SUPPLY CHAIN
TAKING CONTROL OF THE FINAL MILE By Dave Hughes head of solutions and onboarding at BT Final Mile
O
perational excellence adhered to in all areas of the supply chain can sometimes be for naught if it falls apart when it gets to the final mile. Whether it is extensive hours on the road, lost or damaged product or missed appointments, the final part of a delivery or engineering service can knock back all the great work done in the beginning stages of a customer order.
By reducing failed appointments, cutting down on unnecessary driving, clearer tracking and storage of customer parts and improving fleet carbon emissions, organisations can improve overall operational efficiency and customer satisfaction with greater control over the final mile.
REDUCING FAILED APPOINTMENTS Failed appointments due to lateness continues to cause issue for the industry, wreaking havoc with scheduling and damaging customer relationships. As field engineer appointments are often the only face to face interaction a customer will have with a business, this is a critical area where loyalty can be made or broken. Just last year the broadband industry came to an agreement to compensate customers for engineer lateness or cancellation. Improvements to the final mile can reduce failed appointments and reduction in engineer lateness by streamlining the journeys field engineers take from parts collection to first customer visit. With engineers spending less time finding and picking up parts, they’ll miss fewer appointments and spend more time helping customers, ultimately bolstering their company’s reputation.
36 NOVEMBER 2019 | FA CUTTING DOWN ON
UNNECESSARY DRIVING Field engineers spend approximately five hours a week driving from home to depot just to collect parts, taking out valuable time that could be spent helping one more customer. A recent survey conducted by research and strategy consultancy Populus found that one in five decision makers admit their staff tend to feel more like drivers than engineers, spending so much time on the roads. With the majority of businesses using customer sites or PUDO/Depot collect for parts delivery, field engineers are taking valuable time out of their working day in a van, which has both health and financial implications. Too many hours behind the wheel can lead to fatigue, eye strain, back pain and muscle tightness, all while racking up extra fuel costs.
By reducing the amount of time engineers spend on the road, using locker solutions as intermediary stock locations for example, organisations can reduce fuel costs, drive efficiencies throughout the supply chain and improve the overall health of field engineers.
CLEARER TRACKING AND
STORAGE OF CUSTOMER PARTS With the rapid expansion of the e-commerce sector, the number of parts and products out for delivery and installation on our roads has proliferated. With this comes the added risk of lost parts. Clearer tracking and storage of customer parts, such as through the use of smart lockers, is critical to ensuring field engineers have the right kit to install during
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customer appointments. Having an audit trail is key to knowing if parts have been delivered or collected, enabling quick spotting of missed deliveries or collections and fast action to reduce parts getting lost.
Supply chain and fleet managers can also improve use of spare parts by using the final mile as a way to redistribute unused parts from a customer so they can be used elsewhere when needed.
IMPROVING FLEET CARBON EMISSIONS
Companies with multiple field engineers operating across the country on a given day see some hefty fuel costs add up – but it’s not just time loss and extra costs that pose a challenge. These extra hours on the road add up to a lot of unnecessary carbon emissions. Just five hours a week
collecting parts adds up to just over 30kg CO2 for one driver in a typical van, according to our math – multiply this across an entire fleet and the CO2 contributions from one company in a week cast these extra hours on the road into light.
Businesses can improve operational efficiency whilst reducing carbon emissions by looking at ways to shorten the length of time engineers are on the road, such as at the parts and essential equipment collection stage. More efficient journeys are better for the environment, helping meet targets set internally and by the government.
BT Final Mile
www.finalmile.bt.com
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