By SITECH UK-Ireland | Sep 29, 2021 | Uncategorised
Whether it is for a final quality check before going to a customer or for repair and maintenance. Our servicing workshop houses a growing number of Trimble® certificated technicians who service parts sent from all over the country, from industries such as construction and rail. So, what happens behind the scenes? Let’s take a look!
There are many reasons why parts arrive at our workshop. These include customers bringing them in for annual maintenance, courier services delivering those that need repairing and field engineers recommending our services to customers when they are on site. However, once the part gets to us, the next steps are often the same.
First, we book the part in on an internal enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, so it appears on a technician’s schedule. Our technicians are all Trimble certified, so can work on a large range of Trimble products. To become certified, our technicians and engineers undergo online and in-person training courses provided by Trimble, renewing their certification every twelve months for each product that they are working on. The certification allows our customers to trust that their parts are in qualified and experienced hands.
Next, technicians inspect the part and create a price estimate for the service or repair, to find out if the service is chargeable, and work out what steps they’ll need to take next. Once the customer has agreed to the work, we will take the part to be serviced, with the specific process depending on the component itself. One commonly requested service is annually maintaining Trimble total stations for our customers. Total stations are high accuracy products that carry out surveys, scans and imaging across sites, and they must be recalibrated every twelve months, due to the high measurement accuracy required. Once a total station arrives at our site, our technicians will connect it to Trimble Atlas software, that runs diagnostics to ensure it is performing correctly.
If they detect a part failure at this point, the technician will start an investigation process. The process will include checking the internal basics, such as the electrical boards, and then assessing the accuracy of the equipment by testing it on known distance targets around the workshop to get a pass or fail result. Technicians will continue this process until the parts and hardware have passed. The component is then returned to the customer until they require another service or repair.
Preventative maintenance reduces the risk of unexpected downtime by eliminating faults before they become issues. All Trimble products have electrical components that are exposed to harsh weather and environmental conditions while on site. Trimble recommends that customers annually service their parts to maintain high performance levels and limit damage caused by environmental exposure.
To avoid unexpected servicing costs, SITECH offers customers the Trimble Protection Plan. The plan covers environmental damage, calibrations, servicing and software and firmware malfunctions, so businesses are not faced with additional repair costs that they did not budget for. SITECH also provides the option to hire replacement parts while theirs are being serviced, meaning customers can avoid unplanned downtime.