantees that parts deemed most essential to coach uptime will be in stock and available to customers experiencing a coach-down situation," said MCI in announcing the program.

"MCI guarantees that it will ship the Coach Critical part, or a suitable substitute, by the next business day or it will credit 50 percent of the part price, up to $150, to the customers account."

MCIs Coach Critical list starts with 1,000 parts and will grow to 1,500 by June, the company said.

The list, compiled with input from operators of MCI coaches and its in-house technical staff, includes both high- and low-volume parts, including "those that are sometimes hard to come by but are nevertheless critical to coach operation."

MCI said it invested $7 million to stock its Coach Critical parts.

"Were putting a guarantee on not only fast-moving items, but on vital items, such as glass, and slower-moving parts like radiators, drivers blinds and electrical modules," said Stan Dzierzega, MCI executive director of operations aftermarket business.

"Our customer service representatives have been trained to leave no stone unturned when it comes to finding and expediting items on our Coach Critical parts list. Its about confidence. We have inventory and processes in place to get our customers coaches up and running."

Additionally, MCI has formed a "Coach Down Committee," comprised of parts engineers and technical specialists that meet by phone each morning to review any open coach-down customer situations.

"Due to the collective experience of our group, were able to come up with creative solutions to get a customers coach out of the garage and back on the road," said Dzierzega.

"We present the customer with available options; that way the customer helps to determine what will work best under the circumstances."

The Coach Critical parts list can be obtained through an MCI customer service representative. The program is available to private-sector operators who order over the phone and agree to pay for expedited shipping for their emergency order; web orders do not qualify.

Additional terms and conditions apply. For more information, go to www.mcicoach.com/parts, or call (800) 323-1290 in the U.S., or (800) 665-0155 in Canada.