How to organize equipment documentation and simplify technical support?

When repairs and the restart of a production line following an emergency shutdown are delayed because the current technical passport or operating manual for the failed component cannot be found, several questions arise. Where is the complete set of documents, current as of the breakdown date, located at the production site? Is the manufacturer’s warranty still valid if the equipment was installed in the plant at the end of last year? And how quickly can the supplier’s updated model range be verified along with the necessary fresh documentation?

Unfortunately, the company does not always find answers to these questions. In modern automated production costing millions of dollars, the operator still has to search for the technical passport or operating manual in the archive of technical documentation. In order to ask a question to the sensor or mechanism manufacturer, the workshop manager is forced to compose a letter and pass it on for the chief engineer’s signature—and that’s only the beginning of the paperwork. Today, these methods are clearly outdated for both industrial customers and suppliers.

Modern after-sales service for industrial equipment is a complex, multi-layered challenge, the resolution of which can set a company apart from other manufacturers of similar equipment and provide it with a stable competitive advantage. The ability to obtain an operational document in electronic form (for example, wiring diagrams or inspection certificates) or to instantly contact technical support at the installation site becomes a crucial factor for the effective operation of manufacturing clients.

Bureaucratic red tape

Imagine a situation where the personnel at an enterprise encounter an issue with a specific piece of industrial equipment—it displays a failure or error, and all the usual actions (restart/reboot, power cycle, etc.) do not restore its functionality. What should be done? All further service or repair procedures must be carried out strictly in accordance with the operating instructions or the manufacturer’s recommendations.

Where can an employee of an industrial enterprise obtain the instruction at that moment? Where was it handed over after delivery, incoming inspection, or installation? Is it necessary to write to the procurement staff to ask them to contact the suppliers? And when, and from whom, was the delivery of this specific piece of equipment? Often, there are simply no prompt answers to these questions.

At best, the operating personnel are forced to search for answers to technical questions on the internet or submit a request for repair/replacement of the component, thereby shifting the responsibility for resolving the issue to the service engineers.

According to preliminary survey data from representatives of industrial enterprises, in 4 out of 5 cases they are unable to find the required equipment information in the manufacturer’s operating documentation—it is simply not available to them. Moreover, according to the manufacturer of small-scale industrial equipment, when technical questions arise among the operating personnel at the installation site, they either are not contacted at all or are reached only in very rare exceptions.

Therefore, equipment manufacturers do not actually know how their equipment is operated in practice. In the vast majority of complaints from industrial consumers, the equipment manufacturer points to a violation of the operating instructions or a failure to perform the required service procedures as stated in the technical documentation—which, at the point of use, has typically never been seen by anyone.

Thus, today there exists an impenetrable wall between the operation and the manufacturer (or the manufacturer’s representative) of industrial equipment, composed of procurement procedures, bureaucratic rules, technical regulations, and other processes.

The problem of updating technical documentation

Technologies and equipment are constantly evolving, and even for equipment already in operation, the manufacturer may update the technical documentation based on real-world experience from various customers, the correction of previous errors, modifications in design, or changes in the operating conditions. The technical and operational documentation available to the user should be updated accordingly. However, in reality, the opposite often occurs: the documentation becomes outdated or is completely lost without a trace.

Example: A service engineer at a plant noticed that the component securing the equipment to the pipeline had become unsealed. A replacement was required for an inexpensive part of an expensive piece of equipment. The engineer downloaded the operating manual for this equipment from the internet, but then noticed that the manufacturer had released a new version of the equipment that is structurally different from the one in use. In response to an online inquiry, the manufacturer stated that a copy of the technical passport is needed to determine the correct catalogue number. Consequently, the equipment had to be temporarily taken out of operation, and an order could only be placed once some piece of “paperwork” was found.

The Advantage of Automated Access to Documents

Today, even those leading industrial companies that have adopted the most modern digital technologies in their business processes are still forced to rely on outdated methods of managing technical documentation and technical support offered by the vast majority of manufacturers. Paper documents and “manual” processes are still very much in use, and they significantly reduce the operational efficiency of these organizations.

Compare two systems: the traditional and the automated.

In the traditional system, the manager either sends a request for technical documentation—after which a chain of forwarding, phone calls, and waiting ensues—or sends an engineer to the archive (see Fig. 1).

In the automated system, the engineer scans the QR code on the equipment and instantly gains access to the required documentation or information from the manufacturer (see Fig. 2).

The difference is clear! Modern automation not only speeds up work but also frees up company resources that can be allocated to more important tasks than, for example, searching for the wiring diagram of an electric drive.

Problems with Technical Support

Every production engineer always wants to know how to quickly and technically correctly resolve any problem that arises with the operating equipment. However, after contacting the manufacturer’s service department, this desire is not always fulfilled.

Low processing speed of requests, the inability of the manufacturer’s staff to quickly answer technical questions, and the necessity of sending official inquiries through the supplier—all of these result in customers being dissatisfied with the support service. This significantly reduces customer loyalty.

Some Statistics

According to financesonline.com:

• Small and medium-sized enterprises receive 20–30 targeted inquiries that lead to approximately 700 dialogues per day. Despite existing IT technical support services, up to 30% of inquiries remain unanswered.
• 52% of surveyed manufacturers report that technology helps improve the customer support service, and among those, 84% are willing to spend more on a product or service if they receive higher quality service.
• 86% of companies note that having an integrated technical support service increases their productivity. Moreover, effective use of modern technologies can reduce the number of phone calls by 10% and free up 25% of support resources.
• The communication channels most frequently used by customers are chat/chat-bot (44%), Messenger (34%), SMS (32%), email (28%), and others that are not connected to a unified platform. Due to the lack of such a system, technical support staff often cannot quickly find the necessary information and end up transferring the customer to other specialists. As a result, part of the dialogue is lost, and the customer has to explain their situation all over again. Time passes, the problem remains unresolved, the customer’s patience wears thin, and the supplier’s company image inevitably suffers.

Modern Russian Realities

The Russian market for industrial equipment faces unique challenges. High competition, limited resources, and rapid technological changes all demand quick and effective responses to customer requests. In this context, process automation, improved access to information, and enhanced responsiveness of technical support become key success factors.

Companies that are able to adapt and implement modern solutions for technical support services and the management of technical documentation gain a significant advantage. This not only reduces costs and increases efficiency but also ensures a high level of customer satisfaction, which keeps them loyal to the supplier.

Previously, Western solutions were used in this area, but with the imposition of sanctions, their availability has significantly declined. Against this backdrop, interesting domestic IT solutions have begun to emerge on the Russian market, such as the SaaS platform “QR-Passport”.

Optimization of after-sales service through such a platform helps to organize all documentation for the future and enables, without unnecessary expenses, the creation of crucial advantages over Asian manufacturers, who are already beginning to implement a system for accessing technical documentation via a QR code placed on the equipment.