EDG Case Studies - Rentals, Service Requests and Parts

We often get questions about what type of projects can be eligible for the EDG Grant. The truth is, the grant really goes on a case by case basis. As long as the technology project helps with productivity, it will generally qualify. However, I guess that it may still help to provide some examples, so I will do my best to provide examples on our blog when we can. We also have some examples on our website.

Today I will share more about technology that Rental companies can adopt. By rental, i'm not referring to car rentals, but rather, machine and equipment rentals. There is a booming industry for rental companies renting out industrial, construction and other types of machines and equipment. These companies will invest to purchase an inventory of machines, and then put out these machines for rent by other companies that need them. There is a huge clientele base for such machine rentals, mainly companies who would only require such machines for short periods of time, and do not have the in-house financial capability and skillsets to maintain these machines. Renting would therefore be the best option. For these rental companies, they all have 3 painpoints in general:

(1) Managing the rentals of all their machines. Imagine if the rental company had 100 different machines put out for rent. These machine rentals will need to be managed to optimize their rentals through out the year. It will be difficult to keep track of this optimization on paper, so digitalizing the rental management process is the first step. With better automation, customers can view the available rental machines online and "book" these machines easily.

(2) Servicing of the Machines. This example rental company would need to have a technicians team that is sizeable enough and with enough skillsets to maintain and service all the machines. This can be a tricky situation to handle. At times, machine break downs are low and it may seam like that technicians team is too huge. At other times, machine break downs could be high and the technicians team could be too small. Such rental companies therefore usually keep a small core technician team, and may outsource the rest of the required maintenance effort to freelancers or 3rd parties. Having a system to automate and manage the servicing schedule for each machine, and available of technicians, and the allocation of jobs to freelancers is also another area worth digitalizing.

(3) Parts purchasing. With the maintenance of 100 machines will come the need to purchase repair parts. However, purchasing parts in small quantities is often not economical. However, purchasing parts in large quantities could be a waste of the parts are not required. In this case, big data and data analytics can come into play to analyze the required upcoming repairs, as well as the past history of repairs. With a huge pool of data, the system will be able to identify trends and suggest recommendations about the best type of parts and quantity to order.

Ultimately, all the above modules can be housed under a single unified platform. We do have the experience and the capability to develop such a system, and a system like the above will also be eligible for the EDG Grant subsidy of up to 80%.

I hope to be able to find more time to cover more system examples in due time. Should you wish to find out more quickly, feel free to contact me here.