Over the last couple of years, supply chain issues and their monumental impact on the construction and transportation sectors have been well publicized. It’s been extraordinarily difficult for equipment/fleet owners to find new equipment, trucks, and parts during the pandemic.
Unfortunately, finding correct equipment parts can be difficult at the best of times. It entails searching through a variety of manuals to identify the correct part ID number, not just for equipment make and model, but for a specific serial number, then calling around to suppliers in the area to locate the very specific part you need, and then once received, receiving the service documentation to install it. With SmartEquip, the newest member of the Ritchie Bros. family, asset-specific parts procurement and service support are about to get a whole lot easier.
Identify, source, and procure parts electronically
For over 20 years the SmartEquip team has been specializing in the parts procurement and service support business, improving equipment lifecycle management for fleet owners and their suppliers alike. With the SmartEquip platform, equipment owners are connected to all their different branded suppliers, while also fully integrating into their own fleet management system. This enables dynamic, serial-number-specific support of all their fleet activities.
SmartEquip: how it works
Essentially, SmartEquip helps equipment owners find, source, and buy repair parts more efficiently with significantly fewer errors. Here’s how:
- Access product information: Customers can access product support information with easy-to-read, manufacturer-supplied point-and-click schematics and parts lists, anywhere, any time with a single log-in
- Validate inventory: Once a part is identified, they can seamlessly access both internal/company stock, as well as stock at suppliers, making intelligent purchasing decisions all from one screen
- Submit purchase orders: And once the externally sourced parts are identified, SmartEquip will automatically create and submit purchase orders within the equipment owner’s existing purchasing platform, gathering any required approvals, and eliminating hours of administrative work across the enterprise
SmartEquip’s underlying catalog technology is another huge selling feature of the platform. Its detailed, digital equipment catalog outlines hundreds of thousands of equipment schematics, to ensure accurate parts identification and prevent all too common mis-orders, and subsequently, to ensure proper installation of the part, once received.
This electronic catalog is available in three formats, depending on the level of technical detail required:
- Standard: Basic listing of parts with high-level part data and descriptions
- Enhanced: Incremental part data and information with multimedia capabilities, including images, links, and documents
- Interactive: Advanced, serial number specific, “exploded” parts diagrams to maximize ability of identifying the right part for a piece of equipment
Creating value for both sides of the supply chain
The best thing about SmartEquip is how it’s designed to benefit both the equipment owner and the supplier. The growing SmartEquip Network today delivers orders to over 1,000+ suppliers, covering 650+ active OEM/supplier brands, and supporting 100+ equipment fleets worldwide.
Benefits for equipment owners
- Increase wrench time: Reduce part identification time by approximately 90%, improve service technician productivity and repair through-put by more than 50%, and eliminate parts ordering errors
- Improve equipment uptime: Every hour of service time saved is an additional hour of equipment availability
- Improve administrative workflow: Automate approximately 80% of the admin work associated with preparing parts/price lists and the creation of purchase orders and work orders, and fully automating the maintenance of all item master data in the company’s ERP system
Benefits for equipment suppliers
- Increase Sales: Suppliers embed their brands directly into the customer procurement process, reducing sales friction through increased order efficiency
- Increase customer satisfaction: Provides equipment owners a 24/7 virtual storefront with serial number-specific, interactive part diagrams to ensure the right part is selected
- Save money: All of this more responsive, 24/7 serial-number specific support comes at a much-reduced cost, through significant decreases in order calls and support calls, as well as a much lower order error rate, saving time and money on part returns