Juanita Pienaar spoke with FX Laubscher, Head of Industrial Aftermarket for the Turkey, India, MEA, and CIS regions at ZF Aftermarket, to discuss the company’s newly launched repair kits for WG 200 and BASICPOWER transmissions - and how this development supports a growing base of Asian-built equipment operating across Africa and other emerging markets.
A market shift demands a new support model
To understand why ZF Aftermarket has introduced repair kits specifically for Asian Off-Highway transmissions, one must look back nearly three decades. “In 1995, ZF entered the Chinese market,” explains Laubscher. “We saw early on that the development of construction machines being built in China was an interesting market - one not to exclude.”
Since then, Chinese OEMs have expanded aggressively, growing beyond their domestic market to become major players internationally. Their value proposition -particularly affordability - has made Chinese-built loaders, graders, and other equipment increasingly common across Africa, India, South America, and several CIS states. Crucially, a significant portion of these machines operate using ZF driveline systems.
“In Africa especially, the market share of Chinese Off-Highway machines is growing continuously,” says Laubscher. “To remain at the forefront of aftermarket support, our service solutions must evolve in parallel.”
This evolution is precisely what led to the new WG 200 and BASICPOWER repair kits: a simplified, structured means of supporting a growing population of Asian-built machines reliant on ZF transmissions.
Solving complexity with just 23 kits
One of the biggest challenges in any transmission repair is the sheer number of components involved. A single transmission may require up to 850 individual parts, and making the right selections, especially under time pressure, can easily lead to mistakes, delays, or missing components.
“When a transmission is due for repair, the technician strips it and evaluates what can be reused or must be replaced,” says Laubscher. “With years of experience in our own ZF workshops, we sat down with technicians to understand their challenges. By grouping commonly replaced parts in logical combinations, we developed 23 kits that solve the most common repair or remanufacturing tasks.”
The result is a radically streamlined repair process. Instead of ordering dozens of separate items, technicians can now order four or five kits to complete a task that once required stockpiling scores of individual part numbers.
Laubscher explains: “For example, where a technician previously needed to order 33 separate components for a BASICPOWER seal replacement, they now order a single part number. That dramatically reduces the potential for error.”
A major advantage for distributors and workshops
Stockholding is another area where complexity has historically been an obstacle. Distributors supporting Chinese OEM fleets often need to maintain a vast range of components, many of which may be used irregularly.
“The main advantage lies in reduced complexity in stockholding,” says Laubscher. “A distributor can evaluate local fleets and stock a limited number of kit part numbers instead of hundreds of individual components. This increases availability to customers and ensures that the right parts are always on the shelf.”
This simplification extends to workshops as well. The risk of a repair stalling because a single seal, snap ring, or friction disc is unavailable drops significantly when components are bundled logically.
Notably, ZF also designed the kits to ensure that nearly every component is used during each repair - minimising waste. “About 95% of the parts in a kit are always used,” Laubscher explains. “The only exception is snap rings, where various thicknesses are supplied so the technician can select the correct one. The unused rings go back onto the workshop’s snap-ring board for future jobs.”
Better repairs through holistic replacement
The kits also incorporate the components that many workshops might otherwise overlook, particularly during clutch repairs. As Laubscher notes, “In every powershift transmission, gear engagement happens through clutch packs. These wear over time. So, we included friction discs, steel discs, sealing rings - everything surrounding the clutch pack that ensures smooth actuation.”
ZF has also developed dedicated electrical kits addressing transmission failures linked to wiring harnesses, sensors, and solenoids. “Instead of trying to identify whether it's one sensor or another, you renew everything,” says Laubscher. “You restore the electrical integrity of the transmission in one go.”
Importantly, the kits do not alter transmission performance, they simply restore it to factory standard. “The parts in the kits are no different from those supplied when the transmission is new,” he emphasises.
Quality without compromise
ZF operates 161 production locations in 30 countries, all governed by the same rigorous internal quality standards.
“Our international quality system is robust and rolled out consistently across all production areas. We deliver on a global quality promise,” Laubscher stresses.
Supporting ZF’s mission of maximising uptime
Across ZF Aftermarket’s global strategy, one objective stands out: Maximising Mobility Uptime. “The thread of Uptime ability runs through everything we do,” says Laubscher. “The repair kits simplify decision-making for technicians, simplify stockholding for distributors, and allow workshops to keep kits on their shelves. All of this reduces delay time when a machine goes down.”
By making parts availability more predictable, ZF empowers workshops to invest in stock more confidently, ensuring faster turnarounds and fewer interruptions for machine owners.
Laubscher emphasises that this development is part of a broader journey: “There’s continuous improvement in our products, and there’s continuous improvement in the aftermarket. This is the next step, an enhancement, to increase Uptime.”
Predictable pricing and real cost advantages
One of the strongest benefits of the kits is cost reduction. While exact savings vary between kits, the underlying mechanism is clear.
“By grouping parts together, we achieve higher production volumes,” Laubscher explains. “That creates a production cost advantage, and we pass that cost advantage directly to the distributor and the end consumer.”
Customers also benefit from predictable pricing, since each kit is marketed with a set price for a fixed period - an advantage over individual part ordering, which requires quotations for dozens of components.
With a typical repair involving 75–100 individual components, the administrative savings alone are significant.
Designed for preventative and breakdown maintenance
The kits support both preventative maintenance - typically around the halfway point of a transmission’s lifespan - and unexpected breakdowns.
“A professional operator will evaluate his equipment based on application, utilization, and the dependence of the machine in the operation. From these factors, a machine is scheduled for preventative maintenance repairs where wear items can be replaced during planned down-time,” says Laubscher. “These kits are ideal for that.”
A growing portfolio with more to come
Though the initial focus is the Asian transmission range, ZF is already planning an expansion.
“In 2026, we’ll roll this out to other transmission variants,” Laubscher confirms. “We are comparing different part lists and identifying commonality, so we can combine applications into one kit. There are two major projects running, but we aren’t sharing the details just yet.”
The kits will continue to launch across India, the Middle East, Africa, and Turkey, with future expansion planned for South America, where large populations of Chinese-built machines are also in operation.
Strengthening support where it’s needed most
As emerging markets continue to adopt Chinese-manufactured Off-Highway equipment, the need for reliable, simplified, and high-quality aftermarket support grows rapidly. ZF’s repair kits represent not only an engineering solution, but a strategic one, one designed to keep fleets productive, technicians confident, and distributors well-equipped.
By reducing complexity and improving availability, ZF Aftermarket is delivering precisely what operators in Africa and similar markets need most: dependable uptime.
