manroland Survey Finds High Success Rate with Remote Service
WESTMONT, IL—May 25, 2011—In a recent survey conducted by manroland Inc in North America of customers with access to manroland’s TelePresence remote service system for sheetfed presses, users get their equipment back into production 93 percent of the time solely with remote service. Remote repairs are done typically within hours and sometimes within minutes of initiating a remote service request through TelePresence.
In addition, when a service technician is required, repairs requested through the TelePresence system are completed as much as 80 percent faster because the problem has been narrowed down to a small number of possible causes. This allows the technician to arrive with the right tools and parts needed to fix any of the alternatives.
According to Matt Braun, director of national service, manroland was the first press manufacturer to offer remote service via the Internet. The TelePresence system has been a standard offering for all new manroland sheetfed presses since 2007 and older presses can be retrofitted to accommodate the valuable and cost-effective service. Nearly 100 percent of the customers who have utilized this value-added service have renewed it.
Braun said the manroland TelePresence Service, which won the PIA InterTech Technology Award in 2005, is unlike other remote diagnostic services in that it provides technicians on the network with complete press access—not just to the main console, but to all of the computers networked with a modern sheetfed printing press.
A manroland six-color coater/perfector, for example, can be connected to as many as 26 computers, and remote technicians can work with all of them as easily as if they were standing next to the unit in question. As for mechanical components, remote technicians can see what his happening in various locations by way of embedded webcams or with the aid of a hand-held video camera that is provided by manroland.
Once a service request has been initiated through TelePresence, response is fast. It only takes six seconds for it to reach the factory in Offenbach, Germany, where the equipment is completely identified and its specifications linked over to the North American Remote Service Center in Westmont, IL. A full-time staff of remote technicians keeps pace with service requests as they occur. If specialized expertise is required, factory technicians in Offenbach may also be brought into a remote diagnostics session.
The COT Media Group in Christ Church, Barbados, has been using the TelePresence service since the company purchased its manroland 500 five-color printer/coater in 2006. Nigel Worme, Managing Director of COT, said, “Being a one press operation situated on a little island in the middle of the Caribbean means you need to keep your press in good shape to avoid unplanned service calls. You also need to know that when something unexpected does happen you have access to a resource that can react quickly.”
“TelePresence gives us an instant connection to manroland service technicians as soon as there is a hint of a problem with the press. The machine keeps a log of faults which can be seen by manroland in Chicago and, if need be, at the factory in Germany. So there is a lot less ambiguity about what is going on. Then they can actually get into the machine, take control of it and perform functions to see for themselves what is working and what is not.
“We probably use TelePresence two or three times a month. That and an aggressive ProServ scheduled maintenance program have kept us up and running. I have worked in this business for 35 years and the uptime of this press has been considerably higher than any equipment we’ve ever run previously. We have replaced two presses with this one. Not only did it pick up all of that production, but it has taken on 60-70 percent more work on top of that. We have a lot riding on this press and TelePresence is our insurance policy.”
Fannon Fine Printing, located in Alexandria, VA, just six miles south of Washington, DC, relies extensively on the TelePresence service to sustain production of its Roland 500 six-color press with anilox coating.
“We knew that the capability of remote monitoring and diagnostics of TelePresence would allow the press operators to troubleshoot faults, work through them and return the press to production quickly.” Said Frank Brown, pressroom foreman. “Most faults are cleared in the same amount of time that it would have taken just to find the page and related matters in the old manual system. The access of technical support through TelePresence has reduced down time greatly and put management at ease knowing that professional help is on the problem. Telepresence is there for 24 hours a day, seven days a week ”
He continued, “Being a high end printer doing all types of work from posters, brochures, magazines to annual reports, the press endures a tight schedule that TelePresence not only helps to meet, but with the added maintenance plan and history of maintenance, protects the investment and adds to the future resale of the press.”
Litho Press (Indianapolis) purchased its new manroland 900XXL 73˝, six-color press with UV coater in 2008. Pressman Zack Bird said, “TelePresence has allowed us to resolve most of our problems without having to resort to a service call.”
Aspects of TelePresence that Bird appreciates most include the ability to show manroland's remote technicians areas of concern with the video camera, manroland’s immediate access to alarm conditions and its ability to control and adjust press parameters over the internet, and getting responses to TelePresence service requests at any time of they day.
Today, manroland provides free access to the TelePresence service for as long as the press is under warranty. After the warranty period, the owner can renew for a nominal annual fee, which covers all of the appropriately equipped presses in a plant. Some TelePresence users have as many as 7 presses covered under a single service agreement. Even presses in adjacent buildings can be covered by one TelePresence agreement. Customers are free to use TelePresence as often as needed without any additional charges beyond the fee.
To further improve uptime benefits of the service portal, the TelePresence concept has been expanded to include a Maintenance Manager for coordinating press maintenance schedules and to electronically deliver maintenance documentation. In 2011 this capability has been expanded beyond the manufacturer's original equipment to include scheduling and documentation for the printer's custom equipment. The Maintenance Manager can be extended to all of the manroland sheetfed presses in a plant as long as there is a TelePresence agreement in effect.
about manroland
manroland, Inc is a division of manroland AG the world's second largest printing systems manufacturer and the world's market leader in web offset. Webfed and sheetfed presses provide solutions for publishing, commercial, and packaging printing. Visit the manroland website at www.manroland.us.com.
Source: manroland
