I started in the service field in 1988. Much has changed since the days I either received my pre-planned schedule in advance or I went to the service shop that morning to get instructions from the Region Service Manager. A tenured Region Service Manager maintained relationships with the “key or strategic” customers in the territory by visiting the customer’s site or periodically reaching out with a phone call.

As with everything else in the day of the IOT, we believe we are more connected by email, text, social networking, and applications such as Twitter or Instagram that run on our smart phones. That “constant” contact does very little to build trust or take the place of a good “old fashioned handshake”. Customers still want to associate a name with a face. There’s a level of trust in knowing the real person as opposed to the virtual person that cyberspace can’t replace. Software platforms such as MSA that can track where every Field Engineer in your company only work INTERNALLY. A faceless and nameless scheduler that doesn’t know the customer, skill set of the Field Engineer, or demeanor of the individual they are sending to a customer site are as worthless as a warranty call center. SERVICE IS AS MUCH ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS AS IT IS ABOUT TECHNICAL COMPETENCE!

Here are my key “DO’S and DON’TS for customer service decisions

1) Purchase commissioning services from an OEM only under the following conditions:

A) If the OEM extends the warranty past the customary 12 months (up to 36 months is doable if you push the OEM)

B) Any complex system that involves PLC/RTU automation, SCADA, Generator Control or Protection Relays used for automatic functions other than protection

C) Any critical piece of hardware such as breakers, switches, bus automation that has been in the field less than 2 years (ie new product)

The Customer’s Due Diligence:

1) After your system is commissioned and long before the warranty expires, request the contact information for the Region Service Manager
and arrange a meeting (NO, don’t meet the Region Sales Service Manager because he will take you to lunch and promise you the moon!)

2) During your meeting with the Region Service Manager ask them about their local team (how many, trained disciplines, service shops in the area, typical response times)

3) Meet with every competitive service provider in your area and ask them the same questions

4) Request the OEM training records, NETA or NICET certification for every Field Engineer or Field Technician that could service your facility (keep the training record or certification for each of them for future reference)

5) Convey your service expectations to every person you meet with, pay attention to push back

6) If and when you have service provided get a preliminary report (either yourself or subordinate) prior to the Field Engineer leaving site (you loose credibility with your management if you can’t explain what was repaired for a service call)

Never make your decision on a service provider based solely on price! Make that decision based on, “The best price that can deliver to your expectations.”

My first Service Manager @ Square D was generally a quiet man. He stayed in his office managing the schedule and margin most of the time. On the few occasions that he’d call a Field Engineer to his office it was to let us know we’d provided “sub standard” work to a customer. In his mind you should be so good in the field and establish a rapport with the customer, they requested you by name.

My last manager would get upset if a customer specifically requested one of my Field Engineers by name. The thought being “the customer didn’t run our schedule”. Rather than being upset because a customer requested a specific individual, she should have asked what was unique about that Field Engineer and why all Field Engineers aren’t requested by name. That happens when you spend your time managing a nickel and not managing a business.

It makes you wonder why in the period of less than 2 years long established USA based companies were purchased by European juggernauts?  Industry speculation would be that paralleling switchgear applications can be the lead product in data centers, healthcare, WWTF and 24/7 operations that require backup power.  It also brings in the follow through products in the normal side of the power distribution system (MV/LV switchboards & switchgear, protection relays, metering, drives, EPMS software, etc.)  In theory integration is less complex because the customer is only dealing with one vendor and there is “only one neck to choke”.   Or maybe it’s a European thing that psychologically has something to do with “prestige”?

Each of those acquisitions will create changes within the core designs of ASCO, Russell Electric and Zenith offers.  Unless you believe that Siemens is going to continue buying Schneider Electric breakers for Russell Electric?  ABB obsoleted the GE breakers (Intelliguard G) in January, 2020, Emax 2 low voltage breakers and AMVAC medium voltage breakers will be installed in Zenith paralleling switchgear in the near future.

The most ironic twist in all of this?  All three major manufacturers had standardized on the GE Fanuc PLC platform.  The GE Fanuc 90-30 was a stalwart for over a decade.  The Rx3i platform is also a more than capable replacement for the 90-30.

ABB didn’t acquire GE Fanuc PLCs in the purchase, so GE sold GE Fanuc to Emerson Electric. If Emerson Electric had purchased GE Fanuc to make a big splash in the Power Delivery controls arena, they would have never sold ASCO to Schneider Electric.  Emerson Electric bought GE Fanuc because of it’s process control capability and install base.  Process control PLC applications have a 700% – 800% larger installed base than power distribution PLC applications.

In the near future you’ll see ASCO with a Modicon/Tele PLC, Russell Electric will have Siemens breakers and PLCs, and it’s already happening at Zenith.   They will do this to increase their incremental revenue with their own products. What happens to all those “orphaned” systems that had GE Fanuc PLCs and someone else’s breakers and protective relays?

The Zenith installed base since the GE purchase in 1999 totals about 1200 installations.  ASCO and Russell Electric were always #1 and #2 in sales.  By my estimation there are at least 4,000 if not more installations of systems with the GE Fanuc PLCs. No single manufacturer that currently sells paralleling switchgear can claim owning the core component that is the heart of the system.

I believe ASCO and Russell Electric will be better positioned to service their customers when the changes occur.  Each have a large regional presence from which they service their customer base.  Let’s hope that Schneider Electric and Siemens don’t change a business model that has worked for decades.

Zenith will be at a disadvantage because in 2014 GE decided to “break up the band”.  Zenith engineering is still based in Chicago, equipment manufacturing occurs in the ABB plant in Burlington, Iowa and the commissioning team is dispersed individually across the USA.  On it’s best day this system of going to business is dysfunctional.

The future is bright.  There should be many opportunities for small independent service providers to fill those gaps.

A lot of time in the field performing engineering upgrades and equipment maintenance forms the fundamental categories that Paragon Engineering utilizes to assess a customer’s power distribution, protection and control systems.  There are usually ten (10) specific pieces of information that we investigate to provide an objective risk assessment to the end user’s system.

There are no “scare” tactics involved because we aren’t manufacturer’s sales representatives.  We were hired to advise the customer about the health of their current system (s) and what are the possibilities to mitigate their risk.  With power distribution products that are up to 50 years old, there are normally numerous options.  Protection Relays and Automation Controls are more limited due to the shorter life cycle of the hardware’s electronic platform.

From the categories of the assessment each hardware platform is graded.  The higher the graded value, the greater the risk. The data is input into a proprietary tool.  Within the Risk Assessment Matrix (RAM) a very simple algorithm is applied that equates to risk.  Risk doesn’t necessarily mean failure.  Risk defines for the customer where the “weak links” are within their system and why they were designated higher risk.  As part of the process, there is a wrap up meeting with the customer.  Each risk, rating and how to mitigate the risk is discussed.

The image in this blog is the output of the RAM tool from a recent assessment.  The site visit for the assessment took four days.  In those four days every piece of hardware was photographed, each operation was tested, maintenance records were reviewed, etc.  The report was 50 pages long because there were 147 different devices inspected.

If you are truly interested in mitigating your risk, hire someone that understands that simply replacing older equipment with new equipment will mitigate risk but it may not be necessary or it could be financially prohibitive.  Having an OEM perform the assessment will produce a report that advises the customer to replace a competitors older equipment with that OEM’s newer offer.  While the OEM may not support the equipment, there are usually many 3rd party independent vendors that do.  EXAMPLE; Westinghouse went out of business in August 1993, you can purchase every vital part for a VCP-W Medium Voltage breaker new.  Rebuilding that breaker (they were excellent pieces of hardware) cost 50% to 60% of a roll in replacement.

As with most things in life, the value of a service is proportional to what that service costs.  When you hire someone to do a “free’ site equipment assessment, you should keep that in mind.