Over the past year, Komatsu Australia has implemented a “Fix It First Time” concept, which it says ensures that customers’ machine issues are identified, addressed and resolved in the shortest possible time, and on the first visit – minimising downtime and keeping repair and service costs to a minimum. “Our Fix it First Time service focuses on getting our customers’ machine issues resolved in the least possible time, and on the first visit, so that downtime is minimised,” said Todd Connolly, Komatsu Australia’s General Manager – Market Innovation.

“This is another element of Komatsu Australia’s holistic approach to machine monitoring, troubleshooting and servicing,” he said. “Our ICT (Information Communications Technology) systems – which include KOMTRAX and Condition Monitoring Services – help to ensure that the issues arising on a machine are fully understood and diagnosed, prior to a Komatsu technician attending the customer’s job site.” Connolly said that this preparation, in combination with Komatsu’s fully qualified in-house technicians, meant that a technician with the right skills, the right parts and the right tools is dispatched to get each customer’s machine back to work quickly.

“By reviewing the latest machine ICT information before heading out to service the machine, our technicians can understand how the machine has been operating in previous days and weeks, including any abnormalities which have occurred. This understanding allows for diagnosis and troubleshooting to begin before leaving the branch, creating the shortest-possible path to get a machine working again,” said Connolly. “This means that we are far more likely to fix the machine on the first visit. This is something that our competitors in the service space can’t match because they don’t have access to the same skill set of reliability engineers or our advanced ICT systems. Our approach is that every hour a machine is not working, it is not earning money for our customer. Through the Fix It First Time process, we can minimise machine downtime, ultimately improving the productivity of each Komatsu machine.”