ABSTRACT
In this paper, the authors describe the technical and organisational structural features necessary for the effective use of a reliability database for on-line customer service. The evolving need for such a system and the technical difficulties in developing it within Copystatic are described, together with how they have been successfully overcome within a leader in the photocopier marked devoted to Quality of Service.
With the increasing emphasis on customer service, the customer service interface personnel must be able to respond on-line over the telephone to customer queries, complaints and requests for maintenance support with detailed product, installation and likely diagnostic information in order to provide the high level of sophisticated product support expected by the user. Accordingly, the system must not only have on-line access to customer, product and previous maintenance information, but must also be able to provide analysis of likely failure causes, based upon customer-identifiable failure modes. These are based upon analyses by maintenance files personnel being inputted on-line to the system. Such interim ‘expert’ diagnosis of failure modes enables the customer-service interface personnel to reassure the client and to locate and schedule experienced field maintenance personnel. As a byproduct, detailed cost, financial and spare holdings data are available online for management monitoring, prioritising and decision making.
When properly implemented, such systems have a major development potential in todays customer-driver business environment. However, they also offer enormous potential in development projects and for centrally-supported field operations, such as supporting military deployed equipment and public service functions.
Reliability databases are now of such established importance that the myriad reliability texts and conferences are increasingly treating them as a legitimate area of interest in their own building and managing Reliability Databases and reviews the features and use of major reliability databases on the world scene.
71Nonetheless, the revolution that has been taking place in organisational management, customer service and customer awareness associated with World Industry’s progress towards Total Quality Management, has very largely been overlooked in the general development of reliability databases.
In this paper, the authors describe the technical and organisational structural features necessary for the effective use of a reliability database for on-line customer service. The evolving need for such a system and the technical difficulties in developing it within Copystatic are described, together with how they have been successfully overcome within a leader in the photocopier market devoted to Quality of Service.
The implementation of the systems, together with hardware and software constraints and requirements, are described. The unified nature of the system and the features of individual modules offer great flexibility which has facilitated current and future developments.
Views of the reliability database from the positions of the product support manager, customer service interface personnel, field maintenance engineers and the customer are all different. In the past in-house reliability databases have responded to the requirements of particular users including the product support manager and maintenance personnel, with the increasing emphasis on customer service, the customer-service interface personnel must be able to respond on-line over the telephone to customer queries, complaints and requests for maintenance support with detailed product, installation and likely diagnostic information in order to provide the high level of sophisticated product support expected by the user.
Accordingly, the system must not only have on-line access to customer product and previous maintenance but must also be able to provide analysis of likely failure causes, based upon customer-identifiable failure modes. These are based upon analyses by maintenance files personnel being inputted online to the system. Such interim ‘expert’ diagnosis of failure modes enables the customer-service interface personnel to reassure the client and to locate and schedule experienced filed maintenance personnel. As a by-product, detailed cost, financial and spare holdings data are available on-line for management monitoring, prioritising and decision making.
When properly implemented, -such systems have a major development potential in todays customer-driver business environment. However, they also offer enormous potential in development projects and for centrally-supported field operations, such as supporting military deployed equipment and public service functions.
