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What will the impact of servitization and the move to preventative maintenance that it entails have on parts and inventory management? Erik Kjellstrom, Pre-Sales Manager, Syncron tackled this question at the Aftermarket Conference in Hamburg last October. Kris Oldland followed up with him after the event to find out more more...

As Erik Kjellstrom, Pre-Sales Manager, Syncron, stepped down from the stage having just given a presentation at this year’s Aftermarket Conference, I was looking forward to the opportunity to catch up with him for a number of reasons.

His organisation has been something of an anomaly in our sector of recent years. A pioneering lone voice that often were seemingly single-handedly trying to bring a dedicated solution to what was often the unloved piece of the field service puzzle – parts management.

Whether, it be pricing, inventory management or stock ordering, Syncron have successfully over the last few years been one of few brands to be associated with taking this part of the aftermarket conversation seriously. We’ve seen Syncron a lot at various conferences over the last 24 months and almost each time they’ve been armed with case studies and hard data that revealed just how much (and how easily) their solution has improved their clients P&L both in terms of top line revenue and bottom line profit.

However, this time around there was a twist to their approach. Having recently brought a new in module into their offering that is focused on predictive maintenance and based on IoT, were they shifting their focus - or was this development just a natural evolution that reflected the changing dynamics of the industry?

The central thrust of Kjellstrom’s presentation was that essentially there are a number of interesting trends appearing in the aftermarket industry – covering a lot of the ground that regular readers of Field Service News will be familiar with.

We are seeing futuristic concepts such as Drones, 3D Printing, Augmented Reality and Autonomous Vehicles all of which have all been on the horizon offering the promise of industry revolution for a while but are now really starting to come into the mainstream conversationTo begin with, coming from the technology perspective we are seeing futuristic concepts such as Drones, 3D Printing, Augmented Reality and Autonomous Vehicles all of which have all been on the horizon offering the promise of industry revolution for a while but are now really starting to come into the mainstream conversation. Alongside this with have already seen wide adoption of Mobile, Cloud and increasingly the Internet of Things amongst manufacturers and service providers.

However, the changes we are seeing in our sector are not just driven by technology alone.

Sweeping demographic change within the workforce, accelerated by the ageing workforce crisis being faced by companies across the globe and being exacerbated by the unprecedented differences between the incoming Millennial generation and the outgoing Baby Boomers, is of course another factor driving industry evolution forwards.

Finally, add into this mix our shift to a much more service and outcome orientated society as a whole - arguably itself the result of the generational shift alongside the technical advances referenced above and we are seeing companies turn their entire business models on their head.

Servitization has gone from fringe concept to buzzword across the last eighteen months or so as talk of ever decreasing SLAs and increasing First-Time-Fix rates has morphed into discussions around guarantees of uptime and the financial impact of unplanned downtime.

As such our industry is in a fascinating and exciting state of flux at the moment and it was this rapid development and the various drivers behind it that were at the heart of the Kjellstrom presentation in Hamburg.

Of course, such dynamic changes within the sector need to be reflected within the solutions provided and it is the shift towards preventative maintenance (itself a major stepping stone on the way to servitization) that Syncron have focused their latest efforts on.

“We have been working very much to support more reactive service models in the past in terms of inventory management and pricing but what we are now doing, both from a product stand point but also from a service offering standpoint, is we are working towards an uptime supporting module.” Kjellstrom explained when we caught up.

In brief, Syncron are integrating a new module into their current service network optimisation capabilities.

These capabilities in the past had all been centred on the parts management area of the Aftermarket sector – pricing, inventory management, and ordering. However, their new module is a predictive maintenance module they call Uptime (makes sense), which Kjellstrom explains is intended to ‘blend together the aspect of inventory management and pricing etc with an understanding of the actual assets that use these parts.

It seems a natural alignment to bring the asset and the parts management together in the preventative management worldIt seems a natural alignment to bring the asset and the parts management together in the preventative management world. Indeed, much of reasoning behind this development from Syncron echoes a similar line of conversation that ServiceMax put forward when they announced their integration with GE Digital’s technology Asset Performance Management (APM).

Essentially both Syncron and ServiceMax are approaching the same central maxim - just from two different angles. In a world of IoT and sensor-led preventative maintenance the asset is King and everything else should fall in line around and work back from that one premise.

However, where one does feel that viewpoints will change between the two organisations is in how the ecosystem is built. Through their recent acquisition list including Servicemax, it is clear that GE Digital have their eyes set on building a comprehensive and all encompassing new platform for age of the Industrial Internet.

For Syncron however, the focus for the time being at least, appears to be in line with their best-of-breed heritage.

“I think that a product such as ours and a Field Service Management (FSM) system are complimentary products.” Kjellstrom explains.

“We have many instances where we will see a FSM system or a maintenance system that runs in compliment to the more Aftermarket focussed, parts oriented solutions such as ours. Perhaps what makes Syncron a little bit unique is the way we work and how we blend together the aspects of network optimisation and parts optimisation which is often natively something that belongs in a FSM tool.”

With so many technologies evolving at once a clear case could be made for establishing a comprehensive technology ecosystem across a service orientated business and Syncron is set to be an important part of that ecosystem.

Yet, in a world that seems to be in constant Beta, not all developments are equal and Kjellstrom believes it is important to understand how different technologies can impact the way we work when building out your own tech strategy.

Certain technologies will bring refinement whilst others offer revolution.

“We definitely see more potential impact from some types of the technologies than others,” he comments.

“What we are really interested in are the questions like will 3D printing totally replace a need for service part inventory management – and the answer is no it will not, it may enhance it but it will not replace it.”

Does the development of autonomous vehicles mean that we will begin to see car sharing across a team of engineers“How about autonomous vehicles? Does the development of autonomous vehicles mean that we will begin to see car sharing across a team of engineers” he asks rhetorically before outlining that such technology could lead to servitizing the fleet at which point automotive manufacturers concerns about spare parts really begin to truly change and evolve into an entirely new set of thinking and processes.

“These are the types of questions that we are interested in, in terms of the emerging technology.” He explains.

“What we are seeing is that some of these new technologies are really pushing towards a more uptime related world, whereas some technologies are more likely to become tools for us to simply improve existing processes.”

However, whilst he believes the shift to Servitization and outcome based solutions will continue to grow, Kjellstrom also insists that the traditional break-fix market and the aspects of pricing, parts management and inventory which that function drives forward, will never fully disappear.

“I am sure that the shift in focuses to uptime guarantees are growing rapidly and eventually break-fix is going to become less significant but there is always going to be the type of customers where uptime critical assets are not relevant.”

Indeed, whilst we wait for the weighting between the old and the new to do a 180 flip, one thing is clear, for the short-term at least we need to be able to accommodate both – which means looking to the future today – something Kjellstrom and his colleagues have embraced which is clearly evident by their introduction of the new Uptime module.

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The conversation around how driverless cars can be implemented in field service operations and the benefits they bring is an important one - however, one part of the conversation often overlooked is how autonomous vehicles could help field service organisations ensure their vehicles are being driven within legal limits.

Fortunately the good folks at Denmon Pearlman have put together an excellent infographic on the subject which should make interesting reading for field service and fleet management professionals alike...

 

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With many major automotive manufacturers promising autonomous vehicles to hit the roads within the next couple of years the reality of the autonomous fleet for field service organisations is no longer a futuristic fantasy but a genuine reality - so what exactly could the autonomous vehicle mean for field service?

The hype around autonomous vehicles is getting ever stronger, but what role if any could they play in changing how field service delivery is managed?

“Autonomous vehicles undoubtedly represent an exciting development for fleets, particularly from a productivity perspective,” comments Paul Miller, Product Manager, Fleetmatics.

“They have the potential to disrupt the traditional fleet model of assigning one vehicle to one driver, as in future they will be able to support the workload of multiple field service agents at the same time. Imagine a future, for example, where an autonomous vehicle knows the average job time of each agent, and is therefore able to schedule drop offs and pick-ups to complement their work.”

“By performing the same role for several field agents in a specific area, this could create significant productivity savings across a fleet, particularly in relation to fuel efficiency and workload management, through a reduction in unnecessary time spent on the road or idling.”

David Rodriguez, Chief Marketing Officer for GreenRoad also agree that productivity could be significantly increased if we were to see autonomous fleets emerge.

“Autonomous vehicles should positively affect productivity, safety and costs for field service organisations,” he explains.

“First, they’ll enable field service technicians to recapture productive hours during the day. Rather than focusing on driving, workers will be able to concentrate on customer service, reporting, and other elements of their job while on the road.”

“Autonomous vehicles will also enable companies whose field tasks don’t require specialised equipment to move to a model in which the company owns fewer vehicles (or simply contracts with a car-sharing provider), and employees are picked up and dropped off at their worksite, freeing up the vehicle for the next employee. Most importantly, autonomous vehicles will improve safety.”

“Today, according to the NHTSA 1 in 5 fleet vehicles are involved in accidents each year. Eliminating human error from the driving experience will lead to lower accident rates, repair costs and absenteeism, and overall cost reductions ranging from $16,000 - $500,000.”

It all sounds to good to be true doesn’t it? But exactly how much of the talk around autonomous vehicles is hyperbole and how much is reality – realistically how far away are we from a fleet of autonomous vehicles being put in place by a field service organisation?

 

“We are still some time away from autonomous vehicles becoming commonplace in field service delivery,” says Miller

“The means testing programmes being carried out by their developers still have many years to run – and even then, these programmes haven’t focused on the vehicles’ suitability for field service delivery models. As a result, they are still relatively unproven in the professional space, so until they become the norm, telematics provides the best technology solution for safer, more responsible driving. Many of the benefits ascribed to driverless vehicles – such as increased fuel efficiency, improved safety and greater productivity - are actually already possible by leveraging telematics software against a fleet, so in many ways, the benefits of driverless vehicles are already available.”

Rodriguez however, thinks the future may not be quite so far away.

“The Society of Automotive Engineers is classifying self-driving technology in 6 categories, ranging from no automation (Level 0) to full automation (Level 5). Some manufacturers hope to achieve Level 4 autonomy in the coming years, with Tesla promising “full self-driving capabilities” (presumably Level 3 or 4) this year and Ford setting a date of 2021 to achieve Level 4 autonomy.”

“Level 5 vehicles that require no human intervention under any circumstances (extreme weather conditions, uncharted roads, etc.) may still be decades away. But even with level 4 technology, we can expect to see a shift in the preferences of field service companies, as fleets stand to gain a great deal of benefit from the safety, efficiency and operational improvements autonomous vehicles offer.”

“Amazon, Fed Ex and others are already testing out automated deliveries. It’s not unreasonable to think we could see fully autonomous fleets (with human workers on board when extreme conditions are expected) within the next 4-5 years.

Of course the biggest area of concern is the safety aspect. There are always going to be concerns around the safety of autonomous vehicles until they become the norm. But are such fears founded? Is there a danger that the technology could be held back by red tape and regulation or is it necessary to ensure any such transformative technology is highly regulated from day one?

 

“Autonomous vehicle fears are mostly unfounded for a simple reason – multiple studies have shown that human error is the cause of 90 percent of vehicle accidents", explains Rodriguez.

“While technology is certainly prone to human error in the development stage (bugs and programming gaps), automakers are taking the responsibility for releasing well-vetted autonomous technology very seriously, understanding that early mistakes could set autonomous adoption back by years."

"When they’re ready, autonomous vehicles will be like professional drivers with extra-sensory perception and zero risk of developing highway hypnosis or road rage. Not only will they consistently execute proper technique when climbing a hill, taking a blind corner, driving on wet roads, etc., they will also have advanced sensors and access to moment-by-moment road condition data. So many of the fears you hear discussed, such as the fear that the vehicle will sacrifice its passenger if it means avoiding a collision with a school bus, rely on scenarios that will become virtually non-existent once self-driving cars are widely adopted.”

 

“Just as automakers are highly motivated to ensure their vehicles are safe, they’re motivated to work with lawmakers to ensure the needed regulation is in place before their technology is ready for mass adoption. They may not be organised in their efforts yet but a more cohesive approach will no doubt come soon, considering the opportunities ahead. It’s important that reasonable regulation be developed as well as incorporating the extensive amounts of existing professional driver behaviour data that supports comprehensive testing if autonomous vehicles are going to be safe and successful.”

 

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Paul Whitelam, VP Product Marketing, ClickSoftware, outlines five key technologies he believes will soon be shaping our industry...

The field service industry continued its rapid transformation in 2016, with emerging technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and predictive analytics increasingly changing how field service suppliers manage their workforce.

Service-centric businesses are constantly looking for new ways to meet customers’ growing demand for convenient and communicative customer service.

2017 is likely to bring continued change and innovation, with new technologies reshaping service operations and delivery. It’s a great time to examine what’s in store for the industry this year, and what field service leaders might want to have on their radar. Here are five technologies set to improve the field service industry in 2017:

1) Machine learning and AI

Machine learning (when algorithms evolve and improve over time) and artificial intelligence (AI) also drove new changes in 2016.

With the ability to better process, interpret, and learn from data, more services suppliers can be predictive instead of reactive, and will be able to automate the tasks that don’t need human input. Increasingly sophisticated forecasting driven by machine learning will drive efficiency increases and cost savings.

2) Reaping the rewards of new realities

Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) were a major force last year. Even though virtual and augmented reality are predominantly used in games such as Pokémon Go and The Lab, both are being adopted more widely in a workplace context to enhance employee productivity and customer experiences.

In 2017, an increasing number of field service engineers will start to see VR and AR initiatives being introduced to support their training and day-to-day work.

 

As experienced engineers age out of the workforce and businesses try to maximise existing resources, VR and AR will increasingly play a role in enabling training, remote coaching, and viewing more information on each task via wearables.

3) Connected customers

As our recent research showed, customer expectations are growing rapidly around the world. The demand for fast, friendly and high quality service that also fits with customers’ busy and varying schedules is becoming the norm. And, aware of the mobile-led technologies that now exist to support a higher level of service delivery, field service customers are voicing demand for engineer location tracking and up-to-the-minute communications.

This communication between the customers and engineers will give customers the ability to share photos, preferences and job information with technicians before their visit, sharing important information that will expedite the service delivery. Customers will also be able to share their customer experience with their provider after the visit, offering feedback that can inform future service decisions.

Field service suppliers that do not start to think seriously about modernizing their operations in 2017 in this way will see an impact on their ability to compete.

4) A smarter field service

A device is labelled ‘smart’ if it can connect to other devices through the Internet of Things.

This year, smart will become smarter and advancements in machine learning will create new opportunities for the field service industry.

There will be improved inter-connectivity of smart devices, which will enable field service engineers to use their smart devices to contact more experienced engineers when they need guidance.

 

This will improve engineers’ knowledge and skills, and also deliver better customer experiences through increased ‘first-time-fix’ resolutions.

Smart technology will also accelerate preventative maintenance, alerting the customer and technician when there is an issue with a piece of equipment before the customer needs to make the call.

Usage patterns and failures are therefore easier to recognise and plan for, minimising interruptions and failures when a device is connected through smart technology.

5) Autonomous vehicles will drive innovation

Autonomous vehicles are already being trialled in some parts of the world, but 2017 will be the year when the business masses start to investigate their potential in the context of business gain.

This goes a step beyond assisted driving, which is already allowing field service engineers to predict traffic and avoid routes that will slow down their journey. Autonomous vehicles can also reduce the number of multiple visits from engineers by delivering the necessary tools to the engineer onsite, or providing the required tools to the customer if the machine can be self-fixed.

 

In short, self-driving cars or drones could present a field service industry game changer and as autonomous vehicle technology improves—and in-country legislation relating to their use is put in place —discussions around the benefits these offer to industry suppliers will gather pace amidst the race to innovate.

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