The focus was on the Neo laser processing machine at last year’s EMO, and on the technical options at GrindTec in Augsburg, while visitors to the Agathon stand at AMB 2018 in Stuttgart will learn a lot about services and Industry 4.0 solutions. This is due to the fact that Agathon has recently expanded its relevant range.
So what’s new? Firstly, there is the extension of the warranty period (“guarantee period”) to up to 72 months from delivery. Such an extension enables customers to obtain practically complete cost control and retain the value of their machines. The warranty extension includes the annual inspection of the respective machine by a service technician including the maintenance material, an annual backup of system recovery data in the Agathon archive, as well as extended remote support (see below). Thanks in no small part to the increased availability of the machines, customers with a warranty extension can act more flexibly than customers who have not yet discovered this service.
Another new service is the extended remote support. This is a further development of the previous teleservices. For 14 hours per day on non-public-holidays from Monday to Friday, customers can avail of a whole host of support services as follows:
- Advice and support from experienced Agathon diagnosticians
- Remote diagnosis/analysis of machines
- Fast and personal problem solving including the development of temporary workarounds to maintain production
- Remote software maintenance and product installations
- Remote or telephone support for machines that are remotely maintainable, but which are no longer offered by Agathon
The extended remote support is provided free of charge during the warranty period (“guarantee period”). This also applies, of course, during a warranty extension. Thereafter, an annual fee is charged per machine, which is capped for customers with multiple machines per site. Customers who pay for such a subscription benefit not only from the clear cost structure, from rapid and professional support and minimum downtime of the individual machine, but also from a discount on subsequently booked software options and in the form of a shortened response time of no more than 24 hours; the maximum response time is 48 hours for customers without such a subscription.
LiveStatus and bundle
A third new service is the Agathon LiveStatus. This is a product from the Industrial 4.0 universe of the company. This cloud-based application is used to transfer machine status and selected production data from Agathon machines to a mobile device or to a customer’s computer. First of all, the transparency thus achieved provides security. Orders can be monitored at any location. This means that, among other things, the user always knows the status of individual orders and when, for example, consumables need to be changed or renewed. If an event occurs when processing an order, the user is immediately informed via the app or via the LiveStatus website. This occurs regardless of whether the user is currently in the meeting room next door or in the gym. Naturally, the user is much more flexible as a result and can handle several orders at the same time. This means that, thanks to Agathon LiveStatus, the user produces more parts per unit of time and works much more efficiently than without this option.
Agathon offers its LiveStatus app both as a standalone solution and as a bundle with extended remote support once the warranty period has expired. Customers who choose such a bundle receive a significant discount on the total cost of the subscription.
