The October issue of RER focuses on the use of software to improve efficiency in the service department of a rental company. In the fourth of a series on the topic, RER speaks with Alex Schuessler, CEO of SmartEquip, Norwalk, Conn.:
RER: How does your software facilitate shop management? Please share some concrete examples.
Schuessler: Our system facilitates shop management in a number of ways:
· Parts and Service: Streamlines support of the service technician, in the service bay and in the field, by providing always-current equipment documentation, parts IDs, troubleshooting guides, dynamically customized in real time to the serial-number specifications of the equipment. Also allows parts inventory optimization and sourcing across multiple rental store locations, dealers, and the OEMs all from within a single set of screens. This results in increased time of service technicians holding wrenches, decreased equipment downtime, and decreased parts inventory costs.
· Safety: Allows for the full automation of OEM-original safety alerts which “find” the affected equipment in rental fleets, notify the safety officer of the affected asset numbers or serial numbers, automatically generate work orders and warranty orders for replacement parts in the rental management systems. This results in decreased liability exposure and improved safety.
· Preventive Maintenance: Automatic scheduling of PM to OEM specifications, including predictive auto-sourcing of replacement parts, auto-generating of work orders in the rental management system, etc. This results in decreased equipment downtime, improved equipment life, decreased service cost, decreased parts inventory cost, and service personnel time savings.
· Warranty: Automated warranty submission with OEM as well as warranty status tracking of fleet. This results in improved warranty tracking, decreased administrative costs relating to warranty tracking and submission, decreased cost of fleet ownership.
· Training: Automated training of service technicians — textual and video — with associated electronic knowledge tests. This results in decreased liability exposure and improved safety, as well as improved efficiency of service department.
Can the software notify the rental company in some way when a machine is due for maintenance?
Yes. Our preventive maintenance module provides OEM-specific PM guidelines into the operating flow of the service department. Through real-time integration with the rental company’s rental management system, as well as (optionally) with the telematics data feed from the equipment, current equipment status (operating hours, operating conditions, service history, and — for more advanced telematics units — equipment operating data such as oil temperature and pressure) is compared in real-time to OEM specifications, thus scheduling maintenance as required. Integration into the rental management system will additionally fill work orders and parts requisitions as required.
Does the SmartEquip system software play a role in training of service technicians?
Yes. Our training module provides the ability to provide text- and video-based just-in-time training to technicians, dynamically customized to the rental fleet, with audited knowledge testing capabilities.
What role does your software play in the organization of warranty information — keeping track of warranties and tracking warranty claims?
Our warranty module interfaces with the rental management system of the rental company and with the warranty management systems of the OEM, providing the ability to electronically submit warranty claims. In addition, our warranty module tracks the warranty status of equipment and automates a warranty claim in the event that a particular repair should qualify. We also intend to include OEM-original flat-rate labor codes, saving service managers tremendous time in establishing labor charges that are covered.
How does SmartEquip facilitate keeping track of service history on an individual machine?
Our software is fully integrated with the work order systems of rental management systems. This allows us to read the service history of each asset, as well as ensure that each service and maintenance act is entered into work orders — thus improving the quality of this history.
Does your software facilitate parts organization?
Yes. SE Parts and Service allow for parts inventory organization, the ability to transfer parts among rental branches, allow users simultaneously to see their own parts inventory and that of the OEM, automate all parts supersedence information (a major cause of involuntary inventory accumulation and disposal), match up parts pricing information, ensure serial-number matching of equipment to parts configuration preventing parts misorders, which are in some cases as high as 20 percent.
Please explain the diagnostics capability of SmartEquip's system.
Two types of diagnostics are available:
· Our system contains always current (i.e. self-updating) troubleshooting and diagnostic information from the manufacturer. Forthcoming: our system recognizes patterns of failure among like equipment and can predict, for the owner and the manufacturer, likely future failures.
· Forthcoming: if there is a telematics stream from the equipment that includes equipment performance data (including oil temperature, oil pressure, voltage, etc.), our system is able to compare this information against OEM-originating operating parameters. Any abnormal operating parameters will flag an alert in our system.
Does your software help the field service technician? Can he access information using a wireless PDA, laptop or other means?
Our system is optimized for wireless use, including cell-card-based connectivity. Not only does it extend manufacturer maintenance, repair, and operations information into the field, but it also extends fleet information drawn from the rental management system into the field. For example, using a $1,300 tablet device in the field is equivalent to traveling with several thousand always-current service manuals, including diagnostic information, machine service history, as well as parts inventory availability at the rental company, as well as at the manufacturer, all from within one mobile SmartEquip console.
Please explain the parts-identification and parts-ordering functions.
They are defined in the following sequence:
1. Technician uses our intelligent parts catalog application to identify the right part from an interactive schematic. That schematic will be dynamically customized to the serial number of the specific asset it refers to. He clicks on the parts he needs.
2. The system highlights the parts in the screen and immediately returns parts availability in the branch location, the district, the region, and across the entire company (as contained in the rental management system). The system simultaneously returns parts availability at the OEM or the OEM’s dealer.
3. The user assembles the desired blend of parts sourcing and the system checks OEM parts availability, list and discounted pricing, as well as freight and other information. The system auto-generates and fills a purchase order in the rental management system and subsequently submits this PO electronically to the order fulfillment system of the manufacturer. That system returns electronic confirmation.
4. System has the ability to automatically bundle orders according to priority, thus saving shipping and handling costs across all parts transactions.
NOTE: field testing has shown that routine electronic web-based ordering with manufacturers can take as long as 45 minutes (from parts identification to finalizing the purchase), and can generate parts mis-orders as high as 20 percent or more. In contrast, with SmartEquip’s e-FleetPro application, the entire identification-to-order fulfillment cycle is reduced to 4.5 minutes each time an order is placed, and the parts mis-order rate approaches 0 percent.
Do you find that your rental company customers are increasingly interested in using software to help organize their shop and service capability?
Yes. When we began, we routinely faced skeptics that felt the industry was not ready for it, and that service technicians were not able to use software. Both proved to be wrong. Service technicians and parts managers love the software (in two extensive surveys conducted at two large rental companies, 100 percent of all users recommended the system), and with increasing operations focus among rental company executives, there is increasing interest in using our system to improve shop and service capabilities and, with that, fleet uptime and return on assets.
How will telematics evolve in the coming years, in your company's software and in the industry as a whole?
Telematics will evolve in two ways:
· The actual data streams being sent will become more sophisticated in that they will contain equipment performance data, not just location and operating hours.
· The software front ends to these data streams (including that provided by SmartEquip) will provide increasing efficiency in how that data is being used in the real-time, real-world application of the service department.
The two together will provide tremendous fleet efficiencies.
Any other capabilities you'd like to mention or additional thoughts about the contributions of software to service and shop capabilities?
Value: The direct efficiency consequences of using SmartEquip’s e-FleetPro in the service department in terms of service personnel efficiency improvements as well as fleet uptime improvements, yield a real value range of between $7,000-13,000 per typical rental branch location ($5 Million in first-cost fleet value) per month. That is between $84,000 and $156,000 per year per branch. For a hypothetical rental company with 100 branch locations, that adds up to over $15 million per year! The release of additional modules are expected ultimately to double this value. Two conclusions can be drawn from this:
· Service, parts, maintenance, are the last remaining efficiency frontier that can generate tremendous additional value for rental companies;
· Through this system, OEM’s can take direct control over the service, maintenance, warranty, and other requirements of their customers. They are under increasing pressure to do so, and industry leaders such as JLG, Multiquip, and Wacker are taking the lead in directly decreasing the cost of fleet ownership of their equipment through these electronic means.
