For a long time, dealerships and OEMs struggled with the challenges associated with traditional paper-based manual maintenance and updation. This slowed down several related processes and hampered the growth of several small and midsized manufacturers. With the effective integration of technology, the aftermarket industry flourished and devised effective solutions for several drawbacks, including manuals.
The interactive electronic technical manual (IETM) is one of those innovations that improved the efficiency of the aftermarket industry and uplifted other sectors associated with it. This blog explains why IETM software is crucial for every OEM and better than traditional manuals. First, let us understand the challenges related to manuals and what led to integrating IETM software solutions into the aftermarket industry.
What is an Interactive Electronic Technical Manual (IETM)?
The interactive electronic technical manual (IETM) is designed to be a collective source of data on all kinds of products and spare parts. With the help of IETM, a technician or user can easily navigate through different forms of information to quickly locate the required information when needed.
It consists of interactive videos, 3D illustrations of parts, and interactive text-to-voice and voice-to-text search options. Every IETM software has unique features and might differ slightly in their functionality but they all serve the purpose of saving time and improving accessibility.
Now that we understand IETM’s basic function, let's examine the challenges technicians face when using traditional manuals.
Challenges Faced By Technicians in Using Traditional Manuals
There were several challenges associated with the traditional manuals as they affected productivity and overall customer retention. The key challenges of using traditional manuals are mentioned below:
1. Logistics
Traditional paper-based manuals are hard to maintain as they are susceptible to wear and tear, and their bulkiness is associated with logistical challenges. Another challenging aspect associated with the logistics of traditional paper-based manuals is their constant updation and circulation.
Several manuals need to be updated, printed, and transported to dealerships worldwide, which presents other external logistical challenges. These include damage due to humidity, wear and tear during transportation, and accidental damages if not transported properly.
2. Maintenance and Associated Costs
When we hear paper-based manuals, we think of a thick, dusty, and heavy book with thousands of pages and chipped-off edges. Well, paper-based manuals fall right into that description, but the catch is that they need constant updation, so consider a room full of these manuals and a technician looking to find information.
Along with printing, updating, and transporting, add value engineering and the chances of a part becoming obsolete, storing new manuals, time taken to inform all different dealerships about new parts, and the time invested in training technicians. This proves that maintaining manuals can be a huge challenge regarding labor costs, time, and maintenance.
3. Difficult to Integrate
Paper-based traditional manuals, as discussed above, are challenging to maintain. They then present the challenge of being more capable of integrating with other existing software. The information in traditional manuals is static and must be manually integrated into other software. Manual data updation from manuals to software is time-consuming and also takes up the productive time of technicians. Due to their bulky nature, carrying them becomes a challenge, which limits their accessibility.
As the traditional manual's present nature makes it, keeping track of the new parts and finding the right information when needed becomes a challenge for technicians. In several instances, changes ruled out by efficient engineering take an unrealistic long time to reach the ground level due to inefficient manual updation techniques that limit growth and expansion.
Now that we understand the basic challenges associated with traditional manuals, let's consider the advantages of IETM.
Why Should OEMs Invest In IETMs?
1. Multimedia Features
Interactive electronic technical manuals have various multimedia features including 3D animations, images, and videos. This helps simplify complex procedures followed in repair and maintenance to easier more efficient methods. With better visualization and accuracy, technicians can minimize downtime and errors. Knowledge transfer was another challenge that came with the traditional formal of manuals. With multimedia new technicians can be easily trained and the transition is much smoother.
2. Text-to-Speech & Speech-to-Text
The software's test-to-speech and speech-to-text features allow technicians to conveniently listen to the instructions while working rather than pausing to read the manual. This hands-free feature allows technicians to save time and execute tasks quickly.
The speech-to-text feature allows technicians to take important notes, and search for specific problems through the software which minimizes error and captures data precisely.
3. Customization and Multilingual Features
Dealerships of any manufacturer could be in a different part of the world, which introduces language limitations. However, IETMs have efficient multilingual options allowing users to translate the software into their native or natural language. This reduces the time invested in understanding and lifts the limitations of hiring only certain language speakers.
This targeted feature is unique and still new in the aftermarket, but it has been an essential feature for manual customization. Customization ensures that every task entered or performed by a technician is curated to their specific needs. This has strategically enhanced the technicians' productivity, leading to a better customer experience.
4. Real-Time Updating Capabilities
The feature of making real-time updates has positively impacted both OEMs and technicians by saving time and cost. Changes or updates in industry standards can be implemented quickly and easily across all dealerships, protecting OEMs from any legal discrepancies. Real-time updation helps streamline the existing process across all dealerships and ensures that all dealerships follow uniformity.
5. Predictive Maintenance Features
Consistently monitoring and examining trends help analyze trends and patterns in data. With the help of predictive analysis of the equipment's performance, technicians can identify and minimize potential failures. This allows dealers to serve customers better and minimize human errors. The predictive feature analyzes huge amounts of data related to a particular part within minutes to develop efficient solutions.
In Conclusion
Integrating interactive electronic technical manuals (IETMs) has changed the outlook of manuals for OEMs. The efficient features such as predictive maintenance, multimedia, hands-free search, and real-time updating capabilities have collectively increased the efficiency and revenue generation of the industry.
With the integration of IETMs, OEMs have increased their flexibility for growth and expansion as they can be easily integrated and customized to accommodate any new change. With technology integration in the aftermarket, operational processes have become more streamlined and more susceptible to change.
Analyzing past data and making data-driven decisions has helped OEMs channel their funds toward growth rather than streamlining inefficient processes.
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