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Benefit from the triangle of service The relationship between client and repairer can be a fragile existence. Years of good service can be quickly undone by one technical issue or poor communication. Steve Ashman of EMiR Software, a leading developer of business systems for the electro-mechanical market, explains how the triangle of service helps to support positive client repairer relationships and deliver benefits to both parties.
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he triangle of service consists of three key elements used by repair companies to control the repair process and maintain the client relationship. With an efficient and effective approach to all three both repair businesses and their clients can benefit. ASSET MANAGEMENT Repair companies must have clear oversight of all the assets they support for their customers, something that can be a challenge, particularly as asset registers evolve. The uptime and reliability of assets is the customers focus. In a traditional relationship, the way a service centre reacts to the demand of downtime, the commitment that they show and speed of response are all factors at the heart of great service. To achieve critical mass and suitable profitability, assets will need to be maintained in abundance. As repair centres grow, so does the administrative burden. Multiple assets across multiple sites and multiple customers means that a robust database is a minimum requirement. As industry moves towards innovative systems, designed to predict equipment inefficiency and failure, stored historical data will also have even more relevance. But what happens if you don’t record asset information in a timely fashion? The slow movement of information around a business can have surprising effects on business efficiency. It is reported that the production of inaccurate invoices, due to missing or incorrect information, is the root cause of disputed and late payments.
Quarter 4 2021
In addition, simply holding data is not enough, that data needs to be available to customers. As digitalisation and Industry 4.0 gather momentum, the way repair businesses interact with their customers is changing. Analytical forecasting is playing an increasing role in the value repair businesses can deliver to their clients. However, moving away from reactive repair to a more proactive assessment of possible failure, will only be achievable if historical data and real-time sensor-based data is made available. Therefore, holding and making available accurate and timely information about a client’s assets gives the repair business the ability to build on existing services and improve the service relationship. SCHEDULING It is not uncommon for an operations team to develop its own solutions to managing and executing the daily workload. The use of the whiteboard is just one solution that is in use in many service centres for making the list of work visible to the operations team. But it does not always follow that the job schedule is visible to everyone that needs it. Handling contracts and scheduling visits are core activities in a service relationship. If everyone – internal admin, engineers, managers, and
customers – can see the status of every repair job, this can bring benefits to both sides of the client repairer relationship. Decisions that can be made instantly from up-to-the-minute information save time and improve service. A repair business’s customers and stakeholders welcome a live view of the planning schedule, as it helps to eliminate uncertainty. Situations change endlessly. In repair projects this can range from the nature of a fault to the delivery of spare parts and the availability of engineers; the whole cycle is in perpetual motion. The way a business reacts, adopts a change, and importantly communicates with the relevant stakeholders, is important. Although many changes are caused by legitimate reasons, late communication of the facts and expected outcomes can bring about a poor perception of service levels. Because of all these factors, a scheduling solution should be
The uptime and reliability of assets is the customers focus.
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