Benefits of Readily Available & Properly Equipped Outsourced Field Service Technicians
However well designed your system may be, eventually it will fail. And odds are that it will fail at the worst possible time—late in the evening, on a Sunday, or a public holiday, whenever you are least prepared to deal with unexpected downtime.
When this happens, you will need to turn to a field service technician to fix the problem. Many organizations find that they don’t have the expertise or personnel to effectively react to urgent field calls, but there is a straightforward solution.
This article looks at the role of field service technicians—and how a well-trained outsourced technician could be the answer to your equipment maintenance needs.
What Makes a Good Field Service Technician?
Technology has provided countless benefits to factories and plants across the world. Advances in automation technology have enabled systems, processes, and machinery to function for long periods with little to no human interaction at all.
However, there will inevitably be a time when something fails and human expertise and ingenuity are required. When that happens out in the field, you need to know that the technician you send out is up to the job.
With a background in hands-on factory training and an understanding of the processes and technology in your specific industry, a good field service technician will come up with a repair solution much faster than a person who is relying on general technical knowledge to provide an answer.
By applying their very specific knowledge about the equipment they work on, experienced technicians can take less time to get machinery working again. A skilled field service technician will have a better range of solutions simply because they’re fixing problems every day. Whatever is wrong with your machinery, chances are an experienced technician will have fixed something like it before.
Getting to a solution faster means getting back into production sooner, giving you a plant that functions more effectively.
Why Outsource?
It’s a startling fact that baby boomers are retiring at a rate of 10,000 people per day. These men and women are leaving critical job functions, including the essential role of maintenance technician.
When these experienced workers leave their industries, they leave behind knowledge gaps that are hard to fill. When seasoned plant maintenance workers retire, they take with them a wealth of tribal knowledge that is hard to replace with traditional training and education—all too often, when they leave, critical knowledge leaves with them, with no way to recapture it internally.
Organizations may find it difficult to replace these skills themselves, and may need to look toward external partners for support and training. An experienced partner can help train your staff in the skills that may have been lost due to retirement. They can also provide practical support in the form of experienced field service technicians who can cover for absent workers or provide guidance for new hires or inexperienced in-house technicians.
Outsourced field service technicians can provide technical support for a fixed time period, add extra support during particularly busy periods, or if your own team is short-staffed due to illness or absenteeism. This flexibility is an added bonus when taking on external field service technicians: you get the benefit of focused support, where you need it, and only for as long as you need it, without having to add to your payroll.
Support From an Experienced Field Service Partner
Finding a partner with the experience and expertise to support your field service needs can be the best way to remedy the issues caused by industry skills gaps and personnel shortages.
An experienced partner, familiar with the technology and safety issues in technical and production-oriented organizations, offers instant access to the kind of knowledge currently being lost due to baby-boomers retiring and to personnel shortages. Businesses can augment their own field service personnel with outside experts who provide support as the need arises.
Having readily available, properly trained and equipped field service technicians on call to step in and support your company’s in-house team can solve a number of long- and short-term issues for your organization and can save you money in the long run. Do the necessary research and ensure the company you partner with understands your industry and the unique needs of your organization. Once you have completed your due diligence and have the right partner on-board, you will be in an excellent position to face the challenges of today’s increasingly competitive marketplace.
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