Customer Case Study
Crane Asset Tracking at Morgan Site Services with crewOS
How persistent asset data eliminated diagnostic trips, shortened quoting from days to minutes, and turned inspections into a revenue engine.
The Phone Call That Used to Cost a Trip
A customer calls on a Tuesday afternoon. His wire rope is shot. Can Morgan get someone out there?
Before crewOS, this phone call kicked off a sequence that ate margin before any real work started. Someone had to drive out, assess the crane, document the rope specification (size, type, length, drum configuration), come back, build a quote, send it over, wait for approval, order the part, and then schedule the actual repair.
That first trip was pure overhead, just windshield time and a technician’s hourly rate.
Today, when that call comes in, Ricci Halbrook, Morgan Site Services Operations Manager, pulls up the crane in crewOS. He can see that the last inspection was three months ago. His team captured the asset details then: rope specs, hoist type, capacity, serial numbers, and photos from every angle. Everything he needs to quote the job is already in the system.
“It’s a wire rope, we’ll get it on Wednesday, and we’ll be out there Thursday morning.”
Halbrook tells the customer. The part’s ordered before the customer hangs up. No assessment trip, no delay.
“That’s a very different conversation from the customer side of things about getting their problems solved. And that’s a big key to keeping some of the customers that we have.”
Ricci Halbrook
The Data Nobody Was Collecting
Morgan Site Services is the field service arm of Morgan Engineering, a 163-year-old crane manufacturer with operations across Ohio, Michigan, and Texas. About 45 technicians across the division, inspecting and servicing overhead cranes for industrial facilities of every size.
Every crane company in the country does annual inspections. It’s OSHA-mandated, but most companies treat the inspection as a standalone event: show up, check the boxes, deliver a report, move on. The data captured during the inspection dies with the report.
Morgan started treating inspections differently. In crewOS, every crane is an asset with a persistent record. When a technician inspects it, the data doesn’t just go into a report, it stays attached to the asset. Rope size, hoist model, component condition, and photos of everything above, below, and inside the crane, are all included.
“Once we gather that information, we track that information throughout. So even if it’s not related to that inspection report, the inspection was the time for us to gather that data.”
Ricci Halbrook
That distinction, between capturing data for a report versus capturing data for the long term, is what changes the economics of the entire service relationship.
Higher Margins for Morgan, Less Downtime for the Customer
When a competitor gets that same Tuesday phone call, they have two options: quote blind and hope they bring the right part, or send a crew to assess first and eat the trip cost. Most send the crew. Some bill for it. Either way, the customer waits longer and someone pays more than they should.
Morgan skips the assessment because crewOS already holds the answer. The asset record from the last inspection (or the last service call, or the last rope change) has everything a technician needs to show up prepared on the first visit.
“I can either mobilize a crew out there to go assess it, put time on the clock, cost me the job. Higher margins on our end, and the customer is also paying less overall because you’re not going for that secondary trip.”
Ricci Halbrook
For the customer, it’s about speed. The biggest thing most maintenance managers want to hear is that you can reduce their downtime. A crane down in a steel mill or on an oil rig isn’t just an inconvenience, it’s nonproductive time that shows up on someone’s report.
“If you can make more money and save them money at the same time by having efficiencies in place, that’s where it works.”
Ricci Halbrook
The data layer is what makes both possible. Right now it answers questions when the customer calls. The bigger opportunity, says Halbrook, is using that data to call the customer first.
“You can’t manage what you can’t measure. All of this is a sales tool. This is the fuel for our revenue engine.“
Ricci Halbrook
Morgan Site Services is a division of Morgan Engineering: 163 years of building cranes, and now the data to keep them running.
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