We discussed the role of mobility in the warehouse for cable; now, it is time to take a look at how mobility can affect field personnel.
Mobility as a whole can help tackle challenges that organizations face on the day to day. Below demonstrates some solutions that mobility can bring to the workforce.
- Making the most out of every contact with the customer
- Innovating and blocking the competition
- Strengthening collaboration among co-workers
- Improving workforce utilization
Mobility can help increase productivity in technicians through several field services, including: on-demand access to repair history, service history, and device attributes.
Most technicians are on the move and have to spend considerable amount of time searching for tools and information for service requests or inventory reports. Without this real-time access on a mobile device, technicians are then forced to resort to collecting and capturing information manually and re-entering it later into an application, which can cause errors. It also reduces the speed at which the information moves up the supply chain, which can delay updating information on inventory, assets, repair, and deployment.
The ability to house data in one central location will allow technicians to collaborate and share this information in real time. In such an integrated model, mobility can help improve key performance indicators, such as: field engineer utilization, field engineer productivity, customer satisfaction, and help with service renewals.
Technicians can use mobility to service substantial value by improving both service and dispatch cycle times. These make business processes more efficient, paperless, and user-friendly leading to improve user adoption and the ability to train new hires onto these devices.
Inventory Management in the Field
The key to improving inventory management is meeting your inventory where it lives on the shelves; this is achieved through mobile computing enabled by inventory management software, such as an EAM/CMMS.
An EAM/CMMS allows your technicians to adequately review what inventory is stock, what needs to go out, and what is in demand. This system will allow you to track the inventory stock of each client, so you can make suggestions on replacements or repairs, as needed without manually go through paper trails.
Mobile computing solutions allow technicians to scan and ticket inventory which reduces cost and time spent on inventory management; ticketing saves margins and has a ripple effect by changing pricing and promotions on products.
Mobility can also access the replenishment needed in the warehouse; an EAM/CMMS system can tell you how much there is to sell or how much is needed to replenish the stock in store. Technicians won’t manually have to go through paperwork to see the last written statement, but refer to an accurate account updated by workers who have logged into the system. Collaboration helps keep an accurate account of all inventory for current clients and future clients.
The Planning Process with Mobility
Do you have enough inventory to complete the job? This is a question that technicians may fear when out on the road based on manual reports pulled or if they rely on reports that could’ve been filed weeks before the actual shipment goes out.
Mobility allows workers to track accurate accounts of inventory in the warehouse before leaving to the clients for delivery. Mobility allows for faster delivery and accurate accounts of shipment. Technicians can also track multiple aspects of inventory through an EAM/CMMS, such as the replenishment rate, lifespan, and renewals for multiple clients.
Today’s field service strives to achieve high performance, increased customer satisfaction and revenue growth by transforming its field force capabilities while remaining cost effective.
Mobility is a key enabler in responding to these market pressures by bringing technician-focused tools to the field and revolutionizing the service business practices of the field organization in the cable sector.
