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11/05/2017

3 Trends that are Revolutionising Equipment Maintenance

With the equipment industry becoming increasingly more competitive, manufacturers need to be ahead of the game to have the edge on their competitors. Advances in technology are making this possible, and three trends in particular are making waves in the industry by empowering equipment manufacturers and service providers to greatly improve their efficiency.

1. Remote Support Tools

Every business wants growth, but with a larger installed base possibly spanning multiple countries, it becomes challenging to provide the level of service your customers deserve. Sending engineers to site for every fault is no longer a viable option since this often requires extensive travel which is lost time for the engineer, and results in downtime and loss of revenue for the customer. What’s worse, the downtime is often unnecessary since many of the faults turn out to be simple fixes. With remote support tools becoming available, these unnecessary losses of time and revenue are no longer a reality that equipment manufacturers have to face. These tools allow an experienced technician or engineer to communicate with a technician at the equipment site. Basic fault finding procedures can then be explained to the on-site technician and in many cases the solution can even be implemented through step-by- step instructions, all in the time that an engineer would have spent just travelling to the airport. Even if the fault still requires the engineer to go to site, they can do so with a much more detailed understanding of the problem and with the correct spare parts in hand, still greatly reducing the Mean Time To Repair (MTTR). The use of remote support tools can therefore greatly increase customer satisfaction by reducing downtime. At the same time, the capacity of equipment service providers can be increased and the job satisfaction of experienced equipment technicians is improved as they no longer spend the majority of their time travelling to site.

2. Remote Environment Monitoring

As an equipment manufacturer’s global footprint grows, so does the variation in environmental conditions in which the equipment is expected to function in. Fluctuations in temperature, humidity and power supply can all be detrimental to the equipment, and knowledge of these fluctuations is critical to deciding which markets are worthwhile to break into it and what preventative measures are necessary to make this possible. With advances in mini computers such as the Raspberry Pi, as well as in sensor technology, monitoring conditions is now as easy as pie (excuse the pun). At a very low cost, equipment manufacturers can now gain full visibility of the environment their equipment is sitting in and also gain insight into possible reasons for a breakdown, such as power surges, in order to take corrective and preventative action.

3. Virtual Reality

Virtual reality gained most of its fame in the gaming world, but leaders in the equipment industry are rapidly realising that the fun doesn’t end there. When dealing with large equipment, virtual reality offers a huge benefit for both marketing and training.

Marketing

It is often impractical or even impossible to transport large equipment to trade shows or client demonstrations, but with virtual reality this potential speed bump on the road to sales can be averted. The equipment can be demonstrated to customers in full scale in an immersive environment, which not only shows off the equipment in an elegant way, but also creates a lasting impression and a talking point that will give your company the edge on competitors.

Training

The days where all training was done through listening to lectures or studying written manuals are long gone. Research has shown that knowledge is transferred much more effectively when students are able to interact with the material rather than just seeing it, and virtual reality provides the perfect platform for this interaction. When faced with a problem in the field, technicians and engineers are far more likely to remember how they solved the same fault in virtual reality and repeat that procedure. The virtual world also removes the safety risks inherent in dealing with equipment, meaning that technicians and engineers in training can make mistakes without any implications.

By harnessing these trends in technology, equipment manufacturers and service providers can greatly improve the efficiency of their processes, resulting in both happier customers and employees.

At Looksee.do, we are passionate about changing the way equipment maintenance is done, and have gained expertise in these trends in order to do that. In the next three blog posts, we will be discussing each of these trends in more detail and showing the impact they can have, and already are having, on the industry.

To find out what we can do in the fields of remote support, remote monitoring and virtual reality, visit our website or contact us.

Article by Leandra Webb-Ray of Looksee.do

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