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INNSERVE ORDERS FLS - FAST LEAN SMART FIELD SERVICE SCHEDULING SOLUTION
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18 June 2024 · James Alex Waldron
18 June 2024 · James Alex Waldron
I
nnserve, the drinks dispense technical services specialist, will upgrade its field force productivity and response management with FLS – FAST LEAN SMART. Extensive testing proved the FLS VISITOUR dynamic scheduling solution enhances operational efficiency for more than 400 field-based maintenance and installation technicians.
Innserve is an established service provider specialising in the supply, installation and maintenance of beer and soft drinks dispense systems. Their mission is to 'Keep Britain pouring' across more than 90,000 premises in all parts of England, Scotland and Wales.
With requirements including real-time capacity optimisation, technician skills matching, and embedded route planning, Innserve has selected FLS VISITOUR to provide a dynamic scheduling solution to be integrated with their existing job management system. An initial Scheduling Test was followed by a comprehensive trial period spanning two months, where FLS VISITOUR proved it could solve complex challenges throughout resource planning and in-day field service management.
"We had been relying on manual scheduling and route planning, which restricted our visibility of travel and idle time," explains Alan Gormley, Director of Transformation at Innserve. "We wanted to increase the number of customers that we see on a daily basis and we knew a big part of increasing our productivity was to find a solution that would automatically allocate jobs to our field technicians in the most efficient way."
Manual scheduling had led to challenges when attending reactive, in-day priority visits. "We have three core job types; maintenance, installation, and service," Alan continues. "Whilst the opening hours of premises restricts the times we can visit for planned work, in-day priority visits operate under strict SLAs. These can relate to gas safety and this requires a field technician to be properly trained and certified to work within a regulated environment. Meeting these obligations meant our regular work was being pushed out of the schedule, thereby impacting on cost and efficiency."
Innserve is an established service provider specialising in the supply, installation and maintenance of beer and soft drinks dispense systems. Their mission is to 'Keep Britain pouring' across more than 90,000 premises in all parts of England, Scotland and Wales.
With requirements including real-time capacity optimisation, technician skills matching, and embedded route planning, Innserve has selected FLS VISITOUR to provide a dynamic scheduling solution to be integrated with their existing job management system. An initial Scheduling Test was followed by a comprehensive trial period spanning two months, where FLS VISITOUR proved it could solve complex challenges throughout resource planning and in-day field service management.
"We had been relying on manual scheduling and route planning, which restricted our visibility of travel and idle time," explains Alan Gormley, Director of Transformation at Innserve. "We wanted to increase the number of customers that we see on a daily basis and we knew a big part of increasing our productivity was to find a solution that would automatically allocate jobs to our field technicians in the most efficient way."
Manual scheduling had led to challenges when attending reactive, in-day priority visits. "We have three core job types; maintenance, installation, and service," Alan continues. "Whilst the opening hours of premises restricts the times we can visit for planned work, in-day priority visits operate under strict SLAs. These can relate to gas safety and this requires a field technician to be properly trained and certified to work within a regulated environment. Meeting these obligations meant our regular work was being pushed out of the schedule, thereby impacting on cost and efficiency."
The opportunity for automation and the proposition of a Scheduling Test attracted Innserve to FLS. Working with Innserve's IT, Operations, and Service Delivery teams, FLS took historic planning data and presented the outcomes FLS VISITOUR would have instead designed. This included typical everyday field resourcing issues, such as prioritising critical reactive orders, re-optimising space left by last minute cancellations, and calculating the effects of increased task times on job completion results. The results also illustrated the difference when actual time-of-day route planning is embedded and calculated into schedules.
Alan explains, "We have tried other solutions in the past and found them somewhat inflexible. However, FLS' Scheduling Test, compared against our own historic data, gave us the confidence to proceed with a trial. With the support from FLS we quickly moved towards 99% of our service jobs becoming allocated automatically."
"Across the two trial months we saw a marked improvement in our KPIs through using FLS VISITOUR. Accurate planning led to a significant drop in travel time, and the required time on site. In some cases, our completed jobs per operative per shift increased by 20%! With intelligent time-of-day routing, we’ve reduced idle time, and raised productivity within our planned work by a further 10%."
"Most importantly, the flexibility is incredible. Our trial exposed previously hidden challenges around bundled work. FLS VISITOUR had the power and functionality for us to tweak our workflows and solve these quickly." FLS will enhance Innserve's field performance with transparent scheduling decisions, accurate travel times, and decisively calculating a more efficient use of the field force. It is using its new operational improvements for a competitive advantage; capitalising on the automation FLS VISITOUR provides. The transformation will be felt throughout the business, says Alan:
"With the integration to our job management system and our field technicians’ mobile devices, we have the results to prove FLS' scheduling automation is powering our operations for the better. Dynamic scheduling with critical skills matching means our Planning team’s effort is greatly reduced. Jobs are now cost-optimised into schedules, without the requirement to include 'buffers' for travel, meaning work is now balanced for our 400-strong field force. The released capacity means Innserve has reached new levels of efficiency and productivity." Alan concludes.
Alan explains, "We have tried other solutions in the past and found them somewhat inflexible. However, FLS' Scheduling Test, compared against our own historic data, gave us the confidence to proceed with a trial. With the support from FLS we quickly moved towards 99% of our service jobs becoming allocated automatically."
"Across the two trial months we saw a marked improvement in our KPIs through using FLS VISITOUR. Accurate planning led to a significant drop in travel time, and the required time on site. In some cases, our completed jobs per operative per shift increased by 20%! With intelligent time-of-day routing, we’ve reduced idle time, and raised productivity within our planned work by a further 10%."
"Most importantly, the flexibility is incredible. Our trial exposed previously hidden challenges around bundled work. FLS VISITOUR had the power and functionality for us to tweak our workflows and solve these quickly." FLS will enhance Innserve's field performance with transparent scheduling decisions, accurate travel times, and decisively calculating a more efficient use of the field force. It is using its new operational improvements for a competitive advantage; capitalising on the automation FLS VISITOUR provides. The transformation will be felt throughout the business, says Alan:
"With the integration to our job management system and our field technicians’ mobile devices, we have the results to prove FLS' scheduling automation is powering our operations for the better. Dynamic scheduling with critical skills matching means our Planning team’s effort is greatly reduced. Jobs are now cost-optimised into schedules, without the requirement to include 'buffers' for travel, meaning work is now balanced for our 400-strong field force. The released capacity means Innserve has reached new levels of efficiency and productivity." Alan concludes.
Author
JAMES ALEX WALDRON
UK Marketing Manager
+44(0) 1183 800189
Send email
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.
JAMES ALEX WALDRON
UK Marketing Manager
+44(0) 1183 800189
Send email
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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