Mobile Productivity Gains
With the convergence of handheld PCs and intelligent software, you’ve been given the opportunity to eliminate paperwork, arm your technicians with more information at the moment of activity, and capture work completion data for enhanced management functionality.
When you deploy mobile PCs in your work environment you’ll dramatically improve productivity through better computing, eliminated paperwork, and increased data collection of reliability-based asset protection programs.
What Mobility Really Is ...
‘Mobile’ doesn’t just mean on the road or in a vehicle – mobility happens inside and outside the four walls of your business. Mobility occurs every time a member of your team is not sitting in front of their network-connected PC. A mobile user is one that is given the capacity to perform his or her job – anywhere.
Think of every time one of your mechanics goes to the parts room – this represents a minimum of 6 minutes of productivity lost, which translates into thousands of wasted dollars each year. By giving your mechanics a handheld tool to request parts right from their workstations, you’re preventing lost time and helping them get their work done faster with less effort. This translates to more time, without more cost.
What Mobile Can Offer You
When you implement mobile computing, you’ll realize greater workforce automation and a complete change in the way your technicians interact with their backend asset maintenance and management systems. Instead of having a paper-based workflow that only requires system interaction when updates need to be made, you’ll give your team the opportunity to be highly interactive on a continuous basis as they constantly log in and out of the system to do their work.
This drastic change in how your maintenance technicians interact with an Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) system, or, Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) system, alters the way in which the application is used. It becomes more of a problem solving tool and a means of providing you with timely and accurate visibility into the work being performed on your assets. Cetaris’ mobile devices become an integral and natural part of your technicians’ work as you move the application from your back office, directly into the hands of your team.
Major Benefits of Going Mobile
By deploying handheld mobile PC systems in your place of work, you’ll quickly realize a greater payback on your initial investment through:
- Increased productivity
- Improved data quality, to allow for better decision making and planning
- Increased technician success with access to key data at the point of activity
- Improved first-time fix rates
- Reduced maintenance backlogs
- Increased predictive maintenance
- Extended productive life of your critical assets
The Real Cost of Paperwork
Eliminate Paperwork and Data Entry
The most tangible benefit of going mobile is the elimination of lengthy data entry sessions and paperwork. You’ll quickly save money on your administrative overhead costs and gain additional wrench time because your technicians will no longer be required to walk to the computer or fill in paperwork at the end of their shift (typically taking an average of 43 minutes per shift).
Cetaris’ mobile PCs give your technicians the information they need right at the point of activity – increasing productivity by eliminating the search time. In addition, the quantity and quality of data used to make decisions will be greatly improved.
What Paperwork is Really Costing You
Many companies view paperwork as a ‘necessary evil’ – an inefficient business practice they’ve become so accustomed to, that they no longer view it as a problem to be solved. What many organizations grapple with is that paperwork soaks up a lot of unnecessary energy and resources, and creates information bottlenecks that prevent proper workflow and stop managers from being able to benefit from a full view of their business operations in real time.
How to Quantify Your Current Work Processes
To determine the true life cycle of a work order in your operation, begin at its initial creation (the time your team was notified or alerted) and then move through to the assignment and management of each individual job, then to the communication methods used to distribute information, and finally to the end reports – inclusive of all parts whether that be just a paper hand-off or a combination of phone calls, scraps of paper, faxes, and data entries.
Next, consider the steps required for your technicians and brainstorm how many of those steps could be eliminated (trips to a computer terminal, paper hand-offs, etc.) . Finally, think of the effort it takes to distribute and create reports for each work order, and consider what an impact eliminated steps would make. Not only will you save the time it would have taken to complete the actual activity, but you’ll eliminate excess foot traffic, frustration, distractions and effort to make the work look easy.
The Value of Information at the Point of Action
Paper is static and therefore offers no interactivity from technicians, not to mention the fact that it is a waste of energy and resources to create. Your technicians need access to specific information to complete their tasks and can become inefficient until they’ve found the data they need. By empowering them with the information they need right in palms of their hands at the point of activity, you’ll be adding a tool to improve the process.