Reynolds Machinery needed a way to digitize their pen and paper processes, which created numerous opportunities for delayed, damaged, or lost documentation. With traveling technicians saddled with paper forms for weeks at a time, Reynolds Machinery required a mobile-friendly solution to grant real-time access to completed forms.
Implementing GoFormz empowers traveling Reynolds Machinery technicians to fill out documents on their mobile devices eliminating opportunities for lost paperwork and delays, while simplifying the form filling process, and granting real-time access to completed forms.
Installation Forms
Preventative Maintenance Form
Located in Dayton, Ohio, Reynolds Machinery is a family-owned business that has operated for over 80 years and specializes in distributing and selling CNC machine tools. These CNC machine tools are primarily used for metal cutting and known for their substantial size, weight, and considerable cost. CNC machines are indispensable to various industries, and are used to produce critical resources, like stamping dies, car parts, medical instruments, devices, implants, and more.
Prior to GoFormz, Reynolds Machinery encountered many problems as a result of their paper-based process. “Using paper forms two things would happen,” explained Steve Mays, Vice President of Reynolds Machinery. “A form would be filled out by a technician, but then those forms would ride around in their trucks for weeks.” With a team of traveling technicians, this became a consistent issue. “While those forms were in the trucks, they would get coffee spilled on them and they would get crinkled up and destroyed,” noted Mays. “Or, they would lose one page out of eleven, and then we would face a lack of documentation. It could be a critical piece of information missing.”
Outdated forms posed another issue for Reynolds Machinery. “The technicians would print five or six copies in advance so they wouldn’t have to go back to the office to get copies,” detailed Mays. By the time the technicians reached their last copy, however, that form had often been replaced with an updated version. “All of our forms are produced by our suppliers. We just fill out the information and then send the form back to them,” Mays noted. “So if they give us a new form and we’re still sending them old forms, that doesn't look good on our part.”
Recognizing their business operations were outdated and required optimization, Reynolds Machinery began their search for a digital solution.
“We tried to convert our suppliers' forms into Adobe Acrobat Pro, but the real problem there was when all the guys switched from tablets to telephones. They were pinching and zooming all day long and a form that has 20 fields in it is difficult to use on smaller screens.”
– Steve Mays, Vice President, Reynolds Machinery
Reynolds Machinery's initial search for a solution began with Adobe Acrobat Pro. “We tried to convert our suppliers' forms into Adobe Acrobat Pro, but the real problem there was when all the guys switched from tablets to telephones. They were pinching and zooming all day long,” explained Mays. “A form that has 20 fields in it is difficult to use on smaller screens.”
Seeking a more end-user-friendly solution, Mays took the initiative to attend a roundtable discussion featuring GoFormz at Field Service USA, a conference tailored to field service professionals. “I chose to attend that roundtable discussion to help solve my problem. After I listened and spoke to the founder and a couple of engineers afterward, they told me to try out GoFormz for a couple of weeks,” Mays recalled. “And we were sold immediately!”
GoFormz onboarding was swift and smooth. “It was pretty easy and adoption was fast,” commented Mays. “Of course, with any new software, there are always new features and capabilities to learn which can take a bit at first, but overall the process went really well for us.” Reynolds Machinery digitized their most popular forms for their teams to test and submit their feedback. “Once the guys in the field said, ‘yes, this is it,’ then we began converting all of our forms over to GoFormz and it was simple enough to learn the software from there,” Mays explained.
To help with the transition, Reynolds Machinery hired an intern to learn the platform. “We hired an intern to learn GoFormz so that I could go back and do my regular job, and he did fantastic,” commented Mays. “He was showing me how to use more complex features, like databases, so that when technicians fill out forms in the field, multiple fields will auto-populate with corresponding data.”
Once GoFormz was in the hands of Reynolds Machinery technicians, the obstacles, frustrations, and delays that plagued their pen-and-paper and PDF processes went away. “Most of the remarks I got before GoFormz were complaints,” expressed Mays. “It would be complaints around how the fields are too small or about redundant data entry on multiple pages. Or technicians would have the forms for weeks at a time and we wouldn’t be able to invoice the builder until we had the form turned in and completed.”
The biggest selling point for the Reynolds Machinery team was List View, GoFormz’s small-screen optimized viewing mode. List View presents digital form fields in an ‘app-like’ index, making it easy to enter information on smaller devices, like phones. This viewing mode can be accessed from the menu bar in the GoFormz app. “A big winner for us was when we got to List View. The technicians didn’t care how the form looked,” noted Mays. “With List View, we can reorder our form fields in a more logical way than even the original form and can use the full screen to fill in the details.” List View became a critical part of the Reynolds Machinery field team. “List View solved a lot of our problems. The technicians had no more complaints!”
Reynolds Machinery's uses GoFormz to complete a variety of installation forms. Although there might be slight variations in the installation forms to accommodate specific machines, they generally follow a similar framework. “These are big complex pieces of machinery that can take two or three days, or sometimes even a couple of weeks, to install,” Mays continued, “so the suppliers want to know a lot of details about how the installation went.”
Consequently, this installation process requires a vast amount of information. “We capture the name, address, and serial number of equipment on the form,” explained Mays. “We take pictures of the equipment and add those to the form. We also do some computer testing where we’re able to take screenshots from the computer and attach those into the form.”
Image and File Attachment fields provide a simple means of showcasing proof of work in documentation for customers. “We also use the database field to populate multiple fields to streamline the technicians form filling experience,” detailed Mays. Once an installation has been completed, the technicians capture digital signatures from the customers to complete the installation form.
Additionally, the Reynolds Machinery team has their own internal preventative maintenance form for each style of machine. “When we go do a Herko, Sharon, or Smart maintenance check, the technicians will grab a preventative maintenance form, fill it out in the List View, and then it’s sent over to the customer with the invoice.”
Reynolds Machinery has experienced significant time savings using mobile forms. “We’ve saved time using GoFormz which means we’ve saved money,” noted Mays. “Just think, if a paper form stays in a van and gets 500 miles on that form before the customer can be invoiced, guess how much that’s worth if we’re just holding off on invoicing until the form is complete and turned in,” posited Mays. “That’s just one example of many on how we’re saving using GoFormz.”
Significant time savings has resulted in many benefits for the Reynolds Machinery team. “Having immediate feedback when the form is finished has been huge for us,” explained Mays. “Secondly, having List View functionality so we can use smaller devices allows our technicians to feel more comfortable filling out forms and has solved a lot of problems for us.” Mays continued on to say, “We aren’t tied to a specific format, so we can really choose what is best for us to complete forms, which has been a game changer for us.”
“We’ve saved time using GoFormz which means we’ve saved money.”
– Steve Mays, Vice President, Reynolds Machinery
As the team continues to find success with mobile forms in the field, Reynolds Machinery is looking to expand GoFormz to their accounting department. “We don’t have a lot of forms in our company, but we do send out credit applications to customers,” Mays commented. “We would like to start using this in our accounting department by using Public Forms.”