A field engineer needs key productivity tools to help him fix problems quickly and thereby satisfy customers. By being able to quickly identify and correct a problem saving a couple of hours can solve a problem A system down can be very costly to a customer especially if there is little back up. If the Mean Time To Repair is say 4 hours then allowing for travel time saving an hour could make two visits possible within a day. The engineer usually has in his kit, a number of band aid spares that allow him to quickly get the system going even by changing a higher level item which camn be returned to the depot for thorough analysis. If for example, a particular board or component is known to have a higher failure rate then carrying such a spare can save a lot of time. Using diagnostic tools such as software routines that help quickly identify faulty components can quickly pinpoint the problem area and a component or higher level sub assembly can be changed.
The availability of parts is fundamental to productivity. Spares may ber kept by the customer or may be accessible at suitable drop points. In either case, although frowned upon, a certain gun shot action may take place where good parts may be replaced but this is of relatively low cost since effective parts are returned to depot for further testing and recycling. This means that the action of service service is taken off site and carried out in the depot under better controlled conditions rather than the customer premises. Modern equipment is normally fitted with onboard diagnostics in which case the intervention is one of changing parts but the time is taken in checking out the equipment for proper functoning according to protocol.
The most effective factor to productivity is training. Consider a repair as the combination of labour and parts, so at the extremes little knowledge and a lot of parts or a lot of knowledge and few parts. A well trained engineer will identify a misalignment and need no part, whereas an untrained operative will change the pre adjusted unit to fix the problem.
Knowledge of the customer is even more critical to service productivity since it is the operator who will initiate a service call. A well trained operator is in fact the best unpaid service engineer. Knowing to carry out the diagnostic routines and calibrate the systems, a customer operator can manage the intervention and save a visit altogether. Given that the customer has an insurance maintenance contract,a well trained customer operator is the best weapon in productivity.
