Designing Customer-Facing Services for Industrial Equipment Manufacturers

Why:  Despite the size and complexity of the equipment, industrial equipment manufacturers were starting to see their product lines being commoditized.  Aside from minor differences in performance, refineries and distribution companies saw little difference among specific pieces of equipment.  In choosing equipment, their evaluation criteria was weighted heavily towards indirect value like financing terms, delivery speed, service and maintenance, and warranties.  The Oil and Gas Division of this Fortune 100 equipment manufacturer sought ways to make this value explicit and better utilize their services as a way to distinguish their brand.

What:  Hand selected from around the globe, four internal teams and their customers convened to design and prototype potential service offerings that would directly support customers’ operations.  Technical Assent was an active participant in these discussions facilitating dialogue among engineers, technicians, and designers to identify the specific touch points that were the most valuable to their customers.  During these highly collaborative sessions, the customers provided candid feedback on current levels of performance and several lapses in service.  Working together, the teams co-designed prototypes for a variety of new innovations ranging from new technology to purchase aircraft equipment online, self-diagnosing industrial control valves, and better ways to manage and report routine service maintenance that required the equipment to be offline.  These innovations were translated into business terms that forecasted costs and impact to future revenues so they could be presented to the leaders of each respective business unit.