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DIGITAL CHECKLISTS FOR TECHNICAL FIELD SERVICES

4 min. reading time

06 April 2023 · James Alex Waldron

I n field service, especially in technical customer service and maintenance, compliance with occupational health and safety regulations is of utmost importance. Digital checklists are the modern way to ensure safety and process efficiency.

Created from a place of compliance, digital checklists have gained a greater functional importance. They are prevalent in technical field service and maintenance because occupational safety and health regulations must mirror regulations. In recent years, field service operators servicing complex machines and equipment (such as lifts and escalators) often requires a multi-step, error-prone procedure. Digital checklists help to increase safety in the workplace and also make field management processes more efficient, leading to improved productivity. Read more in this introduction.

Field service management plays a crucial role in helping head offices manage compliance by ensuring that regulatory tasks are consistently tracked, completed, and recorded. By using field service software, companies can automate scheduling and tracking of inspections, maintenance, and safety checks, ensuring compliance deadlines are met.

Additionally, real-time data collection and reporting from field workers allow for transparent, up-to-date records that auditors or regulators can review. This visibility helps organisations avoid penalties, maintain legal standards, and ensure all compliance-related activities are well-documented.

DIGITAL CHECKLISTS FOR A CONSISTENT WORKFLOW

Field service technicians must perform many steps when servicing or repairing equipment. This begins with a technical inspection of the surroundings, before the focus moves to the asset. Often these digital checklists are designed with the assistance of an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) the help to keep track of all necessary activities and measures and ensure that each step is completed. This minimises errors and omissions and increases the accuracy and completeness of the work.

DIGITAL CHECKLISTS FOR AUDITING

Digital checklists make it possible to record and document all completed steps and measures in a simple and clear manner. They are suitable for use on mobile devices as well as companion terminals and can be adapted to the specific requirements of each asset or skilled trade. In a field service app like FLS MOBILE, for example, report templates and checklists can be edited according to the individual customer compliance requirements.

In addition, digital checklists offer the advantage of being easy to update. In a few clicks, changes to regulations or processes can be quickly and easily integrated into the respective checklist. This ensures that the digital checklist is up to date.

Digital checklists facilitate cooperation and data exchange

CHECKLISTS INCREASE EFFICIENCY AND PRODUCTIVITY

Evidence shows checklists increase the efficiency and productivity of field service technicians and maintenance staff. By designing and deploying digital checklists, technicians can save time by having quick access to all necessary information.By eliminating unnecessary steps and redundant processes, the workflow is optimised. With the help of checklists, you ensure that sub-steps are completed in the most efficient order. Last but not least, with digital capture, downstream processes can be accelerated and data can be exchanged more easily (photos, sign-on glass etc, geocoded location history).

WHEN TO INTRODUCE DIGITAL CHECKLISTS

Often the introduction of digital checklists is a part of the implementation of a new field service management software. When choosing a provider, make sure that the solution offers user-friendly options for working with checklists and fits with your unique architecture (devices/CRM/ERP/Housing Management System). After testing with a small subset of users, it is important to consider what a successful training of field operatives looks like. All users must be engaged with the benefits and correct use of checklists to ensure that they use them effectively, and have the opportunity to report issues as early as possible.

THE ROAD TO DIGITAL CHECKLISTS: ALL-IN-ONE APP

Modern apps designed for technical field service and field maintenance operatives should offer an easy extension for digital checklists. An FSM developer/provider should offer customisable forms to match your field workflows. The coordination between head office and field service will be better organised via an app, so long as the mobile application is connected with appropriate read/write functions. Apps also offer many other possibilities that make life easier in field service and technical maintenance: mobile reports, access to service history, digital customer signature, continuous updating of appointment and route/tour planning and more.

CONCLUDING THIS INTRODUCTION

Digital checklists offer a simple and effective way to comply with occupational health and safety regulations in technical field service and maintenance. They support processes and help to avoid mistakes. They allow for easy service documentation and integration into your processes.

The easy integration into other systems and the possibility of collaboration between schedulers/dispatch, accounting, and compliance teams with field operatives significantly improves communication and the collection of data and information. Paper checklists should therefore become a thing of the past.

BEGIN YOUR DIGITAL CHECKLIST TRANSFORMATION WITH FLS

We evaluate your field organisation's process efficiency, planning quality, and cost structure. To gain an understanding of tools to optimise the field experience for your mobile workforce and audit trails book a short discussion or contact us at info@fastleansmart.com.

Read more:
Rethinking Field Service apps for excellent customer experiences
Winning with Field Service Management apps
Why companies cannot ignore a route planning app in their digital strategy

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Author
JAMES ALEX WALDRON
UK Marketing Manager

+44(0) 1183 800189
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James Alex Waldron has worked in written communications for over 15 years. Since 2021, he has written for FLS and the Solvares Group on the topics of digital field service transformation and mobile workforce management, and regularly provides insight to the industry press.

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5. January 2023