At Your Service – Anywhere And Anytime
At Your Service – Anywhere And Anytime
CRL’s Field Service team goes to the ends of the Earth in order to meet customer needs
Everyone unfortunately has had to deal with a piece of machinery that is no longer operating properly. From vacuum cleaners to dishwashers and automobiles to smartphones, all will at some point require varying levels of service – with many (thanks, Murphy’s Law!) choosing the most inopportune time to begin malfunctioning.
Now imagine you operate a facility that manufactures life science products or disposes of nuclear waste, all of which must be handled in a manner that minimizes risk that contamination of finished end-products or the surrounding environment can occur. In situations such as these, it’s very likely that telemanipulators will be deployed during the manufacturing or waste-removal processes.
Telemanipulators are ideal for use in these applications because they are designed to extend the remote dexterous-manipulative capabilities of human operators into sterile or hazardous operating environments. Typical telemanipulator tasks include remote dexterous manipulation of laboratory instruments and the maintenance and cleaning of process equipment that is used to handle hazardous materials, both of which are unstructured tasks that require human involvement to complete.
Since 1950, Central Research Laboratories® (CRL) has been committed to designing, engineering and developing telemanipulator solutions that can satisfy the critical material-handling needs of the life science and nuclear industries. To date, CRL has created 20 unique telemanipulator models with more than 10,000 of these units manufactured and sent to the field over the years.
An Ounce Of Prevention….
Like all machines, the performance of CRL telemanipulators, which are generally very robust pieces of machinery, can be optimized through regular service via a preventative-maintenance schedule. Knowing this – and combining with CRL’s ironclad commitment to supplying the highest level of customer service for all of its products – the company in 2008 commissioned a dedicated Field Service department. Prior to that, any on-site telemanipulator service, maintenance or repair would need to be performed by a member of CRL’s production team, and the absence of said person could hamper the overall production process.
The demand that was made of the nascent Field Service team – which has been headed by Field Service Specialist Pete Dudley since its formation 16 years ago – was to create a customer-centric system that allowed a quick response to any operational issues that would arise in the field while crafting a preventative-maintenance (PM) program that would help lessen the likelihood that those in-field issues would occur.
The Field Service program is unique in that CRL is currently the only telemanipulator manufacturer in the United States that is offering an on-site maintenance and repair option to its customers, with other U.S.-based manufacturers now requiring their customers to return any broken or malfunctioning parts for repairs. Servicing and maintaining a telemanipulator in the field is also not an easy task. For example, it takes many hours of study and hands-on practice to learn the ins and outs of a new piece of equipment intimately.
To that end, the Field Service team has developed a training and PM program that features yearly contracts with a set price. The contract’s cost includes travel expenses, parts lists and repair/maintenance duties, all for one price, which helps the client set a PM budget two to three years in advance. Generally speaking, the on-site PM process includes, if needed, adjustment of the telemanipulator’s rollers; replacement of any worn cables or tapes, with the handle cable typically experiencing the most wear; and servicing of other parts that are determined to require repair or replacement.
The ultimate benefit of the PM program follows along the lines of the old “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” adage. A telemanipulator that is proactively maintained is less likely to require service over the next 12 months, or before the following year’s PM visit. In fact, some CRL telemanipulators have been in the field for 30 or 40 years and they are still performing reliably, thanks to the annual PM visit.
Anywhere, Anytime
Whenever a telemanipulator does require service, that prompts a call or email to the Field Service team, which begins working to help mitigate the problem. While some problems can be overcome via the phone or email, in-house estimates put the likelihood of a field-service call resulting at 75% to 85% of incidents. Keep in mind that, while most of its business is in North America, CRL has clients on every continent except Antarctica, necessitating some far-flung field-service excursions.
Therefore, the biggest challenge for the Field Service team is often the distance that needs to be traveled in order to service the equipment. This can be complicated by the fact that sometimes the problem hasn’t been reported properly or the correct replacement parts weren’t requested, which can result in the need for a second service trip.
The needs of specific industries also play a part in the Field Service team’s travel schedule. For instance, particle-acceleration laboratories that deploy telemanipulators will often shut down for a week at a time so that their various pieces of equipment can be serviced. CRL doesn’t control when these shutdowns will take place, but the Field Service team must be ready to get where they’re needed when they’re needed, which requires a great amount of operational flexibility.
In order to help simplify the process, CRL does offer service training for its customers and has created a “Telemanipulator Training Guide” for all of its telemanipulator models, but most interactions with the customer will still involve a site visit by a member of the Field Service team.
Conclusion
The end-goal of CRL’s Field Service team is the same as most customer-service programs – create a satisfied customer. The CRL Field Service team constantly strives to do this by being knowledgeable, responsive, flexible and keenly attuned to the unique needs of every customer. That helps the CRL Field Service team stand out in a niche market that many other telemanipulator manufacturers have chosen to abandon.
For more information on any of CRL’s remote-handling technologies and solutions for use in hazardous and sterile material-handling applications, as well as its Field Service program, please visit crlsolutions.com.
