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Field Service

Commissioning · Startup · Troubleshooting

The lab is where things work. The field is where you find out which of your assumptions were load-bearing.

What the work looks like
Commissioning. Laptop on whatever surface exists, machine in front of you, production waiting behind you.
01Commissioning. Laptop on whatever surface exists, machine in front of you, production waiting behind you.
Plant floor reality — gantry, conveyor, product stacked to the ceiling, and about nine inches of clear space to work in.
02Plant floor reality — gantry, conveyor, product stacked to the ceiling, and about nine inches of clear space to work in.
Retrofit on an existing machine. Somebody built this once and did not expect me.
03Retrofit on an existing machine. Somebody built this once and did not expect me.
The other end of the same job — where it gets built before it gets shipped.
04The other end of the same job — where it gets built before it gets shipped.
What goes in the truck
Portable test rig. Being able to prove a theory without borrowing the customer's running machine is worth whatever it costs to build.
05Portable test rig. Being able to prove a theory without borrowing the customer's running machine is worth whatever it costs to build.
Same rig, working. Bench conditions, on site.
06Same rig, working. Bench conditions, on site.
Cable assemblies made up before the trip. Time spent on the floor is the most expensive time there is.
07Cable assemblies made up before the trip. Time spent on the floor is the most expensive time there is.
Away jobs

Some of it doesn't happen locally. Stendal, in Germany — a machine, a hotel, and a fortnight to make it run. The work is identical and everything around it isn't: someone else's voltage, someone else's spares, a supplier three time zones away, and no possibility of driving back for the part you forgot.

It sharpens you. You stop assuming anything can be fetched.

Inside the machine, Stendal. Perforated screen and the shaft running through it.
08Inside the machine, Stendal. Perforated screen and the shaft running through it.
Actuator and linkage. Getting a camera in here is half the diagnosis, and it's the half you can take back to the hotel.
09Actuator and linkage. Getting a camera in here is half the diagnosis, and it's the half you can take back to the hotel.
Guide and mounting detail. Photographed because in two days I would not have trusted my memory of it.
10Guide and mounting detail. Photographed because in two days I would not have trusted my memory of it.
The mechanism at rest. Somebody designed this and somebody else has to keep it running — that gap is most of what field service is.
11The mechanism at rest. Somebody designed this and somebody else has to keep it running — that gap is most of what field service is.
Why the camera comes out

Every one of these was taken so I could look at it later without the machine in front of me. Photographing what you're about to take apart is the cheapest insurance in the trade, and it doubles as the report you'll be asked for a week after you've forgotten.

The perks

In fairness to the job: the machine is only there five days a week, and you are there for two or three weeks. Nobody puts this part in the quote either.

Brandenburg Gate. Gray, drizzling, and worth the walk anyway.
12Brandenburg Gate. Gray, drizzling, and worth the walk anyway.
A standing section of the Wall. You end up somewhere on a Sunday and it turns out to be a place you read about.
13A standing section of the Wall. You end up somewhere on a Sunday and it turns out to be a place you read about.
Amsterdam, off the clock.
14Amsterdam, off the clock.
A shop window that would not survive planning permission in Wisconsin.
15A shop window that would not survive planning permission in Wisconsin.
Rotterdam Centraal. Most of the travel is stations and the gap between one and the next.
16Rotterdam Centraal. Most of the travel is stations and the gap between one and the next.
China, in the rain. The scale of the place does not come through in a photograph and I have stopped trying.
17China, in the rain. The scale of the place does not come through in a photograph and I have stopped trying.
Hotpot with the crew. Best meal of any trip is always the one somebody local orders for you, and you find out afterwards what it was.
18Hotpot with the crew. Best meal of any trip is always the one somebody local orders for you, and you find out afterwards what it was.
The trade

Two weeks away from your family, someone else’s voltage, and a 3am phone call you can’t take because of the time difference. And also: Berlin on a Sunday, and a table of people who were strangers on Monday. Both halves are true and neither cancels the other.

Failure analysis

Not every call is electrical. Sometimes the answer is a worn bore, a seat that isn't sealing, or a shaft that has been running out of true for long enough to leave the evidence on itself.

This is a different mode of work — slower, closer, and mostly photography. You are building a case, not fixing a fault, and the case has to hold up in a room where somebody would prefer it were nobody's fault.

Bore under a work light with the defect marked. Annotating on the photograph, at the machine, while you can still see what you meant.
19Bore under a work light with the defect marked. Annotating on the photograph, at the machine, while you can still see what you meant.
Seating surface. The discoloration is the story — it says how it was running, not just that it failed.
20Seating surface. The discoloration is the story — it says how it was running, not just that it failed.
Shaft wear, shot against the paperwork so the photo can never be separated from what it documents.
21Shaft wear, shot against the paperwork so the photo can never be separated from what it documents.
The same component from the flange face. Multiple angles, because one photograph proves nothing and four are hard to argue with.
22The same component from the flange face. Multiple angles, because one photograph proves nothing and four are hard to argue with.
How I troubleshoot

Nearly everyone debugs by pattern-matching to the last thing that broke. It works often enough to be a trap. The discipline is refusing to touch anything until you can state what the machine is actually doing, in terms that could be wrong.

The real skill

Staying methodical while someone senior stands behind you asking how long. That's the job. The technical part is comparatively easy and I've never once been paid for the technical part alone.

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