Edwin Pahk, VP of Growth at Aquant11.10.22
The medical device landscape (and the service sector that supports it) is undergoing a dramatic transformation. More complex machinery combined with supply chain issues stifling the production of new machines is increasing the global medical equipment maintenance market at an incredible rate over the next five years. This rate of growth brings an urgent need to upskill a new workforce as increasingly specialized medical equipment requires a highly trained workforce for repair and maintenance.
The service model is also changing, moving away from reactive break-fix work towards a predictive service model to ensure maximum uptime for mission-critical equipment. This, coupled with the need to be agile in a heavily regulated environment facing additional health and safety measures, means every service moment matters.
Experienced technicians who maintain medical equipment in clinical and research settings often bring a deep pool of skills to their work — skills they’ve built over decades of hands-on experience and training. Their performance so outdistances their novice colleagues that it’s not unusual for their managers to consider them to be organizational heroes. Other technicians may need more time, return to customers’ locations more often, and try more solutions before landing on the right fix.
Even so, the skills gap within the medical device service landscape can be managed, and in some cases, closed.
As we progress toward the closure of the ever-present skills gap between top and average performers, we dramatically improve the performance of service teams. Even more important, we deliver better, more consistent service that results in better customer experiences.
But we know that Millennials and Gen Z workers seek to collaborate, work and develop professional skills via tech-driven platforms versus long-term learning plans. That’s why technology is increasingly playing a role in removing skills gaps among the best-managed teams.
New AI-driven technologies, like service intelligence, put the accumulated expertise of service professionals from medical manufacturers and third-party service providers into the palm of even the least-experienced technicians. Data stored in a smartphone app walks a technician step-by-step through the diagnosis and solution of all sorts of mechanical issues they may face while on the job. With all that experience available to them, technicians get to the root of the problem more quickly, get the parts they need, and get medical devices back into operation as soon as possible. This is especially helpful as novice technicians take on the complexities of compliance and other highly-regulated operational considerations that require greater attention to detail (and less room for error).
One large medical device company, for instance, reduced the number of service visits per month by 20 percent, saving more than $5.5 million annually, after the implementation of AI-powered solutions.
It’s not simply a matter of hiring newcomers and placing them in a six-week training program. Employers were recruiting for nearly 33,000 field-service positions in the United States on one major job board not long ago, and competition for workers is spirited across sectors.
At the same time, service teams that maintain and repair medical devices are responding to more and more service calls. Since the start of the COVID pandemic, the number of service events in the medical device industry grew by 65 percent. And with supply chain issues hindering the manufacturing of new medical devices, in-operation machines are going to be breaking down more. Every generation of lab and clinical equipment grows in complexity, making the job of the medical device service technician ever more important as the global economy continues to recover.
Service leaders find themselves assigning more work to teams that often have a vacancy or two. Leaders’ natural tendency to lean on top-performing technicians leads to frustration and weariness among workers who already may be thinking of retirement, and costs go up when assignments go to less-skilled workers.
Customers are angered, too, by technicians who aren’t well prepared before they arrive, don’t have the proper parts on hand and may not have ready access to the information they need. They’re unhappy when they don’t know which service professional will walk in the door — the highly experienced technician who finishes the job right or the below-average worker whose results are less certain. Inconsistency provides a weak foundation for solid customer relationships, especially when the customer relies on their equipment to save lives.
A top field-service executive at one major medical device company notes that clients increasingly demand ever-faster resolution of service issues to bring medically important, revenue-generating devices back online. They expect service technicians to be heroes — an expectation that’s shared by the technicians who feel a glow of satisfaction when they do their jobs well.
This executive says tools like service intelligence that put the power of artificial intelligence into the hands of field-service teams help them meet the expectations of customers, improve technicians’ satisfaction with their work and provide service leaders with solid information they can use for coaching.
Further, he adds, the data generated by AI solutions provides a substantial competitive advantage in his company’s sales efforts. Data beats promises every time.
We may never entirely close the skills gaps in our teams. But it’s important that we continue to focus closely on this issue, especially as medical device technology becomes more complex, to deliver successful service management and create exceptional customer experiences.
Edwin Pahk is currently the VP of Growth at Aquant, a software company using AI-powered service intelligence to give service leaders, technicians and teams the most vital information they need for every situation. Pahk has over ten years of experience in sales and marketing in the tech industry, working at companies such as Salesforce and ClickSoftware.
The service model is also changing, moving away from reactive break-fix work towards a predictive service model to ensure maximum uptime for mission-critical equipment. This, coupled with the need to be agile in a heavily regulated environment facing additional health and safety measures, means every service moment matters.
Experienced technicians who maintain medical equipment in clinical and research settings often bring a deep pool of skills to their work — skills they’ve built over decades of hands-on experience and training. Their performance so outdistances their novice colleagues that it’s not unusual for their managers to consider them to be organizational heroes. Other technicians may need more time, return to customers’ locations more often, and try more solutions before landing on the right fix.
Even so, the skills gap within the medical device service landscape can be managed, and in some cases, closed.
As we progress toward the closure of the ever-present skills gap between top and average performers, we dramatically improve the performance of service teams. Even more important, we deliver better, more consistent service that results in better customer experiences.
Close Your Skills Gap and Optimize Your Workforce
Organizations that take proactive steps to reduce the skills gap are building a stronger future for themselves. Once they recognize the issue, leaders launch peer-to-peer training that captures the knowledge of highly skilled technicians and share it across the organization. They work closely with individual technicians to ensure they’re well-trained, have opportunities to work with skilled mentors, and gain experience to overcome any weaknesses in their performance.But we know that Millennials and Gen Z workers seek to collaborate, work and develop professional skills via tech-driven platforms versus long-term learning plans. That’s why technology is increasingly playing a role in removing skills gaps among the best-managed teams.
New AI-driven technologies, like service intelligence, put the accumulated expertise of service professionals from medical manufacturers and third-party service providers into the palm of even the least-experienced technicians. Data stored in a smartphone app walks a technician step-by-step through the diagnosis and solution of all sorts of mechanical issues they may face while on the job. With all that experience available to them, technicians get to the root of the problem more quickly, get the parts they need, and get medical devices back into operation as soon as possible. This is especially helpful as novice technicians take on the complexities of compliance and other highly-regulated operational considerations that require greater attention to detail (and less room for error).
One large medical device company, for instance, reduced the number of service visits per month by 20 percent, saving more than $5.5 million annually, after the implementation of AI-powered solutions.
A Growing Problem
The cost pressures that result from the skills gap are only getting worse. Thousands of technicians in their 50s and 60s — the highly experienced Baby Boomers who account for many of the experienced technicians— are retiring every month. With each retirement, decades of hard-won experience are lost. Costs rise as lower-skilled technicians are deployed.It’s not simply a matter of hiring newcomers and placing them in a six-week training program. Employers were recruiting for nearly 33,000 field-service positions in the United States on one major job board not long ago, and competition for workers is spirited across sectors.
At the same time, service teams that maintain and repair medical devices are responding to more and more service calls. Since the start of the COVID pandemic, the number of service events in the medical device industry grew by 65 percent. And with supply chain issues hindering the manufacturing of new medical devices, in-operation machines are going to be breaking down more. Every generation of lab and clinical equipment grows in complexity, making the job of the medical device service technician ever more important as the global economy continues to recover.
Service leaders find themselves assigning more work to teams that often have a vacancy or two. Leaders’ natural tendency to lean on top-performing technicians leads to frustration and weariness among workers who already may be thinking of retirement, and costs go up when assignments go to less-skilled workers.
Eroding Customer Relationships
Most troubling of all, customer relationships suffer from the skills gap. Service organizations are unable to deliver the consistent excellence their customers expect.Customers are angered, too, by technicians who aren’t well prepared before they arrive, don’t have the proper parts on hand and may not have ready access to the information they need. They’re unhappy when they don’t know which service professional will walk in the door — the highly experienced technician who finishes the job right or the below-average worker whose results are less certain. Inconsistency provides a weak foundation for solid customer relationships, especially when the customer relies on their equipment to save lives.
A top field-service executive at one major medical device company notes that clients increasingly demand ever-faster resolution of service issues to bring medically important, revenue-generating devices back online. They expect service technicians to be heroes — an expectation that’s shared by the technicians who feel a glow of satisfaction when they do their jobs well.
This executive says tools like service intelligence that put the power of artificial intelligence into the hands of field-service teams help them meet the expectations of customers, improve technicians’ satisfaction with their work and provide service leaders with solid information they can use for coaching.
Further, he adds, the data generated by AI solutions provides a substantial competitive advantage in his company’s sales efforts. Data beats promises every time.
Measure What We Value
At a time when demand for standardized service costs is driving more predictive service offerings, the desire for remote diagnostics and self-service triage offerings is rising, and evolving economic factors are adding pressure to stabilize or cut service costs, it’s important to adopt measurement tools that accurately reflect customer satisfaction.We may never entirely close the skills gaps in our teams. But it’s important that we continue to focus closely on this issue, especially as medical device technology becomes more complex, to deliver successful service management and create exceptional customer experiences.
Edwin Pahk is currently the VP of Growth at Aquant, a software company using AI-powered service intelligence to give service leaders, technicians and teams the most vital information they need for every situation. Pahk has over ten years of experience in sales and marketing in the tech industry, working at companies such as Salesforce and ClickSoftware.