Remote diagnosis for large household appliances: A case study into repair facilitating strategies

Abstract

Product life time extension is an important strategy for reducing the impact of electric and electronic devices. Unfortunately, the declining number of companies offering repair services over the last decade, is not compatible with this objective. Some of the main challenges for repair companies are the high costs related to labor, logistics and spare parts. For large household appliances, high repair costs can be attributed to logistics since (multiple) transport trips to the customer are often made to execute a failure diagnosis as well as the repair actions. The presented study looks into remote diagnosis as one of the cost reducing measures that can facilitate the economic viability of repair services for large household appliances. The reported case study allows to assess the potential of remote diagnosis with respect to the time utilization by specialized repair staff and reduction of transport costs. A total of 35 appliances were subjected to a remote diagnosis from which data were gathered regarding the appliance, the customer and the associated costs.