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Finning’s remote diagnostics trial hailed a success

Finning, sole dealer of Cat machines and equipment in the UK & Ireland, is rolling out a remote diagnostics programme after a successful trial saw a sharp rise in engineers’ first-time fix rates, cutting customer downtime and saving more than 2,500 man hours. 

Finning has 14,000 connected machine assets operating across the UK. During the 12-week trial, the remote services team used diagnostics data to identify operational issues with the machines before they occurred. As a result, the remote services team can now boast a significantly improved first-time fix success rate with connected machines.

As Finning engineers can see what is going on within the machine and run a diagnosis remotely, the company is able to ensure it has the correct parts to complete work during its first site visit. In some cases, this advanced technology has meant a visit to a customer site isn’t needed at all because the remote service team was able to fix the problem remotely.

The result is minimal downtime for the customer, safeguarding their bottom line, and a reduction in the carbon footprint at Finning due to fewer engineer journeys, together with an increase in engineer capacity meaning faster response times for customers.

Finning Technology & Remote Services Manager, Nikolaos Kakoudakis said, “This advanced technology is transforming the way customers access our service expertise, providing us with the data to take our offering to another level. Eighty per cent asset availability is considered best in class and is the figure automotive breakdown companies quote for their roadside repairs, though in our case our customers may not even be aware of all the work being done in the background to keep their machines running. The challenge is in providing this across such a diverse product range.

“Our advanced technology can signal the condition of their machines, allowing us to prep the parts needed and organise an engineer site visit before the customer even makes a call,” Nikolaos continued. “In some cases, if it’s a software or configuration problem we may not even need to visit the customer at all and can get them up and running by sharing the screen and updating the software.

“This level of service is available to all customers, regardless of warranty or maintenance agreement they take out, and to customers with both new or used machinery saving them from costly failures and unplanned interruptions, and forms part of our global roadmap for service transformation through knowledge sharing across the group.”

The Finning remote diagnostics service is now being rolled out to Finning UK & Ireland customers.

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