EXECUTIVE REPORT
Measure and manage
Clements Plant & Access Hire has developed an addition for its software system to monitor the status of its fleet in real-time, bringing significant operational benefits. Alan Guthrie was given a demonstration.
In the fast-moving atmosphere of a busy hire operation, it can be difficult to keep track of the status and location of items in the fleet in order to respond to customers immediately. Clements Plant & Access Hire of Coventry has developed an addition to its hire management software to enable staff to monitor equipment in real-time in an easy-to-read visual format.
“If you can’t measure something, you can’t manage it,” said Clements Chairman Jim Longstaff. “Since 1995 we have been using Syrinx from Point of Rental Software for our day-to-day hire management. Like many other companies, however, we were still using dry-wipe boards and tee cards to show the location and status of equipment, which were vulnerable to human error and could be difficult to keep up-to-date if many enquiries, orders and off-hires were being handled virtually simultaneously.
Clements Plant & Access Hire dates back to 1965.
“Two years ago, we decided to develop an adjunct to the software, written with the help of our IT providers, to give us a real-time solution and it has brought us significant efficiency benefits.”
All personnel involved in managing hire transactions, as well as workshop technicians, have two computer screens on or by their work stations. One is a hire board representation showing machines in the fleet listed under various categories, while the other is a bookings board with information such as collection or delivery details and specific notifications.
Real-time solution The system provides an on-screen equivalent of a hire board…
In the hire board display, each machine is identified by a coloured rectangle containing its individual fleet number. The colour denotes its status: white shows it is available, yellow says the item is booked out, green is for on-hire, orange shows off-hired awaiting collection, pink denotes at the depot awaiting inspection, while red is for breakdowns or VOR (vehicle off road). A small number on the right of the rectangle is a countdown of the number of days until that machine is due to go out on hire, while a figure to the left shows the days before it will be off-hired, to help maximise utilisation. All data is automatically updated and displayed within five seconds of being entered into the system, so everyone sees the same real-time picture.
… and of a bookings board. Names are blurred here for data protection. 20
“We know the exact status of our entire fleet,” said Jim Longstaff. “We can see when a machine will become available to meet a new enquiry, check what is achieving good or poor utilisation, and what needs priority. And it is easier to offer alternatives: if, say, all our 2.7-tonne excavators are on hire, we might be able to offer a larger model and do a deal on the rate to win the business.
MOVING FORWARD WITH CONFIDENCE
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