CASE STUDY
Medical device IoT management system
Distributors see the status, repair alerts and reported data of every installed device in one back office. Devices report their own status, replacing inspection rounds that required a site visit to confirm anything.
RESULTS
What this project changed
- -70%
- On-site inspection workload
- Live reporting
- Device status and repair alerts
The problem
When devices are spread across many sites, the distributor's biggest cost is not the repair itself but not knowing which unit needs one. Before devices could report for themselves, the only way to find out was to send someone to each site.
- Inspection rounds followed a fixed route, and every unit had to be visited whether or not anything was wrong, so time went into travel rather than fixing things.
- Faults were usually reported by the site after the fact, by which time availability had already been lost.
- Device status and repair history were spread across paper and personal notes, which made analysis hard.
What we did
We put the devices online so information comes back on its own, and built a device register that can be managed in the back office.
- Devices report operating status and key readings on a schedule, and the back office shows the current state of each one.
- Fault conditions trigger a repair notice that is assigned straight to the responsible service engineer.
- The device register records site, serial number, warranty and full repair history.
- A summary view lets the distributor judge the health of the whole installed base rather than one unit at a time.
Results
Maintenance moved from scheduled rounds to visits driven by status, which uses people better.
- Time spent on inspection rounds and reporting fell by about 70%.
- Device status is reported as it happens, so faults no longer wait for a call from the site.
- Repair history is managed centrally, giving replacement planning and spare parts stocking something to work from.
CONSTRAINTS
Constraints
The conditions that were fixed from the start. The trade-offs behind the approach only make sense once you know them.
The devices sit on the customer's premises, and site conditions are not ours to decide. That is the biggest variable in this kind of project.
- Sites are spread out and network conditions vary, so reporting has to tolerate dropouts and delay rather than assume a stable connection.
- Reported data is used only for status monitoring and repair decisions, and the system does not intervene in how a device operates.
- Devices already installed were never going to be replaced wholesale for a system, so old and new units have to coexist in one register.
- Devices in medical settings fall under the rules of the units using them, so the data collected is limited to what maintenance requires.
HOW IT WORKS
Technology and integrations
What the system connects to, how the data moves and why those choices were made — written so that no technical background is needed.
The approach is to let information come back on its own and have the back office turn it into a status anyone can read.
- Devices report operating status and key readings on a schedule, and the back office shows the current state of each unit.
- As soon as a fault condition is met, a repair notice is raised and assigned to a service engineer, without waiting for a call from the site.
- The device register holds site, serial number, warranty and repair history, giving replacement and spare parts planning something to work from.