Purchasing Guides / Machine Fault Troubleshooting

Machine Fault Troubleshooting

A purchasing guide to buying a workflow that answers a technician's fault question from your equipment manuals, procedures and past work orders, with likely causes, checks and sources, while people do every repair.

Yearly running cost

Assuming 6,000 faults a year

By hand: $90K / year; 2,000 hours of work
Subscription: $7.8K+ / year
This workflow: $540 / year; Machine usage only; setup, hosting and review are extra.

What should the troubleshooting workflow do?

Answer a technician's fault question from your manuals, procedures and past work orders, with likely causes, the checks to make and where each answer came from.

Answer from manuals and past repairsLikely causes and checks with sources$1,080 – 3,120 setupConnect alarms and work ordersReads alarm history, drafts work order notes$1,800 – 5,160 setup

Your technicians decide and do every repair under your lockout procedures. It never sends commands to machines, changes parameters or clears alarms.

What is included

Search your manuals, procedures and exported past work orders, then answer with likely causes in order, the checks to make, required safety steps and a draft work order note.

Start with the machines in scope, their manuals, your safety and lockout procedures and a set of past work orders with confirmed causes. The connected option reads alarm history and work orders from your systems and writes draft notes for a technician to confirm.

How reliable should the answers be?

A long answer is not a good answer. Choose how often the real cause is among the first suggestions, how well each statement is backed by a source, and how reliably it says when it does not know.

StandardUseful causes and checks from your sources, with uncertain cases referred to a person.Confirmed cause suggested: ≥70%Statements backed by a source: ≥95%IncludedStrictA second check of every statement against its source and more tests on past faults.Confirmed cause suggested: ≥80%Statements backed by a source: ≥98%Setup +$288 – 840My own targetsAgree your own acceptance requirements with the provider.Quote separately

How these standards are measured

Test on held-out past faults with a known confirmed cause, written up from your work orders, and on faults the manuals do not cover. Count a cause as found only if it appears among the top three suggestions with a source. Any answer that skips a required safety step or suggests changing a machine setting without approval fails.

Targets for your selected standard
What is checked	Target
Confirmed cause suggestedHeld-out past faults whose confirmed cause appears among the top three suggestions with a supporting source, divided by all test faults.	≥70%
Statements backed by a sourceStatements in answers that the cited manual page, procedure or work order supports, divided by all statements checked.	≥95%
Safety steps includedAnswers to faults that need a lockout or safety step and include that step from your procedures, divided by all such answers.	≥100%
Unknown faults handed overTest faults outside your sources where the answer says so and refers to a person, divided by all such faults.	≥90%

Answers are suggestions for a qualified technician, not instructions to bypass your procedures. Your technicians still inspect, decide and repair, and your safety rules always apply.

How quickly should an answer appear?

Choose how soon after a technician asks the first answer with sources appears. Repair time is separate.

Within 30 secondsIncludedWithin 15 secondsSetup +$144 – 480Within 8 secondsSetup +$288 – 840

Timing details

Time from a submitted question to a complete answer, including searching manuals and work orders, model calls, queueing and retries. Photos and long histories take longer. Confirm network access on the shop floor with your provider.

The target applies to at least 95% of agreed test runs, with 5 in progress at a time.

How much do you want to spend per fault?

Choose the machine budget for searching your sources and writing the answer. Tighter budgets may read fewer past repairs.

Up to $0.40IncludedUp to $0.20Setup +$72 – 360Up to $0.12Setup +$216 – 600

Cost details

Includes model calls, retries and a shared hosting allocation. Maintenance system licences, your technicians' time and the calling agent are separate. Each follow-up question on the same fault adds usage.

Reference machine cost: $0.15 – 0.25 per fault at 500 faults a month. The selected cap is a target to test, not a replacement for this estimate.

Where do you want it to run?

Run it in your cloud or on a server at your plant. Choose whether questions and source passages may go to an approved AI service.

Run it onAI model access

Data and access details

Runs in a cloud account you control, with access controls and logs.

Only the question, a photo if attached and the matching source passages go to the selected external model. Agree access and retention first.

Give the workflow read access to manuals, procedures and work orders. In the connected option it reads alarm history only and writes nothing to machines or controllers. Private model only keeps manuals and questions on your hardware with a private model.

How do you want to use it?

Use a web page on phones and tablets, your current AI agent or your team chat. You can choose more than one.

A web page on phones and tabletsTechnicians ask from the shop floor, attach a photo of the alarm screen and read answers with linked sources.IncludedMy existing AI agentLet your current assistant ask the workflow and read its answer, sources and draft note.Setup +$72 – 240Microsoft Teams or SlackAsk in a maintenance channel or direct message and get the answer in the thread.Setup +$144 – 480

Anything else your provider should know?

Optional. Your choices are included automatically.

Faults per monthYour setup budget (USD)

Your machines, sources or safety rules

Common questions

Do I need this if our maintenance system has an AI assistant?

Not necessarily. If your maintenance system's assistant already answers from your manuals and work orders well enough, use it. Buy a workflow when sources must stay in your environment, you need a private model or your machines and procedures need answers a packaged tool does not give.

Can it change machine settings or reset alarms?

No. It reads and answers. Any setting change, reset or repair is done by an authorised person under your procedures.

What happens when the manuals do not cover a fault?

It says the sources do not cover the fault and refers the technician to a person, then the confirmed fix can be added as a new work order for next time.

Can it run without sending manuals to an external AI service?

Yes. Choose a private model and supply your own hardware. Measure answer quality and machine cost during the pilot.