Field Service Engineers Research Articles

Field service quality improves with technology: Experience at Frontier refreshment services

AbstractRecognizing the need to run a profitable operation and to improve service productivity, many service organizations now use field service management‐based computer systems to support the process of call handling, dispatch, call tracking, call closeout, and logistics support, and to provide management with the data needed to report on performance.But computerized service management systems alone cannot guarantee improved productivity and responsiveness and reduced equipment downtime. However, as Frontier Refreshment Services (FRS), an organization that services more than fifty thousand Coca‐Cola syrup and drink dispenser machines in the United Kingdom, discovered, a combination of advanced service management systems and additional breakthrough technology can do the trick. FRS operates a force of 105 field service engineers and seventy installation engineers who install, maintain, and repair drink dispenser equipment through out the United Kingdom. The firm's experience in using an integrated system to optimize service operations is outlined in this article.

The Modernization of a 1965 MS5001 Gas Turbine: New Life for an Old Unit

Application of the GE MS5001 gas turbine performance improvement uprate package has been extended to an early model “K” unit at Texaco’s Convent, LA, refinery. This extensive modification required replacement of the turbine shell in addition to the installation of new technology components developed for more recent MS5001 models. This paper presents the customer’s motivation to refurbish a 22-year-old gas turbine. Gas turbine component design improvements and interfaces are discussed with performance and reliability gains. Field service engineering experience installing the uprate is also related.

Logistics Quality Management--The Key to Customer Satisfaction

As a corporation, our top priority is customer satisfaction. Worldwide customer satisfaction requires that we engineer, manufacture, and market the highest quality information systems in the industry. It also requires that we provide prompt efficient service in the field to these systems. Field Service is a strategic competitive asset that contributes almost a third of the corporation's revenues. Field Service Logistics supports, worldwide, both our Field Service engineers and our original equipment manufacturers (OEM's) with necessary preventive and remedial spare parts. These parts ensure that our customer's investments in our hardware and software remain as accessible as possible. This paper considers the logistics and repair opportunities in the computer and electronics industry, both present and future, based on our knowledge of how technology is changing. The concept of fieldreplaceable units (FRU's) having a planned quality life cycle is introduced. Thus, customer needs can be translated into a set of systems designed to ensure that the preventive and remedial materials provided are fit for use.

The practical value of computer literacy: 2. Troubleshooting computerized imaging equipment.

Computers are a central component of all the newer imaging methods available to the medical imager. It is obvious that the radiologist with an understanding of computer science will have an advantage in dealing with this equipment. In part 1 of this series [1 ], the value of computer literacy in the prepurchase evaluation of imaging equipment was discussed. This article will deal with the daily troubleshooting of computerized machines. Nothing is more exasperating than having a million-dollar machine idle for half a day while waiting for the service engineer to arrive from some distant site, or having to abort an examination because of computer failure, especially when the patient has already been injected with contrast material. This article illustrates how computer literacy allows the radiologist to troubleshoot equipment, and fix many hardware and software “glitches.” While the radiologist cannot be expected to make complex repairs, our experience has shown that a significant number of breakdowns are due to relatively simple problems. When these occur, the radiologist with an understanding of computers can often rapidly bring equipment back to function without calling a repairman. This may result in decreased cost, as well as more rapid patient throughput. This paper gives examples of how a knowledge of cornputers is valuable to the radiologist in his everyday practice. Most simple hardware repairs are best learned from the field service engineers who are called when the machine is “down.” Minor hardware problems are often recurrent, and the radiologist who takes an active interest in these problems can gain enough knowledge to fix them rapidly. Several examples are detailed below. The acquisition of software literacy is somewhat more difficult. Courses and books on the fundamentals of computer programming are ubiquitous. Those interested in developing computer literacy should begin with a home computer and a good basic course in programming. In particular, attention should be paid to the methods by which computers handle files, as file-handling errors are the most common software problems encountered in imaging systems.