About Depot Repair 

Introduction to Repair Management 

The IFS Cloud Depot Repair solution is designed to optimize and simplify your repair operations. It allows users to track repair statuses, manage inventory, and allocate resources from a single platform. The user can gain visibility into the repair process with real-time updates, promoting transparency and accountability. Reduced turnaround times and increased reliability in the repair process add to a more efficient and customer-focused service.

Key Features of Depot Repair include:

• Streamlined Workflow Management: Manage every aspect of your repair workflow from a single, intuitive platform.
• Repair Status Tracking: Easily track the status of repairs in real time, providing transparency throughout the process.
• Inventory Management: Efficiently manage your inventory levels to ensure resources are available when needed.
• Resource Allocation: Allocate technician resources effectively to maximize productivity.
• Real-time Updates: Obtain instant visibility into the repair process, ensuring accountability and swift response times.
• Automation of Repetitive Tasks: Reduce manual errors and increase efficiency by automating routine tasks.
• Optimized Technician Workflows: Enhance technician productivity to meet repair deadlines consistently.

The IFS Cloud Depot Repair system is tailored to support various users throughout the repair process. Here's a brief overview of each role:

• Repair Technician: Responsible for repairing assigned products. They conduct triage, plan resource allocation, order necessary parts, and decide if an item needs to be sent back to the vendor.
• Customer Service Representative: Creates Return Merchandise Authorizations (RMA) for customers needing repairs. They keep customers updated on repair status and costs and consult with them for approval on any high-cost repairs.
• Repair Center Manager: Schedules and assigns repairs to technicians. They manage the inventory of repair parts and ensure the overall quality of the repairs performed.
• QA Repair Technician: Focuses on quality assurance for repairs. They inspect completed work, accurately document symptoms, causes, and resolutions to support analytics, and provide insights and recommendations for product improvements.
• Receiving Technician: Handles incoming RMA packages at the warehouse and ensures they reach the appropriate repair technicians promptly.
• Shipping Technician: Responsible for sending completed repairs back to customers quickly and efficiently. They print shipping labels and track shipments to update customers on the status of their repairs.
• Back Office Accountant: Ensures that customers are billed correctly for completed repairs.

Returns Management

Repair Management streamlines reverse logistics, including Return Material Authorization (RMA). It tracks all stages from receiving to shipping and billing and can automate swaps and advanced replacements. If an item can't be repaired, the system can facilitate the part to be replaced with a new or refurbished part, ensuring customers can continue operations while you manage the return and repair process.

Return Processes

The return process manages the authorization, receipt, and shipping of items, often for repair or restocking. This can include returning items to a warehouse or sending sold parts to customers.

Following are the system-defined return processes available:

• Repair and Return (RR): A customer returns a broken item, which you repair and send back, maintaining the same serial number.
• Receive Only (RO): You receive an item from a customer, typically for credit or exchange, without sending anything back immediately. An example is when a customer returns a spare part for credit, or they return an item from a field service repair that a field service technician or dealer exchanged for another new or fixed item.
• Ship Only (SO): Items are sent to customers who may perform their own repairs. This process involves shipping parts ordered by the customer.
• Repair Pool Swap (RPS): An item is received from a customer, and then a replacement is sent from the repair pool. The item that is shipped generally has a different serial number than the one that was received.
• Advanced Replacement (ADVR): A usable item is shipped to the customer before receiving the unusable one. Once the unusable item is returned, it can be repaired or disposed of.

Configuring the Depot Repair Solution

Configuring your Depot Repair involves the following steps:

• Create the Company
• Set-up Site
• Set up Service Organization, which will act as the Repair Organization
• Set-up Warehouses and Inventory Locations
• Verify Access Permissions
• Set-up Standard Tasks for Return Reasons
• Setting Up the Basic Data Requirements
  • Service Organization/Repair Organization: Service Organization is maintained at Service Management>Request Management>Basic Data>Service Organization.
  • Return Types: User defined values to further refine the type of return.
  • Expedite: User defined field to indicate if the repair is on an expedited path to completion.
  • Repair Deposition: User defined field to indicate the disposition of the part before or after the part has been repaired.
  • Repair Action: User defined field to indicate a specific repair action.
  • Repair Resolution: User defined field to indicate the resolution of the repair.
  • Return Reason: The Return Reasons configuration screen helps identify why an item is being returned and outlines the basic repair process for each reason. Many companies have common return reasons that follow similar repair and processing steps. 

Repair Return Material Authorization  (Repair RMA)

RMAs (Return Material Authorizations) are typically created by Customer Service Representatives when a customer calls to request the return of a unit for repair. Additionally, RMAs can be generated by field technicians or directly by customers through a web portal.

Receiving the Items for Repair

The Register Arrivals is used to record and track items being received from the customer. This screen has several important functions: it allows the user to create receiving documents for incoming shipments, accept items into inventory, and process parts that have been purchased. Additionally, it is used for handling items returned for repair and those in transit from other locations, such as repair centers or warehouses. Generally, the receiving process takes place outside of the Repair Depot and is part of a broader warehouse operation.

Assigning the Repair to a Technician

After an item is received, it is placed in a repair holding area where it waits to be assigned to a technician. Before any repair can start or can be assigned, a Task has to be defined from an existing Standard Task or a new one has to be created. Following this, a repair center manager can assign the units to technicians for repair, or technicians can retrieve the units from the holding area to start working on the repairs.

Performing the Repair

The next step in the process is to perform the repair of the unit. The Repair Bench offers features that assist in finding units in need of repair, assigning them to technicians, and supporting the technicians during the repair process. The basic steps for performing a repair include accepting the repair, transferring the unit to the workbench, triaging the unit, performing the repair, and completing the repair.

Repair Bench Overview: The Repair Bench is the screen that technicians use at their workstation to manage repair units within the repair center. It allows them to track and record all costs associated with the repair process. On the Repair Bench screen, technicians document essential information related to the repair, including work steps, materials used, hours of labor, and any additional expenses. Additionally, they can enter notes about the repair and review the repair history for each item.