Our Field Service Operations
Installation, maintenance, and servicing are all part of the lifespan requirements for mechanical and electrical equipment. At Enercon, our interaction with our customers doesn’t stop at design, fabrication, or installation; the relationship can continue for decades, spanning the lifespan of their equipment.
In part one of this interview, we examined the technical aspects of our preventative maintenance and field service visits, potential problems, and what’s typically involved in a visit. In part two, we’ll examine some of the more intangible aspects of the preventative maintenance process, including its benefits, how things work on our side, and some insight into the breadth of work our service teams take part in.
Tell us more about PMIP and its usual process for customers.
The Field Service department at Enercon, which deals with preventative maintenance and servicing, uses the acronym PMIP. This acronym refers to our after-sales customer relationship and stands for Preventative Maintenance and Inspection Program.
As a best practice, we encourage contracting annual inspections soon after any new equipment is commissioned, starting one year from installation. Often, however, customers skip annual preventative maintenance (or plan to do it themselves), and contracts are started after a customer has issues and requests Enercon field support. After that field service trip, we will discuss setting up a proactive annual PMIP contract. Others are ongoing multi-year contracts we quote and renew on the expiration year. Additionally, we actively reach out to customers around six months to a year after startup to suggest contracting a regular PMIP schedule.
Inspections may be scheduled around annual plant maintenance shutdowns and might include other contractors, but most are scheduled with Enercon as the sole contractor. They are scheduled on a month or day of the week that suits the customer’s needs and schedule.
What are the benefits of regular visits as part of the PMIP?
Annual preventative maintenance has proven to reduce the costs of unexpected failures that require costly emergency site support visits. It also increases the longevity of the equipment.
Some plans start with an annual contract, but after the first preventative maintenance visit, most customers choose to set up a 3-year or 5-year maintenance plan to be performed in the same quarter annually. This saves them money and helps keep their maintenance and servicing plans on track. A multi-year contract expedites the service and ensures continuity of care and knowledge. Customers with multi-year contracts also get reduced pricing on replacement or spare parts.
If a customer has not kept up on annual maintenance, our quote might look different than if the maintenance was performed annually. What we mean here is that maintenance, which normally requires one day of work, will take two days in the first year to address all the neglected areas or three days in the first year and two in the following years. The first year in these situations will also require more thorough documentation of customer-added components, notation of non-functioning or broken parts, and more time-consuming general housekeeping.
With Enercon on-site annually, we can also monitor the quality and age of the controls and make recommendations about when an upgrade would benefit the user. We keep the sales team informed of the preventative maintenance visits and bring them in to support the customer when an upgrade needs to be quoted.
How are issues diagnosed and resolved?
The excellent training and technical qualifications of our Field Service team and support from our Engineering and Programming team allow us to successfully diagnose and resolve most issues. Some issues must be supported with replacing a damaged or non-functioning component. Some issues can be temporarily addressed, but an upgrade might be required.
Other issues involve addressing the customer's lack of operator understanding, where a refresher course or full on-site operator training might be the best solution. Training can be completed as a stand-up session at the equipment or in a conference room at the job site.
Can diagnostics be done remotely?
Phone support is currently the only way to provide remote support. If the technology is available, we will utilize FaceTime or other video means to see what the customer sees. Once a diagnosis has been made, the parts are shipped to address the issue or a technician is dispatched to the site.
Do you perform emergency callouts? If so, what’s the lead time for emergency repair?
Lead time is based on availability. A few weeks ago, during the afternoon, one of our technicians had just landed from a 12-day startup project. He took his phone off airplane mode and, within half an hour, was supporting a customer with emergency phone support. He rented a vehicle and was headed to the site the following morning at 4:30 a.m.
If the situation requires immediate support, we do our best to provide phone support from our Service team. If they are unavailable, we will utilize the Engineering or Programming team.
If parts are required, we will first check what we have in stock, but if the required replacement parts must be ordered, we are at the mercy of the best lead time we can find from suppliers. If it is a breaker or programmable component, lead times have unfortunately been up to 2-8 weeks, even stretching six months or longer.
Often, phone support will not rectify the issues, so a technician is quoted and dispatched.
What is the geographical limit (if any) to your team’s work?
There is no limit. Last year, we supported a customer located on a remote island in the South Indian Ocean on a military base. It was not economical or logistically sensible to send a technician, so our customer contracted with us for extensive phone support.
We currently have a couple of quotes out for projects in the Caribbean. We just completed a site assessment for an upgrade on a private island in the Bahamas. We also have our partners with Enercon Asia that will support locations that are logistically more sensible for them to support.
In terms of parts, is Enercon capable of fabricating most necessary replacements, or does it rely on ordering from outside OEMs?
At Enercon, we can fabricate all sheet metal in-house, and all assembly, programming, and testing are also completed at our facilities. However, we do purchase all required parts from OEMs.
What’s the usual lead time from diagnosis to repair for regular issues?
Most issues are resolved at the site within a day or two. This is the value of starting a service trip with phone support. If replacement parts are required, they can be sourced before going to the site, eliminating the need for a second trip for repair or installation.
Can you tell us more about your regular or even non-regular service/maintenance jobs?
The interesting part about the PMIP is the people we meet and the places we go. It’s also interesting to hear about the value that our work provides for customers.
We have installed and maintained our gear in many diverse locations, though over the last four years, a few of our trips have been international. Here’s a look at our tracked service jobs, which do not include warranty trips, only regular contracted jobs:
2021 – 58 service trips – 21 startups
2022 – 78 service trips – 25 startups
2023 – 57 service trips – 21 startups
2024 – 40 service trips – 8 startups (Up to beginning H2)
Just a small sample of the projects we’ve worked on in North America over the last five years include:
Casinos – in recent years: Washington, Wisconsin, Missouri, Illinois
Water Treatment plants – from California to Florida to Michigan – both clean and black water – all water treatment plants are critical, but especially in high hurricane areas
Hospitals – Wisconsin, New Hampshire, Illinois, New York, Missouri, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Michigan, Iowa
Federal and State Correctional Facilities – Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Alaska, Arizona, West Virginia, Massachusetts, Maine, New York
Banks and data centers – Illinois, Michigan, Arizona, and Montreal in Canada
Military facilities – armories, bases
Commercial buildings such as insurance companies, industrial plants, and bakeries
Foundries – Wisconsin – where the customer said if they lost power to the plant for more than 3 hours, the vats of molten steel would harden, and the plant would be a total loss, making their emergency power supply absolutely critical.
Steel Factories – Ohio, Illinois
Oil and Gas Facilities – Louisiana, Ohio, Texas, Illinois, California, Idaho, Kentucky, Oklahoma
Farms – Arkansas and Texas
Power Generation Facilities – Iowa, Nevada, Illinois
Cities – Illinois, Nevada, Wisconsin, Iowa, Oklahoma, Arizona, Missouri
Churches – Texas
Landfills – All across the US
Mining – Wyoming
Airports – Arizona, Illinois
Any final bits of advice on the best compliance protocols to follow?
Safety, safety, safety and utilize a trained, qualified Service Technician whenever possible.
Conclusion
We sincerely thank our Service Manager for giving us all insight into the technical and processual aspects of their work with PMIP. The regular maintenance and service they provide, including phone support and site callouts, are invaluable for extending the lifespan of installed equipment and ensuring customers get the best ROI on their capital spend. Many projects, especially those involving emergency backup power, may only be called into action infrequently and require regular inspection and maintenance, even when not in use, to ensure they can operate at rated capacity when needed.
At Enercon, our teams support customers at any time and any place, solving equipment issues and performing preventive maintenance to prevent them from occurring. To learn more about how our maintenance and service teams can support your business and improve its revenue security, contact us here.
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