Case Study
Royal Mail Property & Facilities Increases Productivity with Smart Field and Route Planning
When it came time for Royal Mail Property & Facilities Solutions to replace its legacy system, it chose VISITOUR from Solvares Field Service. Through the new software solution and intelligent adjustments to technician planning during the project achieved the service reached a new level of efficiency and productivity.
The Company: Facility service provider for Royal Mail
Royal Mail Property & Facilities Solutions (RMPFS) is responsible for the maintenance and modernisation of one of Europe’s largest commercial real estate portfolios, with over 2,600 locations.
The team ensures that all buildings are safe at all times and comply with legal and industry-specific regulations. In doing so, it supports Royal Mail in delivering to around 29 million addresses across the country seven days a week.
Multiple providers in the selection
The decision for Solvares Field Service
RMPFS needed to modernise its field and route planning software to achieve greater efficiency and productivity in service operations. The existing system was over ten years old and no longer met the requirements.
“We looked at several field and route planning solution providers, including VISITOUR,” says Scott Maddocks, Project Manager at RMPFS.
“After the initial product demos, we visited several VISITOUR customers to see the software in action. We involved our management, our field technicians, and our Union representatives because we wanted to make sure everyone was convinced that the software would work.”
In the end, Solvares prevailed with VISITOUR, the software for intelligent field planning and route optimisation.
“We also felt that Solvares would be a good partner – more agile and better able to meet our requirements than the other providers.”
One of RMPFS’s main goals was to plan orders more efficiently. VISITOUR creates optimised field planning in real time. An essential factor here is that the entire activity of the field service teams is always taken into account for new orders (holistic optimisation).
VISITOUR uses RMPFS’s specific business priorities, actual, traffic-based travel times, and countless other variables – for both planned and reactive operatives.
Minimise Downtime, Maximise Productivity
The move towards dynamic intraday field planning takes into account numerous factors of facility management, such as skills (for example, technicians with certification for working at heights), proximity to existing locations, or the urgency of orders and Service Level Agreements.
The main goal is to minimise downtime (travel times, waiting times for spare parts or a second technician for connected jobs) and maximise productivity.
Immediate Response to Spontaneous Changes
The switch to real-time Field Service Management creates additional value, as it enables immediate responses to spontaneous and unforeseeable situations.
Thanks to the clever re-optimisation function, the teams can rely on efficient routes being re-optimised within seconds – instead of outdated practices such as nightly batch runs and manual replanning.
Avoid Return Trips For Field Technicians
RMPFS also wanted to reduce the number of return trips that technicians have to make during their shift. Solvares Field Service developed a portal in which planned work is visible for four weeks in advance and the necessary operatives can be stored for each order.
The technicians can then request equipment and support for their orders in advance via the portal.
Site-Ownership Model for Technician Fit
Another central requirement of RMPFS was the introduction of a site-ownership model, i.e. the assignment of tasks or locations to preferred technicians based on defined criteria, in order to ensure that the right skills are available at the right time in the right place. Scott continues,
“We wanted software that can map multiple levels of technician preferences to enable them to build site knowledge and relationships while reducing travel times.”
The Project Manager’s conclusion:
What You Can Take away from this for your Service
- Switching from legacy systems to intelligent real-time planning automates dispatch tasks and noticeably increases productivity.
- Holistic optimisation, which includes all Operatives and priorities, minimises downtime and return trips.
- Dynamic intraday re-optimisation ensures that routes fit again within seconds in the event of disruptions or new operatives.
- A forward-looking planning portal with a view to weeks in advance reduces surprises on site and strengthens the first-time fix rate.
- Site-ownership models ensure that technicians work at “their” locations, build up location knowledge and travel times decrease.
Results
- Automation and Simplification of Route and Field Planning
- Smart Site-Ownership Model and Portal for Predictive Planning
- Higher Productivity and Efficiency
- Reduction of Downtime and Return Trips
- Improved First-Time Fix Rate
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