Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1501483
62 PCB007 MAGAZINE I JUNE 2023 that many of them start aging. If we don't have a spare parts inventory to support that, then it could be days or even weeks to get a part, and that's unacceptable. Since 2020, our spare parts inventory has tripled. We added more spare part inventory at our headquarters in Greensboro, North Carolina, as well as in Southern California, to improve our shipping response times. We track our spare parts, so we know how much we are actually shipping vs. the factory. at's a good gauge of whether we have the right parts in the right quan- tities. In our last review, we found we shipped about 80% of our North American part orders from our North Amer- ica stock locations. We're doing a really good job having the right parts, but we know we can always improve. I've been hearing about a field service software called Visual Planning. How does that tool contribute to your team's perfor- mance? As the department grows, so does the demand to be organized. We need to use technology to our advantage. ere are many soware options when it comes to field service. I have spent a lot of time with multiple soware com- panies trying to find the right fit for what we're doing. In March, we released our field service so- ware, called Visual Planning, and it's available to all our technicians. ey will arrive onsite with iPads and their schedules, fill out their service reports, and the customer can immedi- ately sign off on the service report on the iPad. It adds a level of professionalism that Excel sheets and manual tracking couldn't deliver. How does the Visual Planning tool improve the experience for your customer? e service quoting process is more stream- lined and more organized. e invoicing pro- cess is far more organized. ere's less oppor- tunity for a dropped ball or forgotten quote, and now we have a ticketing system. When we started our hotline a few years ago, one of our struggles was keeping track of all the open cases. I might be on the hotline and tracking the cases. But what if I go on vacation the next week or I'm out doing ser- vice calls? Someone else is man- aging the hotline and if a cus- tomer calls back, they have to explain their problem all over again and go through all the troubleshooting steps. We wanted to be able to pick up where we le off. We now have a ticketing system that captures the infor- mation I'm doing this week, so that next week when one of our other engineers is on the hotline, he can pick up where I le off, and there's no information gap. You don't misplace service calls either. Sometimes the issues from callers aren't because a machine is down; it's more of something that's nagging. A proper ticketing system puts pressing issues front of mind. What is the service team's role within the greater organization of the company glob- ally? How does the North American team fit? Customers today are buying machines not only due to quality of the machine, but also the reputation of the service organization for the machine. We have a reliable service depart- ment and that is what's driving sales. Custom- ers have the comfort of knowing there's a plan to keep their machines running. e service department is now a major contributor to the success of Schmoll in America. How big do you think your team will be in two years? As the department grows, so does the demand to be organized.