SARA - Depot Repair

SARA Depot Repair module allows manufacturers' depots, subcontractor repair facilities, or authorized service centers to manage and monitor their repair processes from the time of receiving to the time of shipping back the returned items. This module automates the workflow of the repair processes, generates and transfers work orders, assigns technicians, and traces each step taken during the course of the repair. The result is that our software takes out the guesswork out of planning and carrying out individual repairs, while allowing your organization to customize its repair operations to conform to the unique customer and product requirements.

The main functionalities of SARA Depot Repair include:

Manages receiving of the returned products: When the product is received at the repair facility, Repair Center automatically verifies whether it is under warranty an/or whether it was given an RMA number. Repair Center also incorporates the specific service requirements applicable to individual customers or product models, so when the customer's name or an item serial number is inputted into the system, SARA automatically determines whether to initiate a regular repair & return process, or whether to carry out immediate swapping of products, credit the consumer's account, or send out a loaner. In addition, this module takes into account each customer's preferences or model's requirements when making a choice with the regards to the service center, payment method, or shipping company that will be used in the subsequent repair process. These features allow service departments to treat its customers differently, according to their unique needs and tastes, for an improved customer satisfaction.

Automates the repair workflows: Upon the receipt, the returned products are immediately assigned a workflow based on the pre-defined company rules. The assigned workflow determines all the sequential steps needed to fulfill a certain service request. Thus, the system automatically decides whether to commence a particular repair process or whether to perform some other servicing activity. Likewise, if the repair process is initiated, every step necessary to complete each type of repair is pre-defined. Consequently, after a technician completes a certain step in the repair flow, SARA either informs the user on what the next step should be, or automatically carries out the next step itself. This automation of the technicians' workload ensures against any mistakes that can be made in performing customer service, and greatly increases the speed and the efficiency of the companies' operations.

Interfaces with the diagnosis test machines: Often, before the execution of a repair process, diagnosis tests are needed in order to identify the problem, determine the type of repair that would correct that specific defect, and assign the unit to the right technician or the right repair center. For that purpose, many companies are using the so-called diagnosis test machines that provide answers to all of the aforementioned questions. SARA supplies an interface to these test machines, so when a machine runs a test, the system absorbs all the test results, initiates the correct repair process that is relevant to the found problem, inputs the results on the work order for future references, and assigns the work order to the right technician or service center according to the test results and pre-defined businesses rules.

Automatically generates work orders: When SARA determines the servicing process that is fitting to the particular product defect, product type, and individual customer, it automatically generates the appropriate work order. Each work order contains the name of the assigned technician, work order number, serial number of the product under repair, priority code, warranty status, parts needed, parts used, and repair status.

Schedules technicians: There are three options of assigning technicians to work orders: automatic, quasi-automatic, and manual. During the automatic scheduling, businesses can pre-define rules for assigning the technicians, so the generated work order automatically comes up with the name of a specific technician responsible for the repair already being placed there by the system. During the quasi-automatic scheduling, the system recommends the technicians that would be suitable to take the responsibility for the work order, but an authorized personnel can override these recommendations and schedule whomever they want. During the manual scheduling, SARA generates the work order, but it is up to the actual system users to assign this work order to whichever technician they think is right for the job.

Displays technicians' schedules and qualifications: When the quasi-automatic or the manual scheduling option is used, SARA ensures that the best qualified technician for each type of repair is always selected, by allowing the user to view each technician's skill level. In addition, SARA prevents common mistakes such as assigning a technician to a job when he is already committed to another project, or unevenly spreading the workload, by displaying each technician's and service center's current schedules.

Transfers work orders: Unlike other management systems, SARA recognizes the fact that often more than one technician is needed to successfully carry out the repair. Therefore, it permits transferring of work orders with all of their accompanying information between the different technicians, accomplished either by the technicians themselves or an authorized personnel. Furthermore, it records the names of all of the technicians' who work on a single work order. Finally, each technician can use the work order to record repair notes, so the technician to whom the work order is subsequently transferred receives the proper information and instructions.

Provides technicians' with customer and product information: Technicians can use SARA to access any relevant customer and item data. Customer information can include customer comments, locations, warranty status, claims history, e.t.a. Item information can include descriptions of a product, bill of materials, and repair history.

Provides technicians' with repair instructions. Technicians can use SARA to access detailed instructions for repairing each product model. The instructions can include text, schematics, pictures, audio, and video.

Requests parts: Inventory parts required to complete the repairs can be requested via the system by the technicians or authorized personnel. The received parts subsequently become assigned to the relevant work order.

Captures billing information: In order to ensure that the repair charges are correctly calculated, SARA automatically captures the labor time, parts usage, and repair notations for each work order/service request. The system also allows users to define various price rates for the specific product models, product lines, inventory parts, labor time, types of repair, repair functions, individual customers, warranty /non warranty work, e.t.a. Thus, once the repair is completed, the total charge is automatically calculated as SARA combines the captured data with the appropriate price rates.

Tracks repair status: An authorized can view and be notified of the repair progress at any time, from an issue of RMA to the shipment of the repaired item . This functionality allows the management to monitor the activities of its personnel to ensure the optimal efficiency levels and measure the technician's performance/productivity. In addition, a list of work orders organized by selected categories (by a product, by a repair status, by a technician) can be pulled up from the system.