Industrial Maintenance Software for Automation Service Contractors
Shutdown windows, breakdown callouts and planned controls work booked against the engineers who can actually do them, with evidence the plant will sign.
The plant decides when you can work
Automation work happens when the line stops: a weekend shutdown, a two-hour changeover, a night shift with the machine isolated. Miss the window and the next one may be a month away, so the whole plan is built backwards from the dates production gives you.
Skills are brand-specific
An engineer who knows one PLC family inside out may never have opened another vendor's software. Drives, safety relays, HMIs and robot cells each need their own experience, and the plant will not accept a learner during a production stop.
Checklists that protect the next engineer
Controls changes are hard to see after the fact. If a timer was adjusted or an interlock bridged for testing, the next person needs to know. A structured checklist at closeout records what was changed and confirms that temporary measures were removed.
Hours the plant will agree with
Industrial customers check timesheets carefully, especially on shutdowns where overtime is involved. When time on site, tasks completed and parts used are captured during the job, the invoice matches what the plant's supervisor saw.
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Why automation contractors need industrial maintenance software of their own
Most industrial maintenance software is bought by the plant. It holds the asset register, the work order backlog and the planned maintenance schedule for the site's own technicians. An automation service contractor sits outside that system: it gets a phone call, an email or a purchase order, sends engineers in, and then has to prove what they did. The contractor's own planning usually lives in a spreadsheet and the engineer's head.
Shifton Field Service gives that contractor a board for its own people. Every shutdown, callout and planned visit is a job with a customer, a location, a scope and an engineer. The engineer carries the details on the phone, fills in the closeout checklist on site and gets a signature before leaving.
Industrial automation service software is mostly about people
The technology varies from plant to plant, but the scheduling problem is always the same: a small number of engineers with very different skills, and customers who can only open their doors at specific times. Good industrial automation service software shows the planner who can do the job, where they are, and what they are already committed to.
Where automation service work goes wrong
Scope that changes on arrival
A request for a drive replacement becomes a wiring fault, then a card failure, then a request to modify the sequence while the engineer is there. Without a record of what was asked for and what was done, those extras disappear from the invoice. Noting additions on the job as they happen, with photos, keeps the scope honest on both sides.
Knowledge that leaves with the engineer
An engineer who fixed a fault last spring may be on another site, or gone, when it happens again. The job history, with notes on what was found and what was changed, is what lets someone else pick up the thread without starting from nothing.
PLC maintenance that nobody schedules
Preventive PLC maintenance is easy to sell and easy to forget: battery replacement, program backups, cabinet cleaning, checking fault logs and spare stock. Putting those visits on the board as planned jobs, months ahead, turns them into regular work instead of something that happens after a failure.
Safety and permits on the job card
Plants run their own permit systems, and a contractor has to follow them. Shifton does not issue permits, but the job can carry the requirements, and the checklist can ask the engineer to confirm that isolation was verified and a photo of the lock taken before work began. That record matters if anything is questioned later.
What Shifton Field Service does
It plans shutdowns, callouts and preventive visits on one board, assigns engineers by skill and availability, gives them a mobile app with job details, checklists and forms, captures photos, signatures and hours, and produces reports per customer. A contractor with two people or fewer pays nothing for that core set, however long it stays that small. Inventory, Invoicing, GPS work location control and the customer portal are paid additions.
It is not a plant CMMS, a SCADA or historian, or a tool for editing or versioning PLC code. It does not monitor machines or raise work orders from alarms. It organises your engineers and keeps the evidence of their work.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Shifton connect to our PLCs, SCADA or historian?
No. It does not read tags, alarms or machine data, and it does not store or compare PLC programs. It plans the engineers and records what they did: checklists, notes, photos, parts, hours and the customer's signature.
Can we plan a weekend shutdown with several engineers?
Yes. Create the jobs for the shutdown on the board, assign each engineer with the hours agreed, and attach the scope and permit notes. Everyone sees their part on the phone before they arrive at the gate.
How do we handle a breakdown call in the middle of a planned week?
Add the urgent job to the board and look at who is closest and qualified. You can see which planned work it displaces and rebook that before the customer on the other end hears about it from someone else.
Can we record PLC maintenance tasks in a standard way?
Yes. Build a PLC maintenance form with the checks you do on every visit: battery, backup, fault log review, cabinet temperature and cleanliness, and let the engineer fill it at the panel with photos.
Do our engineers need to carry a laptop for Shifton?
No. The mobile app on a phone covers the job list, forms, photos and signatures. The laptop stays for programming; Shifton is only there for the service record.
What does a two-person controls business pay?
Nothing. Teams of up to two use the board, the app, forms and reports free with no end date. Paid modules for Inventory, Invoicing, GPS work location control and the customer portal can be added when the business grows into them.
Can we keep a history of work done on each production line?
Yes. If jobs name the plant, line and panel consistently, the job history shows every visit, change note and photo for that equipment, which is what the next engineer needs before touching it.
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