Servicing for success

Ficep UK’s servicing and support provision has grown consistently year on year, despite the steel processing industry being hit hard during the pandemic and by additional global factors which are affecting supply, costs and workforce.

So, what is it about our servicing provisions that customers are investing in, especially in the current economic climate when every penny matters? Richard Clark, our UK Operations Director, explains:

The beating heart of operations

We have a long history of providing innovative industry-leading technology which is developed to meet the needs of our customers – from single lines to more complex systems – and we are confident that the solutions we provide are the very best in the world. For most of our customers, our CNC lines represent the beating heart of their production facility and should any downtime occur, the entire manufacturing operation would suffer considerably.

System efficiency is critical to many of our customers, they want systems which produce reliably and operate at their optimal level to help them deliver processed steel to a very high standard for end users.

Maintaining excellence

Our servicing provision is about maintaining the excellence of our systems over time through packages which are designed to support every customer. The operational side of the business is one of the things that makes Ficep UK an obvious choice for steel processing machines. Our UK-based customer service team and service engineers set us apart from any other suppliers.

Avoiding any production downtime is important to our customers, which is why we constantly invest in our field and office-based customer service teams and any tooling or testing equipment that will help keep customer production lines running effectively. We are proud to say that we provide the highest ratio of field service staff to all installations in the UK steel processing industry. This investment in key personnel and systems allows us to accommodate the fast reaction demanded by our customers.

Which service package is right for my business?

We provide a range of 12-month servicing packages at varying levels to ensure customers can select the right level of support for their requirements. Our packages include:

• Standard Package - Our standard package provides one annual service with one of our Ficep highly skilled field service engineers. A fast on-site response time which also includes call out days during the year. We also provide discount on spares to reward our customers for their commitment to Ficep
• Premier Package – With the premium level of care, customers receive multiple annual services, priority response to site visits from one of our highly skilled field service engineers, plus additional multiple call outs. All premium customers receive additional discount for any spares purchased.
• Bespoke Package – We can also build the right schedule for CNC machine maintenance and service depending on customer’s needs. This might include pre-booked call out days, through to quarterly servicing.

Experienced technical support

If you do need technical support on your machine, we’ve invested in the latest technology to provide online support enabling our office-based teams to connect immediately to our customers’ machines providing reduced downtime. With our technical experience and expertise of steel processing CNC machines, our engineers are well equipped to diagnose issues, without delay, using a remote connection to the customer’s Ficep CNC line.

If one of our engineers is visiting a customer’s site, we can update them precisely when our engineer will be arriving on site, and our online job management system logs all information our engineers find for a complete service to our customer. Our service engineers provide all the necessary electronic worksheets on their visit available immediately to our customers, which significantly reduces service administration time.

Our online job management system enables our in-house technical support team to log any incoming service requests, manage them efficiently but also gives our visiting field service engineers complete customer machine history, serial number and previous information about the Ficep machines in order to speed up the diagnostic process. It also gives us the opportunity to resolve any incoming issues remotely on the same day.

Tooling and spare parts

Our tooling department is an integral part of our business, providing the support on customer machines to maximise the lifespan of their investment. We currently stock spare parts in the UK at our headquarters, which significantly reduces our customer waiting times and enables customers to return to production quicker.

In addition, our vending machines are proving popular as they make tools and consumables readily accessible in-house. The vending machines can have a swipe card system allowing registered operators to select the tool or consumable they need, whilst the machine registers which part is taken, by whom and when.

The vending machines are managed by Ficep UK through automation technology to streamline the process and cutting out admin time for our customers. Stock levels are automatically detected by the software, which sends reports directly to Ficep UK, meaning the exact amount of tooling stock is replenished, as and when required, without customer personnel having to do anything. The vending machines are then restocked by Ficep’s dedicated vending support the same day.

In-house customer training

In addition to the training Ficep personnel receive, we also have an in-house training facility at our Wakefield HQ where customers can send operators, maintenance staff and programmers for training. We also arrange training at our parent company in Italy for new and existing customers. We currently schedule these courses to suit customer requirements. We train customer’s operators and engineers on every element of our steel processing machinery, from daily operation, software, maintenance and problem solving.

All-round customer support

As you can see, we have customers covered when it comes to servicing, customer service and maintenance support. Our packages give customers peace of mind, and our bespoke approach allows customers to select the servicing options they require – to suit their business requirements and budgets.

Our aim is to maintain customers’ systems so they remain fully operational, so down time is kept to a minimum. We also ensure operations teams are well-trained and we give customers access to our extensive stock of parts and consumables without slowing down operations.

If you have any questions regarding any part of our servicing, please contact our dedicated servicing team on 01924 897756.