Monetize your IoT investments with Connected Field Service
“Customer experience will overtake price and product as the key brand differentiator by the year 2020,” according to consulting firm Walker. From bolts and ball bearings to machine tools and high-tech consumer goods, manufacturing margins are being squeezed by commoditization. Where once products were easily distinguished from one another, now they’re viewed as simple commodities. As commoditization takes hold, differentiation no longer rests on price and product features.
At the same time, customer expectations are changing, with customers increasingly expecting responsive manufacturers and exceptional service. To overcome the challenges presented by commoditization and deliver on today’s shifting customer demands, manufacturers must create new customer-centric business strategies.
Fortunately, the convergence of physical and digital systems enables new business models, such as product-as-a-service, that offer new avenues for differentiation and customer satisfaction. Analysts highlight investments in servitization as a key strategy to differentiate and increase market share.
As the manufacturing marketplace continues to evolve, customers expect faster response times and improved asset availability. To meet these demands, manufacturers must transform field service to increase efficiency and ensure a first-time fix. Today’s average first-time fix rate is just 74%, meaning over 25% of service calls require return visits, which can cost upwards of $1,100 per truck roll. Return visits also mean dissatisfied customers, broken SLAs, frustrated technicians, and wasted time and resources.
Another area of inefficiency is routine scheduled maintenance, an outdated field service strategy. If a manufacturer sends a technician to a customer site every month to check equipment but issues are only found every other month, they are creating unnecessary costs that detract from the bottom line.
Manufacturers are increasingly viewing field service as a profit center, but when inefficiency is the norm, it remains a cost center.
Consider this field service scenario transformed by cutting-edge technology: at a remote mining rig, the temperature of the drill’s top drive is rising rapidly. Using IoT sensors paired with machine learning, the rig operator is automatically notified of the temperature change before damage occurs.
The operator calls a service representative, who asks him to run a diagnostic test. Based on the results, the representative predicts the rig can operate safely for another week without servicing if it’s operated at 80% speed.
By extending the life of the top drive, the rig avoids unplanned downtime and repairs can be scheduled at a minimally disruptive time.
