How to incorporate lean management in field service management?

As a maintenance service provider, if continuous improvement in maintenance processes is your focus then you must learn about lean management. It is a methodology popularized by Toyota in Japan. Although it was primarily popularized in the context of production processes, but its conceptuality can be related to the service industry as well, because lean management is all about handling the business process with a focus on eliminating the efficiencies that impede performance.

Lean management aims at improving the processes by identifying unnecessary tasks, streamlining workflows, reducing wait times, improving quality and customer satisfaction. So how a maintenance service provider can incorporate the lean management approach into his operational processes.  This can be achieved with the aid of Maintenance management software.

How maintenance management software facilitates lean management?

A maintenance management software targets the inefficiencies in field operational processes and addresses them through automation. These software programs are designed to automate all those processes that are repetitive and can be handled without human intervention. Some of such processes are job scheduling, route planning, standard communication like informing about schedules sharing client details, data sharing, field data recording, self-services, etc. When handle manually, these processes take a major dig into the productivity of the field technicians. Not just that, manual handling of these processes can even lead to inconsistency and inaccuracy in the processes. For instance, consider the process of matching the work and technicians. To ensure first visit effectiveness, skill-based job allocation is important. But assessing the skill sets of the technician along with other criteria like their availability, their proximity to the job sites, is not a practical task, especially when the team is big. If done manually it can't be error-free.

These software programs function as maintenance scheduling software and allow the service manager to automatically track the live locations of the field technicians to understand their proximity to the job site. Also, the software mines data like the existing schedules of the technicians, their skill sets, tools at their possession, and according to it identifies the nearest available rightly skilled technician. This ensures the fastest turnaround time for a service request and also improved first visit effectiveness.

Besides, the software is also efficient as a maintenance work order software and it provides the field technician the much-needed mobility solution in terms of on-the-move data access, where they can access, use, share and collaborate upon data from any location. The automated standard communication system of the software ensures that technicians get timely information and reminders about their job schedules.

Also, the software has inbuilt templates and forms to facilitate tasks like reporting, submitting bills for reimbursement, etc. Onsite invoicing and billing and third-party integration with payment gateways are also highly acclaimed features available in most field service management software.

The final words

Getting back to lean management, by automating the processes, the software eliminates the inefficient and productivity leaks; by providing mobility solutions to the field technician, the software empowers them to improve quality and performance. Automation also streamlines the workflows, makes the service delivery prompt, and thus reduces the wait times for the consumers and contributes to improved client satisfaction. The best part is these are scalable solutions, and thereby can handle the workforce management of bigger teams and increase service requests with the same efficiency.