Specialist vehicle company Bence has rolled out the latest mobile workforce management technology from BigChange.
Bence field service and workshop engineers have been equipped with rugged tablet devices as part of a complete management system for paperless working that is improving efficiency, productivity and customer service.
Bence design and build specialist vehicles and trailers that include everything from emergency vehicles to mobile units for MRI scanning, endoscopy, breast-screening, command and control and motorsport workshops. The Bristol-based company also provides transportation, servicing and rentals of units.
Bence field service engineers, who provide 24/7 rapid-response services nationwide, use JobWatch the 5 in 1 app that synchronises in real-time with cloud-based BigChange software for managing the entire operation from transportation, to installation, scheduled maintenance and emergency call out. Engineers in the Bence workshop have also been equipped with tablets and JobWatch.
The system is completely replacing paper records providing Bence with around the clock visibility of operations, from scheduled maintenance and refurbishment in the workshop to engineers servicing and fixing units on site. Onsite work is typically scheduled out of hours.
Conrad Stanley, Service Manager at Bence commented:“Many of our vehicle and mobile units are deployed in critical work at the frontline so we have to maintain exceptional levels to minimise downtime.”“Through BigChange we now have real-time, 24/7, visibility of our mobile operations and this has completely transformed the way we work and allowed us to provide a better, more dynamic service.”With the outbreak of Coronavirus Bence saw a significant increase in demand from hospitals needing mobile units for undertaking screening and treatment in separate COVID-safe areas.“It was fortunate we had BigChange up and running when the COVID-19 crisis hit – having a fully digital, paperless system made a lot easier coping with the surge in demand”.Bence typically recalls their specialist vehicles and mobile units once a year for major servicing in the workshop. Onsite servicing is undertaken at between 8 and 12 week intervals, with generators serviced every 200 hours.
As a complete end-to-end system BigChange incorporate job scheduling, route planning, vehicle tracking and comprehensive management reporting with the mobile app providing a complete job management tool. For engineers, the JobWatch app has replaced their paper time-sheets, job- sheets and inspection reports and the devices offer navigation and image capture.
Bence find the tracking really useful giving visibility on where engineers are so they no longer need to be called on route. It means that customers can be informed on the expected arrival time of their engineer.
Stanley concluded:“That’s a really good addition to customer service especially as we are in such a critical, time sensitive area. The other big benefit is that we can dynamically schedule jobs during the day to optimise their time and do extra jobs; something that was impossible before”.“We also really like the photo-capture allowing engineers to record their work and issues such as damage to units so we can assess what work and parts are required.”
