CASE STUDY / GILBARCO VEEDER-ROOT – MACHINERY AND PLANT ENGINEERING

Major petrol station brands, supermarket chains and independent dealers up and down the country rely on Gilbarco. By extension, so do millions of motorists. Gilbarco Veeder Root is charged with maintaining the equipment it provides by way of an extensive national network of field engineers. With so many forecourts to look after, Gilbarco Veeder Root’s operation has to be efficient and smart.

Until now, the smartest way of doing things has been manual. Gilbarco Veeder Root had tried automation years ago. It implemented a scheduling program that didn’t prove intelligent enough to plan routes that reflected the real-life business environment. Nor was it flexible enough to react to changes in that environment which include 2 hour responses.

It’s understandable, then, that when FLS approached Gilbarco with promises of radically improved scheduling efficiency through automation, David Cope — UK Operations Director for Gilbarco Veeder Root — was sceptical.

The main reason Gilbarco Veeder Root was willing to consider a change was because FLS lets prospective customers trial its software first. “We’d tried scheduling software before and it didn’t work, so I wasn’t sure how FLS VISITOUR was going to benefit us,” says David. “However ...