Magna-Power's New Innovative Approach to Service Management

Reliability First, Modern Service Management Second

Magna-Power boasts a less than 1% warranty failure rate that continues to decline year-over-year, attributed to the company’s rugged current-fed power processing topology, decades of design refinement, and quality in manufacturing. With over 30,000+ fielded products, however, having a streamlined, transparent, and consistent system for managing after-market product servicing is critical to ensure continuity of our customer’s operations and research & development. As a heavy user of test & measurement and capital equipment, we know what service case management has worked well for Magna-Power’s operations and we sought to create a modern service system that not just satisfies our internal service workflows, but also greatly enhances our customers’ experience.

Introducing the Service Case

With extensive internal diagnostics and support from Magna-Power’s applications engineers, oftentimes product issues can be identified and resolved in the field by issuing a spare part with replacement work instructions. More complex failures may require field service or return to a Magna-Power authorized service center around the world. Regardless of the disposition, however, a service case is created to link the issue with the product’s serial number, customer, spare parts issued, work performed, and any resulting order and shipment, providing a historical record of the incident.

The Service Case Timeline

Magna-Power’s service timeline provides our customers an overview of the events that have happened throughout the service process.

Upon receipt and evaluation, customers receive a report of the product’s initial condition with any relevant media, an evaluation summary from Magna-Power's technicians, a quote for approval, and a service summary following completion. All customer feedback, technician comments and status changes can be found on this detailed timeline. Documents related to the service case such as quotations, return merchandise authorizations, orders, and service summaries are provided and everything is linked to the product's serial number. The service timeline also enables customers to provide feedback throughout the process allowing for comments and additional media to be provided.

This transparent timeline gives Magna-Power’s customers the most important information at a glance, provides a common platform to share information among the various teams, while also providing real-time service status updates.

Real-Time Data Exchange and Service Case Status Updates

The engine driving Magna-Power’s new service management is the custom real-time data exchange happening between the production floor and the customer-facing service case. Repairs have an internally defined bill of operations that, upon a barcode scan into an operation on the production floor, triggers a data exchange to the service case and alerts customers about a change in status for their repair. These status changes update the timeline and provide email notifications about statuses such as receipt of repair and evaluation quote, as well as notifying the customer that evaluation was completed and a quote is ready for approval.

Magna-Power has, additionally, linked its catalog of production parts (30,000+) to its quoting and ordering portal, allowing any part or assembly to be sold as a spare part or to be used as part of a service case. Now, as part of a repair, customers can see every part that went into their repair. In addition, Magna-Power products internally have a part number label or machined etching on nearly every internal assembly, allowing customers to identify the part and easily order a replacement for field repair.

Magna-Power Service Centers: Fair & Consistent Pricing

Magna-Power’s commitment to integrity and fairness is reflected in our service pricing model. Unlike flat-rate pricing, Magna-Power’s service system ensures you're only charged for the repairs your equipment requires. We've integrated a consistent and streamlined pricing structure based on the actual repairs performed, accounting for specific replacement parts and associated labor performed. This itemized pricing means customers can trust that they’re paying a fair price for the highest quality service, tailored to the specific issues the product encountered.

This same service management platform is utilized regardless of what service center the product ships to, providing a consistent and streamlined interface and history for product repairs and spare parts worldwide.