How software can help with efficient route planning
If you work as a scheduler in a medium-sized service company, you will be familiar with the day-to-day problems. Using partly misused and unsuitable programs (e.g. Outlook / Excel), you try to schedule your technicians optimally as part of manual resource planning so that you can handle all your customers' maintenance, repair and commissioning orders. The laboriously defined route planning from the previous week lasts exactly until Monday, 07:00 - as soon as the first unforeseen events occur (illness, cancellations, ad hoc operations), the planning starts all over again.
Software tailored to route and deployment planning can serve as a valuable tool for efficiently scheduling Technicians for deployment locations as required and responding spontaneously to any necessary adjustments. This results in the following advantages:
General advantages
- Technicians' travel times are minimized through optimal route planning. Any unknown closures, e.g. due to roadworks on the route, are taken into account and can be avoided
- By optimizing the route, fuel costs are reduced to a minimum. This is also an important aspect from an environmental point of view
- Thanks to efficient route planning, office staff can react more quickly when it comes to new orders at short notice. Freelancers, or those who are already in the vicinity of the new job, can be called up and deployed more quickly
- A geographical map, with all stored locations and filter functions, helps to determine the distance and react quickly, as well as directly linking orders that are close together in terms of completion
Employee-related benefits
In addition to the optimal route, it is important to be able to quickly and easily filter the necessary qualifications of the technicians, availability, workload and required materials (which may not be available to every technician).
- For an optimal overview, vacation days, on-call duties and absences due to illness can also be visually highlighted so that they are immediately visible to everyone
- Not every Technician is suitable for all areas. It is therefore important to see at a glance all Technicians qualified for the operation who are currently available or can be rescheduled at short notice
- Required materials that a colleague has in the vehicle can be picked up on the way to the site to avoid unnecessary time spent reordering materials and to be able to react more quickly
Conclusion
With the many possibilities offered by digitalization today, the demands and expectations of your customers for a digital and well-organized service are also increasing. Intelligent field service software can help you save costs, time and emissions during route planning and ensure a more efficient overall workflow.
