Achieving operational efficiency and driving utmost customer satisfaction are essential aspects of growth for any OEM. These factors not only drive growth but are also important in maintaining a competitive edge in today’s business landscape. Traditional OEMs utilized paper manuals, which brought with them their own set of challenges and limitations.
Every manufacturer aims to have efficient operations and a well-collaborated stakeholder network. We have experienced a shift from traditional paper-based manuals to interactive electronic manuals which has brought about a transformation for OEMs. By digitizing the manuals, OEMs have been able to provide product information and support digitally.
Paper manuals had huge costs of maintenance and distribution which often became challenging for manufacturers to maintain. Electronic manuals utilize 3D and 2D interactive diagrams to portray information, making it easy for training and maintenance activities. With a digital presentation of important information, these electronic manuals elevate the user experience of the end users.
Today, we will talk about how OEMs can enjoy cost savings by deploying these electronic manuals.
1. Production Costs Are Reduced
When using traditional manuals, the need for printing and distribution of these manuals was high. Even for a minor change, the manual would need to be reprinted and distributed. Here is how OEMs can save costs with electronic manuals:
a. No More Printing Costs: Interactive electronic manuals do not need printing and have little to no distribution costs associated with them.
b. No Additional Cost for Changes: Paper manuals needed to be reprinted in case of any changes. These digital manuals do not need to be reprinted in such cases.
c. Handling Costs Are Zero: Interactive digital manuals have zero handling costs as they are electronic which makes them easy to handle, distribute and store.
2. Better Customer Support
Interactive electronic manuals have a major impact on customer support as information retrieval is of utmost importance. With text and voice search capabilities, they make troubleshooting easy. These manuals also have the option to add any supportive documents to aid the troubleshooting process or improve knowledge.
a. Interactiveness: Troubleshooting is made interactive with 2D and 3D diagrams. Users can find the exact information in less time which improves customer service.
b. Integration with Other Systems: These interactive manuals can be easily integrated with ERP or CRM systems which make it convenient and easy to use.
3. Logistics Costs Are Reduced
Physical manuals needed to be transported and shipped to various dealers whenever there was a new update in the system. However, with digital manuals, there is no shipping or logistics cost involved.
a. No Delivery: Interactive digital manual can be shared instantly with users which makes it convenient and saves costs for OEMs.
b. Lesser Carbon Footprint: Lesser paper printing is required in these cases which contributes to reducing the carbon footprint, making the OEMs' green initiatives possible.
c. Instant Access: Dealers and various stakeholders had to wait for the physical manual to be delivered after shipment to use them. However, with digital manuals, all stakeholders involved have access to the manual from the moment the user attributes are assigned.
4. A Boost in Productivity
For any OEM to thrive, the service functions need to be the best in the industry. These OEMs rely heavily on the technicians and their expertise. When a traditional manual is used, the repair process is slowed down as these manuals are heavy with almost 40 to 50 thousand pages. Finding the right information takes time which slows down the repair process.
a. 3D and 2D Models: The interactive electronic manuals have inbuilt 3D or 2D diagrams which make the repair process easy and faster. With information available quickly, the repair can be faster and OEMs can save unnecessary costs due to delayed repairs.
b. Multi-Platform Access: Digital manuals are available on mobile devices as well which makes the availability a plus point for OEMs. With paper manuals, it would only be available at the office premises. The interactive electronic manuals can be accessed 24/7 which gives a competitive edge along with cost savings.
c. New Technology Integration: These digital manuals can be integrated with new technology such as AR and VR to further improve the repair process and also enhance training and knowledge transfer.
5. Higher Customer Satisfaction
We started this discussion by giving the appropriate weightage to customer satisfaction. Lower customer satisfaction would ultimately make the cost of customer acquisition and retention very high which would hamper the operational efficiency of the OEM. With interactive electronic manuals, the customer’s queries are resolved faster which would make them happy. This would make the retention costs lower and the positive effect of such would be a lower customer acquisition cost.
a. Personal Experience: As per the requirements of the users and their usage patterns, the experience can be personalized. If they want to use more videos, that can be done, if the users want to have more technical documents, that can also be incorporated.
b. Interactive Animations: There are measures to adopt animations that make the repair process extremely user-friendly. This makes troubleshooting very easy and makes repairs faster.
As we have seen these 5 major ways how OEMs can save additional costs and prioritize customer service. The interactive electronic manuals can also help improve the training that is given to new technicians joining the team. In such pieces of training, the availability of information. The information can also be distributed quickly which makes the distribution costs go down and OEMs can save costs there.
Browse Related Blogs:
https://www.behance.net/gallery/210240763/Mastering-Onsite-Equipment-Maintenance
https://webyourself.eu/blogs/560081/Improving-Technical-Support-with-a-Knowledge-Base-System
Conclusion
Printed manuals had a lot of challenges with them. The distribution, printing, reprinting, and redistribution alone made a dent in the revenue generation of OEMs. With the advent of interactive electronic manuals, all these have been taken care of. These digital manuals do not need to be printed or distributed via physical means. They can have supporting documents, videos, animations, or any kind of information that is required to be added to the manual. Information retrieval has been made faster with the help of searches in the form of text or voice.
All in all, these digital manuals are a boon for OEMs and they can save major costs by deploying such solutions.
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