[Green0]

I guess maybe Doosan software engineers need to spend a little more time on the shop floor and less time behind their desks. It sounds like all of the complaints that you list are software issues that could be corrected by a software engineer visit to your facility. This is not going to be handled by a service tech.

Back in the day when I was a field tech for a German machine manufacturer, if we had software issues that we couldn't solve via emails and phone calls, we would bring in one of the software engineers from the head office in Germany and sit them down in front of the machine until it was working to the customer satisfaction. The thinking was if the customer was going to spend $250K on a machine then it probably should work as expected, and of course the software corrections were then made the standard for the next machines.

To start I would bring in your local Doosan sales rep and have a long chat.

I believe you are correct. The issues we have are just the way Tool load monitoring and programming does already work on the 31I TT1800SY II's this model is replacing. All we are asking for is normal function of Doosan's software to coincide with the field notes and manuals.

Amid the bits and pieces we've heard the Doosan application people in New Jersey are being (apparently administratively) limited to possibly two days a week with showroom machines to try to understand and develop the solution to the problem, possibly throttling Doosan technical support in the USA to 40% of normal capabilities for customers nationwide. We're talking about people who support all the Doosan machines in the USA on every odd new integration or programming issue that occurs and who under normal circumstances, 5 days a week, are in very limited supply.

Granted the New Jersey people I believe offer Doosan the ability to floor test software and ladder product at various stages of development (something we also can offer more like 60 hours a week, but that would then require Ellison to be supplied and to hand off the product in development), because as I understand it Korea works development on simulators, and New Jersey has actual machines on the floor and people capable of testing solutions in development in those machines. So Korea needs Doosan USA to test implementations in reality, but Korea is probably singularly responsible for coding of the software solution we need to resolve this.

Ellison locally had a meeting about this Friday, but I think Ellison is just like us in this situation, getting beat up when they really aren't part of the team that will solve the problem. They are- like us- waiting for a solution to install. We heard possibly a senior application person was let go over poorly "pushing" problems to solution with new install machines in ways that have been frustrating all local sales engineers and customers. Fortunately Ellison had a senior app guy who is returning, so they are not understaffed, and might even be better equipped to help "push", communicate, and manage this issue to resolution.

The only thing we have heard is possibly in May there is a plan to release an updated software. On our end we would like to see May pushed up to next week, because we have no reason to believe the May "rotation" will actually solve the problem, and we would like to get to the next iteration as rapidly as possible for as long as it takes to resolve this. In our limited experience, solutions to problems like this take something like 2-4 weeks of focused time, and this isn't just our 2 machines, it's Doosan's new product, so Doosan should care about making it successful.

I have 12 Doosan machines. So far only one of them has been 100% theoretical efficiency and 100% functional nearly immediately in its floor life here with no issues to work out. That one is a five axis DVF-5000- a really impressive machine that installed really smoothly and we are very happy with it- it is a beast- rigid, fast, high RPM, smooth, quiet- PRODUCTIVE. The 31I TT1800SY II's we could fully integrate to completion in about 6 weeks. Puma 2100 SYII's took about 2-3 weeks, where the more recent 15" I series version Puma 2100SYII took about 3 months, and the first of these TT1800SYII's with the I series 15" is at 7 months and rolling (our worst floor integration to 100% complete time yet). The 15" I series TT1800SYII is preventing us from buying a machine right now. It is costing Doosan money well in excess of this pissant 11K$ we were supposed to be forced to save.

I think taking problems seriously and making the solutions standard like you are saying was standard for the German company, would really help to reduce the floor integration time on these machines. We would love that.- that would mean we could buy a machine during a market condition, and expect to capitalize on that condition at 100% efficiency, with minimal service interruption contributing to down time and lost revenue on all the other machines, and actually try to pay it off with those conditions. It would help sell the machines.