How RSC Equipment Rental Was Able To Drive Profit by Optimizing their Repair and Maintenance Operations
CASE STUDY
How RSC Equipment Rental Was Able To Drive Profit by Optimizing their Repair and Maintenance Operations
RSC Equipment Rental operated an independent rental fleet serving the US and Canadian industrial, maintenance and non-residential construction markets until it was recently acquired by United Rentals. By using the SmartEquip Enterprise online parts network to speed up their repair and maintenance process, RSC was able to generate more profits from their existing equipment assets.
The RSC Equipment management team realized their parts, repair and maintenance operations were holding back profits by robbing them of “technician wrench time” and equipment uptime.
In order to identify and improve the key operational processes that drive equipment uptime, profitability, and rental turnover the RSC management team conducted an in-depth economic impact analysis of their service operations in three representative branches.
The process improvement analysis identified inefficiencies in three major areas, technician wrench time, parts procurement, and duplication of administrative work. Based on this analysis, management concluded that the manual processes that were currently being used in the shop were robbing their organization of valuable equipment availability and profit.
The automation that management chose was the SmartEquip Enterprise system. RSC conducted a pilot program of the SmartEquip Enterprise system in three of its branches and the result was a significant operational improvement which translated to both top and bottom line impact on the business. By streamlining their repair and maintenance operations and reducing the days from downtime to uptime, RSC branches were able to double technician wrench time and reduce errors and administrative time by 80%. These operational benefits translate to a 5% increase in equipment utilization, a 3% increase in revenue turnover, and $377,150 of profit to the bottom line. The project broke even in a matter of weeks and will return over sixteen times the investment on an annualized basis.
Optimizing the “downtime to uptime” process improved technician wrench time and equipment uptime
The SmartEquip Online Parts support network improved technician access to technical data needed to diagnose repairs and quickly identify the required parts so they could spend more time repairing equipment.
Activating the SmartEquip Enterprise network streamlined RSC Equipment Rental’s repair and maintenance operations, improving technician efficiency in both the shop and in the field. Using the SmartEquip Enterprise network allowed technicians to significantly speed up the parts selection, requisitions while improving the accuracy of parts ordered. The reduction in technician hours coupled with reductions in overtime, special orders, returns and the elimination of paper manuals – lead to hard cost savings of over $30,000 in one branch. The most significant impact of SmartEquip was the direct correlation between the increase in technician “wrench time” and the improvement in equipment uptime. By spending more time working on equipment, and less time on parts identification – RSC branches were able to improve fleet uptime and drive an additional $90,000 of rental revenue to the branch.
Standard product support processes improved business profitability and financial control
Fleet owner recognized the economic benefits to the top and bottom line. The network helped them establish standard product support processes and financial controls that helped control the costs of labor, paperwork, paper and parts. For example, by eliminating ordering errors and staying in compliance with purchasing terms RSC was able to save thousands of dollars in parts obsolescence, returns, and price discounts in just one branch. Because the SmartEquip Network automates so many aspects of the parts ordering and accounts payable process, it makes it easier to put in place operational controls to manage purchase order compliance, payments, master parts updates, and preferred vendor supplier programs.
The easy to use network simplified and improved parts administrative experience
The network helped parts administrators be more productive because it eliminated manual processes like looking up parts, key entering work orders and entering bills into the accounts payable system.
The SmartEquip Enterprise network helped parts administrators be more productive because it eliminated manual processes like looking up parts, key entering work orders and entering bills into the accounts payable system. Smart Equip eliminated the time and drudgery of ordering of parts with e-commerce functionality that automated the purchase order and sales order, verifying receipt of purchase orders, and automatically applying your Fleet’s settings for shipping and order options. Administrators appreciated having one simple place to go to quickly find schematics, serial number parts look up, and place orders. The system was so easy to use it reduced training time and allowed administrators could spend their time on more profitable activates.
Revolutionizing repair shops one part at a time.
Increase the utilization of technicians and equipment with the only tool that delivers accurate information all on one platform.
