Managed Electronics Repair Service Revolutionizes Product Support Supply Chain
Christie Digital is a world-class enterprise committed to providing display technology solutions for a variety of industries and applications. This global, visual, audio and collaboration powerhouse aims to spread a culture of shared visual experiences by providing digital strategy, design, production, integration and management services for their display technology.
When faced with the prospect of creating a significant capital investment in new model equipment while experiencing a reduced service workforce—Christie Digital identified the need to add additional support from a third-party partner. An overwhelming need for out of warranty product repair and remanufacturing arose in order to avoid the crippling costs of replacement equipment and customer downtime.
Christie was responsible for repairing servers for the nation’s top theater chains including AMC, Cinemark, Kerkorian and others, but manufacturers could only provide limited services. They wanted to continue the maintenance of servers leased to their theater customers while allowing a third-party source to handle repairs. Christie sought out comprehensive assistance from a third-party company that could also handle inventory, part sourcing, shipping & receiving, and data management. AER was the company that stepped up to the challenge and helped fill this void.
What started with a need to repair an LCD component for Christie's movie servers, Christie quickly realized that AER was the perfect fit to handle their entire remanufacturing and reverse logistics program. In-house repair efforts were not only out of Christie Digital’s scope of competencies but a drain on resources and cash. An outside service center became the focus of a new approach for the massive electronics organization. From this new perspective emerged a partnership that began with testing, programming and software updates for the state of the art theater servers. This newly forged alliance with AER Technologies evolved into a comprehensive third party repair and distribution program for brand name servers, power supplies, LCD screens, personal computers, custom automation equipment, and printed circuit boards. Under significant time constraints, AER Technologies quickly evaluated Christie Digital’s needs before devising and implementing repair procedures for each product line, leading to a drastic increase in useful equipment life.
AER was able to perform a number of repair services for Christie in a cost-effective and time-efficient manner including:
Manufacturers are able to overhaul servers, but typically don’t perform custom configurations and programming. AER offered customized configurations that reduced the amount of time required on-site by AMC. Many companies fail to provide support after a 10 year period due to part discontinuations by manufacturers. AER was able to service components and recondition parts that were no longer available.
As a result of working with AER, the Christie Digital’s service model effectively shifted from procurement of factory new replacement product, to support of existing goods that are either out of warranty or no longer serviced by the OEM. Logistical efficiencies including drop shipping of remanufactured replacement products to large cinema customers nationwide resulted in quicker turnaround times and increased customer satisfaction.
AER was able to handle service repair at rates that were 75% more efficient than traditional OE manufacturers. Prior to enlisting the services of AER, Christie was only able to repair 10 servers per week at a 20% failure rate. AER was able to drastically improve productivity-increasing server repair rates by up to 300% with little to no failure rates. AER also offered preventative maintenance on other server parts. Using AER, Christie was able to reduce labor costs through improved efficiencies. Since AER ships products to end customers directly—Christie was also able to save on shipping and other administrative expenses.
As a Tier 1 ISO certified facility (ISO 14001, IATF 16979, IPC J-STD-001)—AER upholds the highest quality standards in the industry. The company’s many quality certifications are a sign of AER’s ongoing commitment to continuous improvement and its superior value proposition.
Christie Digital realized a 98% cost savings by remanufacturing their product when compared to buying new.
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