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Maintenance Technician Assistant

A maintenance technician assistant that answers at the machine from the right page, refuses every isolation question and hands it to the named authority.

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Follow one seal job from 9:12 am to closeout ↓
The problem

The manual in his hand still gives the torque for a motor that is gone

A pump gets a bigger motor and a new coupling, the change closes in one system, and the maker’s manual is never revised. The technician at the machine has the old page, four logins he cannot reach with gloves on, and a supervisor somewhere else.

What the last mechanic knew about a fouling guard bracket left with him. A question about a drain goes by radio to whoever picks up. And at the end of the shift the closeout says done, typed in the shop from memory.

Built forMechanical techniciansInstrument techniciansMaintenance supervisorsArea authoritiesMaintenance engineers

The Problem Today

Manuals outlive the machine, and what senior technicians know leaves with them.

Hunted for by hand today

  • Manuals
  • Changes
  • Old hands
  • Permits
  • Pages go out of dateA change closes, and the manual stays as it was
  • Wrong words at a live jobA phone that says safe is a safety event

The Solution

  1. Asked at the machineScan the tag and speak; the answer shows its page
  2. Checked against changesAn answer from an out-of-date page comes with a warning
  3. Safety goes to a personIsolation, energy, gas and lifting are refused and routed
  4. Closeout spoken, then signedA draft from his own words, checked by the supervisor

Built-in controls

  • Each answer names its page and revision
  • Never a yes, a no or steps on safety
  • Only people close a work order

What You Get

Technicians get the figure that fits the machine as it is, and supervisors sign closeouts in the technician’s own words.

  • Pages flagged earlyA change that touches a page is marked before someone uses it
  • Know-how keptNotes from retired hands, marked until approved
  • Closeouts you can useFailure code, readings and labor from what was said
One seal job, at the pump

A maintenance technician assistant on one seal change, from scan to signature

A senior mechanical technician has a work order to replace the mechanical seal on a sour water feed pump. The pump is isolated and the certificate was issued at 6:52 am. Here is his job on the phone, and the people it reaches.

demoThe plant, the pump, the crew and every reading here are invented for the sample.

  1. 019:12 am

    One scan brings the job, the certificate and a change the manual never got

    Senior mechanical technician

    He scans the tag on the pump. The phone finds the exact machine and work order, and shows the isolation certificate in force, one change since the manual and two notes from the last person. Beside it, the job card says the motor went from 30 hp to 40 hp, with a new coupling, and links the change record.

  2. 029:12 am

    Page 88 says 49 ft-lb, and the phone says stop before he uses it

    Senior mechanical technician

    He asks for the coupling bolt torque. On page 88, the maker’s manual answers 49 ft-lb. A check against changes runs next and finds the re-motor, so the reply says it plainly: that page is out of date for this pump. The page itself opens beside the phone, with the struck line and the reason it was marked.

  3. 039:12 am

    58 ft-lb from the coupling data sheet, and a retired mechanic’s tip

    Senior mechanical technician

    The current figure comes from the coupling data sheet: 58 ft-lb, threads lightly oiled, three passes, opposite pairs. Beside it sits what the last person knew. A retired mechanic’s note says the guard bracket fouls a straight socket on the lower bolts, so use a crowfoot. It is marked unverified, so nobody takes a tip for a procedure.

  4. 049:12 am

    Is it safe to crack this drain? The phone will not say

    Senior mechanical technician

    The question is about isolation, so it gets no steps and no yes or no. Instead the phone shows the certificate, the seal procedure, and the one thing nobody has confirmed at the machine: the casing drain. It names the area isolation authority for the unit, on shift until 6:00 pm, radio channel 4.

  5. 059:12 am

    A red line stays on the phone until the authority answers

    Senior mechanical technician

    He taps to ask her. The question goes to her with his words and the permit, and a red line across the top says do not go on. If she has not answered in 15 minutes it moves to her backup, the night supervisor. The audit trail logs the refusal and the hand-off with the time.

  6. 069:12 to 9:18 am

    She walks to the pump before she answers

    Area isolation authority

    On her screen the question sits at the top of her safety queue, with the certificate and the drain still marked as not confirmed at the machine. She has three answers: go ahead, I am coming to you, or stop the job. To answer go ahead she must tick that she checked it at the machine herself.

  7. 079:18 am

    Her words reach the phone exactly, with her name and the time

    Senior mechanical technician

    Back on the phone, the red line is gone and her reply sits under his question: go ahead, I have checked it at the machine, with her name and 9:18 am. Had she said stop, the job could only close as stopped with the work order left open. The phone offers one next step: job finished, close out.

  8. 081:58 pm

    A voice work order closeout in 40 seconds, and one thing missing

    Senior mechanical technician

    He speaks what he found and what he did: buffer pot gaining level, faces worn, a new cartridge seal, 58 on the coupling bolts, alignment, a thirty-minute run. The draft is read against the site procedure, which asks for the buffer pot level before and after the run. He did not say it, so the phone asks him.

  9. 091:59 pm

    Failure mode, parts and readings drafted from his own words

    Senior mechanical technician

    He answers that it held at the line before and after. The draft fills in: external leakage of process medium, wear, the cartridge seal by stock number, 58 ft-lb matching the data sheet, alignment of 1.4 mils offset and 0.3 mils per inch inside the limit, and 8.0 labor hours. A no would have recorded as failed.

  10. 10Afternoon

    Each field sits beside the words it came from

    Maintenance supervisor

    The supervisor opens the closeout in her queue. On the left is what the technician said, word for word; on the right the drafted fields, with the failure code marked 86% sure. Tapping the torque field lights the words it came from. Approving sends it into the maintenance system, which closes the work order. Return with a reason is the other choice.

A month of questions from the crews, and where each one went

Every question asked on a phone in the sample month lands in one of three places.

Answered with a page33,918
Refused and sent to a personisolation, energy, gas, lifting1,206
Not answered, logged for an engineer3,116
Questions asked38,240

demoSample data, from the working solution.

Off the phone

Pages, notes and refusals that the maintenance engineer and auditor read

Six screens from the desk side of the same plant, for the people who keep the library honest.

Refusals on the recordThe audit trail filtered to refusals: what was asked, who refused, who it went to and the reply, each with its time.
What the last person knew2,318 notes: 1,146 approved as procedure, 1,012 unverified and 160 in review. A note that conflicts with the manual says so.
One machine, one cardService, motor, coupling, seal and manual, each with its page, the change since the manual, past work orders and the notes on this pump.
The authorities’ queueQuestions from across the units, each with the asker’s own words, the person who owns it and how long it has waited.
Questions it could not answerEach one says why: the wrong model of manual, a faint scan, two pages that disagree. An engineer answers it or asks document control.
Pages a change made wrong4,806 pages flagged against engineering changes: 3,392 signed and 1,414 open. A phone warns as soon as a page is flagged.

demoSample data, from the working solution.

Behind the phone

Seven agents find the page, and one of them reads every message first

Each does one thing, and each has a line it does not cross.

Tag matcher

Finds the exact machine, work order, manuals and revision.

  • Never answers for a sister machine
Answer finder

Gives a value from the page that holds it for that exact part.

  • Never answers from a similar part
  • Never answers without a source
Change watcher

Checks each answer against changes and flags pages.

  • Never edits a manual
  • Never marks a page out of date on its own
Notes keeper

Captures notes, ties them to tags and checks conflicts.

  • Never turns a note into a procedure
Safety gate

Reads each message first and refuses isolation, energy, gas, lifting and machine state.

  • Never gives a safety opinion or a how-to
  • Cannot be turned off
Closeout drafter

Drafts the closeout from spoken words and asks what is missing.

  • Never closes a work order
  • Never invents a reading
Gap router

Logs questions with no answer and routes them.

  • Never closes a question without a person

Calls the phone leaves to the area authority, the rigging lead and supervisor

Isolation and live stateNo steps and no yes or no. The question goes to the area authority, who answers from the machine.
LiftsLifting questions go to the rigging lead, by name.
Closing the work orderThe supervisor reads the words against each field and approves. The draft never closes anything.
Making a tip a procedureA note stays unverified until the engineer and the supervisor approve it.
Marking a page wrongA flagged page is signed out of date by the maintenance engineer and the supervisor together.

Four systems and the crews’ notes, read for a technician in gloves

All read only. The answer shows which one it came from.

Maintenance systemWork orders, past work and closeouts
Permit to workIsolation certificates and what is confirmed
Document managementManuals, data sheets and drawings, by revision
Management of changeChanges that touch a machine or a page
NotesWhat experienced people wrote down, marked by status

What maintenance managers ask about a maintenance technician assistant

What is a maintenance technician assistant?

A maintenance technician assistant is a phone at the machine that answers a technician’s question from the page holding the value, and warns when a change has made that page wrong. It refuses safety questions and routes them to the named authority, then drafts the closeout from his spoken words for a supervisor to sign.

Does an AI assistant for maintenance technicians need more than manual search?

Searching a manual gives you the manual as it was bought. Here each answer is checked against the change records for that exact machine first, so a figure from a page that no longer fits comes with a warning and the current source.

What happens when a technician asks if something is safe?

The phone gives no steps and no yes or no. It shows the certificate and the procedure, names the area authority, and holds the question with a red line until she answers. Her words come back exactly, with her name and time.

Does it work as a connected worker tool without signal?

Yes. Downloads for the day’s machines are kept current, so a phone with no signal still answers from its pages and shows how old each answer is. The area authority cannot be reached until the signal returns, and the closeout waits to be sent.

How does a spoken closeout become a record a supervisor trusts?

The draft maps each field to the words it came from, asks for anything the site procedure needs that was not said, and goes to the supervisor, who reads the words against each field before approving it into the maintenance system.

What happens to the notes of people who are about to retire?

Notes are tied to the tag, shown beside answers, and marked unverified until the engineer and the supervisor approve them as procedure. A note that conflicts with the manual says so.

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Bring one pump
that was changed after its manual.

We’ll walk you through its pages, its change records and a closeout, using your own documents.

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