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Lely, an international family-owned agricultural company, committed to making farmers' lives easier through innovative and valuable solutions. To create a sustainable, profitable and enjoyable future in agriculture. And to make service visits by service technicians to farms more efficient, Lely has introduced the Lely Service Support App (LSSA). This tool, developed in long-term collaboration with Datamole, enables technicians to resolve issues during their visits and provides insights. This proactive approach allows technicians to prepare parts and manage their time effectively, minimising repeat visits and breakdowns. This leads to greater customer satisfaction, more efficient service engineers and higher productivity of the service organisation.
The Lely Service Support App is a cornerstone of this partnership. It sets a new standard for efficiency in our service organization by delivering smart insights and proactive features that empower technicians to provide faster, better service. As we look to the future, we’re excited to continue working with Datamole on ambitious projects that will further transform agriculture."
A typical robotized dairy farm with several hundred milk cows is equipped with Lely milking robots. How did the daily operation look like in 2012?
A technician arrives at a farm to perform preventive maintenance on a milking robot. During the visit, he proactively identifies that another device has been triggering critical alarms, which may have alarm the farmer at night. Recognizing the issue, he ensures to prepare for future visits by having the correct parts on hand. The next day, when an air compressor fails causing all robots on the farm to stop milking, the technician promptly returns to address the problem. This scenario emphasizes the importance of preparedness and continuous improvement, allowing service managers to gain clear insights into issues and implement preventative measures for the future.
Farmers were seeking ways to reduce their Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and increase uptime, and Lely recognized that a core area for improvement was in providing better information about the devices. The service operations of Lely were poised to become even more efficient with enhanced insights into device performance, benefiting technicians, service managers, and the entire service organization.
Customers desired well-prepared technicians who understood all aspects of farm operations, not just the immediate issues at hand. Often, technicians arrived without the necessary parts or enough time to address multiple issues, leading to repeat visits and lower customer satisfaction.
Technicians were looking for comprehensive information before service visits to reduce repeated repairs and improve their morale. Without insights into the current condition of the robots, they frequently faced unexpected breakdowns during inconvenient times, affecting their work-life balance.
Service managers faced challenges without a clear overview of where time and resources were spent, which impeded their ability to allocate operations and resources effectively. They lacked detailed information about which service areas were performing well and which needed improvement, relying more on intuition than hard data when deciding where to focus their energy. Additionally, they were unsure about the profitability of service agreements, hesitating to offer more comprehensive coverage agreements that could be beneficial for both farmers and the company.
Farm management support advisors had limited information about the performance of different farms, making it difficult to identify and assist farmers struggling with the adoption of robotic milking. This sometimes led to the loss of customers that could have been prevented with timely intervention.
There was a significant gap in monitoring device performance and long-term trends, making it challenging to manage the service organization efficiently. The lack of actionable information about the installed base hindered the service organization from optimizing their processes.
This situation was at odds with Lely’s goal to “Increase Customer Satisfaction by service delivery through EXPERIENCED technicians, supported by WELL-INFORMED Product Specialists/Service Managers.” Recognizing the issues stemming from the lack of data on devices, Lely selected Datamole for their extensive expertise in all necessary competencies and their ability to provide an end-to-end solution.
Datamole’s approach began with a proof of concept (PoC) that addressed initial challenges by focusing on automating reporting processes and validating the proposed solution. Over eight years of collaboration, Datamole and Lely worked closely, pivoting and refining the solution into what became the Lely Service Support App (LSSA). This app combines data from various sources to provide smart insights, reveal exceptions, and generate actionable lists for technicians. This robust application scaled from a single Lely Center and a few users to over 200 centers and more than 2000 regular users worldwide.
This situation was at odds with Lely’s goal to “Increase Customer Satisfaction by service delivery through EXPERIENCED technicians, supported by WELL-INFORMED Product Specialists/Service Managers.” Recognizing the issues stemming from the lack of data on devices, Lely selected Datamole for their extensive expertise in all necessary competencies and their ability to provide an end-to-end solution.
Monitoring the status of robots/devices, assisting technicians
Service management decision support (satisfaction)
Farm management support (FMS) - helping farmers use devices correctly and assisting farm management support to identify farms where they are struggling
Customers that need instant attention
Devices with the most time spent on
Farms struggling with robotic milking adoption or having sudden problems
Visits efficiency
A complete picture of the situation of each customer with insights about robot performance, profitability, satisfaction, and performance, allowing a true customer-centric approach.
The implementation of the Lely Service Support App brought numerous benefits to Lely's operations. The First time fix rate, a crucial KPIs for services organization, increased, indicating high efficiency, cost-effectiveness and lower operational costs.
Customers desired well-prepared technicians who understood all aspects of farm operations, not just the immediate issues at hand. Often, technicians arrived without the necessary parts or enough time to address multiple issues, leading to repeat visits and lower customer satisfaction.
Technicians were empowered with comprehensive information about customers before visits, allowing them to be better prepared and more efficient, becoming much more effective Lely ambassadors.. The app provided actionable lists of customers with specific issues, focusing technician efforts on priority cases rather than random visits.
Service managers faced challenges without a clear overview of where time and resources were spent, which impeded their ability to allocate operations and resources effectively. They lacked detailed information about which service areas were performing well and which needed improvement, relying more on intuition than hard data when deciding where to focus their energy. Additionally, they were unsure about the profitability of service agreements, hesitating to offer more comprehensive coverage agreements that could be beneficial for both farmers and the company.
This proactive approach led to increased customer satisfaction, as issues were often addressed before customers even realized there was a problem.
Additionally, employee satisfaction improved as technicians had the necessary information to perform their jobs effectively, reducing stress and enhancing morale.
The Lely Service Support App also provided other significant benefits.
The ability to track performance and trends in real-time allowed for more strategic planning and continuous improvement, ensuring Lely's service operations remained at the forefront of the industry.
The successful implementation of LSSA also opened doors to further automation and advanced data analytics, positioning Lely for continued innovation and growth.
Overall, the efficiency of service operations improved, leading to increased revenues and reduced costs due to fewer repeated visits and optimized resource use. Currently, it is a go-to application for Lely centers.
"Datamole is more than just a supplier—they’re a trusted partner in our mission to make farming easier and more sustainable. Through years of collaboration, they helped us define key pain points and iteratively develop solutions tailored to the needs of our technicians and farmers. Their dedication and technical expertise have been essential in building a strong foundation for our ongoing innovation.
Looking forward, Lely and Datamole plan to continue their collaboration, focusing on integrating more advanced AI and machine learning models to further enhance predictive maintenance and service optimization. By leveraging advanced technologies, Lely aims to provide even greater value to their customers and stay ahead in the competitive agricultural industry.
