When bottled up, institutional expertise loses its purpose and fails to make a lasting impact. How can manufacturers ensure that essential information seamlessly flows across an organization? Experienced technicians hold a wealth of invaluable knowledge, but this expertise is often at risk of being lost when they retire. Manufacturers today must embed expert knowledge into… Read more »
Going green isn’t an alternative concept for field operations today — sustainability goals are integral for manufacturers to stay ahead of the competition. Manufacturers face growing pressure from regulators, investors, and customers to reduce carbon emissions, improve energy efficiency, and adopt more sustainable practices. Manufacturing companies increasingly must comply with ever-evolving environmental sustainability goals. Environmentally… Read more »
A first-time fix rate (FTFR) is a key performance indicator that reflects how often a service technician successfully fixes an issue the first time. This percentage is critical to a company’s success and significantly impacts efficiency and customer satisfaction. FTFR Ensures Efficiency Tracking FTFR provides visibility into operational effectiveness and helps identify areas for improvement…. Read more »
A significant skills gap in the manufacturing industry has worsened due to triple factors: the 2020 pandemic, the rapid pace of technological innovation, and an aging, retiring workforce. Fewer new workers are entering the field with the necessary expertise to replace experienced technicians. Manufacturers today must find ways to bridge the skills gap. Below, we… Read more »
Today’s field service factories are smarter and sharper, moving from reactive to predictive models and shifting their focus from selling products to selling services. Customers also expect more from organizations. Modern field service creates lasting customer value as organizations implement strategies that foster long-term resilience and revenue growth. Key technologies allow manufacturers to optimize workflows,… Read more »
As the field service industry continues to grow and adapt to predictive maintenance, so do the challenges manufacturing companies face. Acknowledging these challenges thus becomes key to tomorrow’s long-term success. Below, we examine four key challenges and their solutions for manufacturers: Increased Regulatory Requirements Manufacturing companies must keep up with increasingly strict regulatory requirements in… Read more »
Today’s field service manufacturing has shifted from selling products to cohesive, service-oriented, high-value experiences. With advancements in equipment, field services have become a central component of driving revenue, boosting customer satisfaction, and increasing operational resilience. Through this digital transformation, customers expect services like predictive maintenance to prevent downtime. Customers no longer accept reactive service and… Read more »
The status of coordination between factory operations and field service teams can make or break an industrial manufacturing project. Disjointed coordination challenges include data silos and a lack of real-time visibility, communication lapses, scheduling discrepancies, and quality inconsistencies. These challenges can segue into delayed responses and project execution, inefficient resource allocation, and bottlenecks — all… Read more »
Industrial manufacturing service analytics is reaching new horizons through digital and predictive insights that seamlessly streamline a company’s processes. Traditionally, analytics were slow and tedious, relying on manual processes and reactive strategies. These included manual data collection and entry and reactive maintenance. Workers addressed issues after the fact without the ability to stay on top… Read more »
While intuition is a muscle you strengthen over time and through circumstance, its varying nature can be costly in industrial manufacturing services. Traditionally, industrial manufacturing personnel relied on intuition. They fine-tuned their intuition through professional experience and used it to guide maintenance, resource allocation, and operational strategies. However, when not backed by data, this could… Read more »
From dealing with inconsistent data collection and a lack of standardized metrics to data silos and delayed reporting, effectively measuring performance in industrial manufacturing can prove difficult. These challenges negatively impact service quality by causing unplanned downtime, inefficient resource allocation, inconsistent quality, and customer dissatisfaction. Data-driven decision-making is the antidote to industrial manufacturing companies working… Read more »
When industrial manufacturers practice reactive maintenance, they relinquish control over properly addressing equipment issues. This has costly consequences, including unplanned downtime, high repair expenses, reduced equipment lifespan, and safety and compliance risks. On the other hand, predictive maintenance, powered by real-time data and analytics, counters reactive maintenance issues. Predictive maintenance allows manufacturers to reduce downtime,… Read more »