Ever drive down a highway, and suddenly the “Service Engine Soon” icon on your dash lights up? If you are like me, the first thing you think is, “oh, crap,” and the next is, “hope it is not important since I’m late and in the middle of nowhere.” Instead of driving the family car, imagine driving an 18-wheeler hauling a load of fresh vegetables, and the distribution center expects you in 2 hours. You know how hard it will be to hit that assigned time. Daimler Trucks North America (DTNA) now has a solution that helps the driver solve the problem and gain peace of mind at a critical time.

In 2013, DTNA created a solution called Virtual Technician. While this system is built on several emerging technologies like telematics, mobility, central mission control, and big data, launching a much scaled-down version for a different application with much less effort and investment is possible. However, let’s understand what the DTNA solution can do before exploring more straightforward customer challenges.

DTNA’s new engines, like modern aircraft jet engines, continuously monitor their performance. And like the jet engines, these truck engines continuously transmit status and operational data to a central data collection location (the Customer Support Center), where it is stored until needed. When a fault is identified, a service technician is notified and examines recent data to identify what is happening. She reads the fault codes and looks at the stored operational data to determine the severity of the problem, which could be as simple as a loose filler cap and as complex as an overheated bearing. The technician communicates with the driver and possibly the fleet maintenance on-duty person to decide what steps to take. If the situation is critical, the service technician can work with a nearby authorized repair shop to schedule the repair, make sure they have any needed parts, and possibly dispatch another tractor to pick up and deliver the load. Pretty cool!!!

But what about those of us working with smaller and less complex equipment? Let me describe an idea I tried to sell to my company over 20 years ago but was never accepted – I was two decades too early.

A 20-year old suggestion that still makes sense

One of the products my team supported was an analytical instrument used to verify the composition of solid and liquid materials. Some of the instrument’s applications were cement, oil, paint, and clay. Each sample was put in a small plastic cup, a single-use item, to prevent cross-contamination. I wanted to implement two separate modules:

  1. Consumable supply management
  2. Proactive remote predictive maintenance

Consumable supply management

My plan consisted of having the instrument store the number of cups on-hand in the lab, then count each test and automatically create a shipping order for a predetermined number of cups when the on-hand inventory hit a reorder point. We would ensure our customers never ran out of supplies and lock out competitors who shipped on receipt of a purchase order. It should have been simple, but….

Remote predictive maintenance

Our product had internal sensors and ran background diagnostics. I wanted to transmit periodic sensor readings to a central support location, and monthly have a support technician plot out the data for each instrument under a support plan. He would examine the data, determine if any proactive service was needed, and schedule it with the customer. If no service were required, he would prepare a report showing the data and his observations, sign it, and send it to the instrument user.

In both cases, we would have delivered peace of mind that their instrument was working correctly, an appropriate level of consumables was on-hand, and there was no reason to be concerned about meeting production goals.

This would have been a win/win outcome – we would sell more consumables and support plans, and the customer’s operation could continue on schedule. All we needed was the will to do something differently. But, as I said, I was two decades too early.

There is no excuse for any company not to implement valuable solutions for its customers – technology is no longer the excuse. All you need is the will!

About Middlesex Consulting

Middlesex Consulting is an experienced team of professionals with the primary goal of helping capital equipment companies create more value for their clients and stakeholders. Middlesex Consulting continues to provide superior solutions to meet the needs of its clients by focusing on our strengths in Services, Manufacturing,  Customer Experience, and Engineering. If you want to learn more about how we can help your organization begin to create value-added services, please contact us or check out some of our free articles and white papers here