For OEMs and asset-intensive businesses, field service is far more than a support function. It directly impacts uptime, safety, regulatory compliance, and long-term service revenue across the installed base.
With 74% of field service professionals reporting rising customer expectations and frontline engineers spending 50% of their day on administrative work, today’s service environments are far more complex than ever before.
Machinery manufacturers, industrial OEMs, and service-led organisations rely on structured field service management to protect high-value assets and deliver consistent service throughout the asset lifecycle.
Yet despite its strategic importance, many organisations continue to face the same field service challenges year after year.
These challenges are rarely caused by a lack of technician skill or effort. Instead, they stem from fragmented service processes, limited installed base visibility, and field service models that haven’t evolved alongside increasingly complex machines.
This guide breaks down the most common field service management challenges OEMs face, explains why they persist, and outlines what asset-based businesses must rethink to build scalable, machine-centric field service operations.
Why Field Service Is More Complex for OEMs and Asset-Intensive Industries
Field service in asset-intensive industries operates very differently from transactional or consumer-focused service environments.
OEM field service teams are responsible for supporting complex machines that remain in operation for decades, not months. Service quality directly impacts uptime, safety, compliance, warranty exposure, and long-term customer relationships.
Asset-based organisations manage high-value, serialised machines with long operational lifecycles.
Every service action is tied to:
- Machine serial numbers and configurations
- Software and firmware versions
- Regulatory and safety requirements
Because of this, accurate, consistent, and fully traceable service execution is essential across the entire asset lifecycle.
In aftermarket and OEM service operations, preventive maintenance is not optional. Service schedules are often linked to SLAs, uptime guarantees, and compliance obligations. Missed inspections or poorly documented work can lead to downtime, audit failures, or contractual risk.
Adding further complexity, OEM service ecosystems often include:
- OEM service teams
- Distributors and dealers
- Third-party service partners
- End customers
Without centralised installed base management, service data fragments across systems, organisations, and regions, reducing visibility and accountability.
Over time, asset-intensive field service generates large volumes of data, including:
- Service and maintenance histories
- Inspection records
- Parts replacements
- Technician insights and notes
Each service visit becomes part of a long-term asset history, not a standalone ticket. When service operations are not structured around this reality, visibility is lost and service performance suffers.
Common Field Service Challenges Asset-Based Businesses Face
1. Limited Installed Base and Asset Visibility
One of the most persistent OEM field service management challenges is poor visibility into machines across the installed base.
Service teams often lack:
- A complete asset service history for each machine
- Visibility into installed components and configurations
- Insight into recurring failures or performance risks
Without an asset-centric field service approach, technicians arrive on-site without full context. This leads to longer diagnostics, inconsistent repairs, repeat visits, and avoidable downtime.
2. Fragmented Service Information Across Systems
In many organisations, service data lives across:
- Spreadsheets
- Emails
- PDFs and manuals
- Paper service reports
- Individual technician notes
This fragmentation weakens service documentation, audit readiness, and lifecycle visibility. For OEMs, it also limits the ability to analyse installed base performance or improve aftermarket service strategies.
3. Reactive Service Instead of Preventive Maintenance
Without structured preventive maintenance management, many organisations default to reactive service.
This makes it difficult to:
- Track upcoming inspections
- Identify high-risk assets
- Plan service work proactively across the installed base
This results in avoidable breakdowns, unplanned downtime, and increased pressure on technicians. Over time, reactive service erodes customer confidence and increases operational risk.
4. Inconsistent Service Execution Across Technicians and Regions
When service delivery relies on individual experience rather than standardised workflows, outcomes vary.
Technicians may:
- Follow different procedures
- Document work inconsistently
- Interpret service instructions differently
For OEMs operating across regions or partner networks, this inconsistency causes compliance risk and service quality gaps, particularly in industries where safety and quality regulations are stricter.
5. High Administrative Burden on Technicians
Many technicians spend too much time on reporting rather than repairs.
Common issues include:
- Manual data entry after jobs
- Duplicate reporting across tools
- Writing service notes from memory
These inefficiencies directly impact technician productivity and morale. Over time, they also reduce data accuracy, weakening long-term field service optimisation efforts.
6. Limited Visibility for Service and Operations Managers
Without connected field service systems, leaders struggle to answer key questions:
- Which assets are overdue for maintenance?
- Where are SLA risks building?
- Which machines drive the highest service cost?
- How balanced is technician workload?
This lack of insight makes scaling OEM field service operations difficult.
7. Disconnected Stakeholders Across the Service Ecosystem
OEM service delivery often spans manufacturers, distributors, and service partners. When these groups operate in silos, installed base history fragments, increasing the risk of missed service actions or incomplete records, especially across long asset lifecycles.
Addressing these challenges doesn’t require adding more tools or increasing technician workload. It starts with bringing machines, service history, and workflows into a single, asset-centric system, so teams can work with clarity instead of chasing information.
This is ewhere modern field service platforms make the biggest difference and that’s exactly where Makula comes in.
Why These Challenges Persist in OEM Field Service
Many OEM field service challenges exist because traditional FSM models focus on jobs, not assets. They were designed for a time when machines were simpler, service expectations were lower, and data volumes were manageable.
These models focus heavily on job scheduling, treating each service visit as a standalone task rather than part of a long-term asset lifecycle, limiting visibility and reuse of service knowledge.
Documentation is often manual, delayed, and stored in disconnected systems. As a result, valuable service data is lost, duplicated, or never analyzed.
As machines become more complex and service expectations rise, these outdated approaches fail to scale. What once worked for smaller service volumes now creates friction, inefficiency, and risk across the entire service operation.
What Asset-Based Businesses Need to Rethink
To move forward, asset-based businesses must shift to machine-centric field service management.
Key changes include:
- Managing service around assets and installed base, not tickets
- Treating service data as a strategic asset
- Reducing technician admin through structured workflows and guided service forms
- Connecting service history, documentation, and performance into one system of record
Together, these changes enable scalable OEM field service operations, leading to more reliable service delivery and better operational decisions without losing control or quality.
Conclusion: Turning Field Service Challenges into a Growth Opportunity
Field service challenges are not a sign that something is broken, they are a clear signal that service operations have outgrown informal processes and disconnected tools.
For OEMs and asset-intensive businesses, addressing these challenges is essential for:
- Improving uptime and asset reliability, where every hour of downtime carries a real operational and financial cost
- Strengthening compliance and safety, through consistent service execution and reliable documentation
- Supporting technicians more effectively, by reducing administrative burden and giving them the right context at the right time
- Building long-term customer trust, through transparent, predictable, and well-documented service delivery.
When service data is connected to machines and workflows are structured, field service becomes predictable, scalable, and commercially sustainable.
Solutions like Makula's Field Service Management platform are designed around this installed base–first approach, helping OEMs organise service knowledge, improve visibility, and scale field service operations with confidence.
.webp)
