Case Study: Transforming Field Services and Dispatch Operations
Challenge
The client, a large field services organization, was experiencing exponential growth. They needed to introduce a new product service with high demand without relying heavily on third-party workforce and without increasing internal costs. The goal was to pressurize their workload and achieve a 25% productivity gain for their technicians, meaning each technician needed to complete one additional job per day.
Approach
Organizational Role Alignment:
Worked with the organization to clarify roles among the three main stakeholders:
Operations
Workforce Planning
Field Dispatch
Operations executed the work, ensured quality, identified variances, and accounted for losses, which were fed back to Workforce Planning.
Workforce Planning built weekly, monthly, and quarterly plans.
Field Dispatch assigned work daily and made adjustments based on a holistic view.
Digital Adoption:
Implemented a new live dispatch system and transitioned clients to a “drip” dispatch model, where work is assigned one task at a time instead of in batches.
Process Optimization:
Reset Standard Work Times (SWT) based on observations, identified process optimization approaches, and implemented plans to ensure technicians had the right equipment, tools, and expectations to execute work safely and with quality.
Systems of Work:
Developed a System of Work with cascading KPIs for team performance and individual productivity based on an earned hour calculation.
Ensured robust information flow that consistently aligned the three main departments.
Developed Leader Standard Work for all leaders, focusing their time on spending with employees and identifying variances.
Created balanced scorecards for a holistic view of the operation.
Built a labor model to optimize the use of employee and third-party workforce.
Capability Development:
Developed an employee life cycle and training plan for technicians to understand and install the new technology for the organization.
Impact
Organizational Alignment led to a 25% improvement in employee engagement scores.
Workforce Planning increased workload by 30% and achieved a 40% performance improvement (technicians were doing 40% more work).
Productivity improved by 30% (jobs took 30% less time to complete).
The organization was under budget on third-party contract spend by 20% of the plan, effectively doing more with their employees.
An instilled culture of continuous improvement engaged all levels of the organization.
“In a year, we changed the way we did our business. We were terrified of being so reliant on third-party workforce, especially with client satisfaction and potential quality issues. Our technicians and workforce planners are more engaged, see their leaders more than ever before, and know their opinions matter. An ‘aha’ moment for the team was realizing that 25% productivity didn’t mean working harder; it meant their days became easier. We are more aligned as an organization with clear roles, and the meetings and information flow help us consistently align on the right actions. We no longer feel like we are fighting fires every day. It’s like a new organization.”
