No Signal, No Problem: How Komatsu Forest Digitised Field Service
Remote job sites. Patchy signal. Paperwork that couldn't wait. That was the daily reality for Komatsu Forest's field engineers before ExpandIT came into the picture.
Industry: Forestry machinery | Location: Europe, 7 countries | Users: 535 | Delivered by: ExpandIT
Background
Komatsu Forest is one of the world's largest manufacturers of forestry machinery, with field engineers working across Europe, including the UK, Germany, France, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Austria. The work often takes place on remote forestry sites, far from stable mobile signal, where staying connected is never a given.
The Challenge
For Komatsu's engineers, that meant paperwork could only move at the speed of the nearest signal. Job notes and timesheets were written up in the field, then entered again once engineers were back at the office, a process that ate up a large part of the day and left admin work piling up until someone had a connection.
In the gap between doing a job and writing it up, details could get forgotten, missed, or logged less accurately than they should have been, simply because they were pieced together from memory rather than captured in the moment.
The Solution
With ExpandIT's offline functionality, that has changed. Engineers now capture job details and paperwork directly on-site, whether they are online or not. The moment a connection becomes available, everything synchronises automatically, and the solution has been rolled out across all seven countries, each with its own local superuser supporting the team.
"One of the biggest advantages for us is the offline functionality."
Stephen Robb, Superuser at Komatsu
Field and Office, Finally Aligned
The change hasn't only been felt out in the field. Before ExpandIT, information travelled manually between engineers and the office, often taking longer to reach the people who needed it for planning, invoicing and follow-up.
Today, that same information is captured on-site and shared automatically, with nothing left to pass on or type in twice, so field engineers and office staff are working from the same, up-to-date picture, no matter how far apart they are.
The Result
Komatsu's day-to-day processes have become significantly more streamlined. Paperwork has been reduced, engineers have more time for the work they are actually there to do, and the business has better visibility into its operations, regardless of where its engineers are working.
"ExpandIT has improved efficiency, reduced paperwork, and helped us maintain better visibility of our operations, regardless of where our engineers are working."
Stephen Robb, Superuser at Komatsu
Perhaps the clearest sign of success is what no longer happens: no more paperwork waiting for a signal, and no more reconstructing what happened on-site from memory once back at the office.
For 535 users across seven countries, ExpandIT has become the kind of system Komatsu Forest doesn't have to think about. It just works, wherever their engineers are.
No Signal, No Problem
For 535 users across seven countries, ExpandIT has become the kind of system Komatsu Forest doesn't have to think about. It just works, wherever their engineers are.
About ExpandIT
ExpandIT is a field service provider that delivered Komatsu Forest's offline-first mobile solution with automatic synchronisation, keeping engineers working in the field wherever they are.
