From scattered OEM callouts to same-session resolution
Moved from scattered OEM callouts to same-session resolution.
A multi-site FMCG group was spending £60–80k per year on OEM callout fees across three sites. Average response time was 36 hours. On two occasions, a line was stopped for more than two days waiting for a brand-specific engineer who turned out to be unnecessary once on site.
The group moved all three sites onto Connect, giving their on-site teams a single route to an experienced controls engineer rather than a separate contract per machine builder. Sessions are non-persistent and IEC 62443 aligned, which satisfied the group's IT function, because no always-on connection was left open on the production network.
In the first six months, 14 of 16 faults were resolved remotely in under 90 minutes. Two required on-site follow-up. Estimated callout cost saving in year one exceeded £40k, before accounting for the value of reduced downtime.
The situation
Three sites, each with its own set of machine builders, each with its own service contract.
When a line stopped, the site called the OEM who supplied that machine. That call started a process measured in days rather than hours, and the cost of the callout was the smaller part of the damage.
The problem with per-machine service contracts
A service contract with a machine builder covers that machine. It does not cover the line around it, and it does not give you an engineer who knows your site.
That creates two failure modes. The first is delay: you wait for the specific engineer attached to the specific machine, however far away they are. The second is waste. On two occasions this group waited more than two days for an engineer who established within an hour of arriving that the fault was elsewhere.
What ECS did
Connect gave the group a single route to a controls engineer, rather than a routing decision that depended on which machine had stopped.
When a line stops, the on-site team initiates a session. No technical knowledge is needed to start one. An ECS engineer gets into the PLC, sees what the machine is actually doing, and works out what is stopping it.
The security model mattered as much as the response time. Sessions are non-persistent and IEC 62443 aligned, so nothing is left open on the production network between sessions, which is the point that carried the group’s IT function.
The result
Fourteen of sixteen faults in the first six months were resolved without anyone travelling. Two needed an on-site visit, and those visits started with the diagnosis already done.
The cost saving passed £40k in year one. The group’s own view is that the reduction in downtime was worth considerably more.
This case study describes a real ECS engagement, anonymised at the customer's request. Figures are as recorded by ECS at the time of delivery. Client name and precise site location are withheld.
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