6 Top Considerations When Adopting Your Mobile Workforce Solution

Mobile workforce solutions provide a competitive advantage to enterprise companies, and in the process, redefine the way businesses manage their operations. Clients in multiple industries are using mobile solutions to be more agile and flexible, enabling their field engineers and technicians to have better access to information and respond quickly to customers' needs.

With workflow automation and digital innovation growing in field services, mobility is EVERYWHERE. As consumers, we have become more demanding for instant go-anywhere access, and in the field or on the plant floor it’s no different. Flexibility and convenience are must-have attributes for mobile enterprise solutions.

6 points to consider helping move your company towards a truly connected mobile workforce platform:

1. Mobility is about anytime, anywhere access to information.
   • It is critical that your mobility solution makes it possible to achieve this.
2. Fresh to market platforms and solutions offering everything under the sun may sound phenomenal, but only in theory.
   • Overly-complicated systems can be challenging to use so they should be avoided, worked around or ignored altogether.
   • Select a mobile workforce solution or connected workforce platform that is easy to use.
3. Mobile solutions should be agile.
   • With new technologies appearing daily, keeping up to speed with changes is essential for enterprise companies.
4. Time is money, as the saying goes.
   • Being able to deliver faster ROI is critical for mobility solutions. Implementations should be quick and straightforward, allowing users to maintain productivity.
   • Lengthy deployments defeat the objectives of improving the speed of processes which connected workforce platforms offer.
5. Ease of integration is an essential requirement. You don’t need to rework your whole plant maintenance solution.
   • With Innovapptive’s Connected Workforce Platform™ and RACE™ (Rapid App Configurator Engine) technology, you can achieve out-of-the-box integrations with SAP Plant Maintenance, geospatial systems and more that meet your unique business requirements.
6. The key to mobility solutions is “Mobile.”
   • It is critical for your chosen mobile workforce solution to work across a variety of digital devices (phones, tablets, handhelds, etc.) and different operating systems as well.

Innovapptive’s Connected Workforce Platform answers all the requirements, easily. Our platform helps asset-intensive organizations better connect executives, the back office, field technicians, plant operators, warehouse operators, and maintenance planners, to maximize revenues and profitability. Combining field-ready business applications that are device-agnostic, with the power of no-code configuration tools in RACE™, we provide a system of engagement that connects various ERP or enterprise back-end systems.

Join Innovapptive in Booth 1926 at Sapphire NOW May 7-9 in sunny Orlando, Florida. Our team of solution and industry experts will be available for demos and discussions on our next generation Connected Workforce Platform-which digitally connects your executives, your entire industrial workforce, and your back office to minimize plant outages and improve operational excellence.

Why are Oil and Mining companies embracing Supply Chain Visibility?

The oil and mining industries share a vociferous appetite for the capital where it can cost billions of dollars to develop a new oil field or mine. Once the asset is up and running, maximizing production and minimizing unplanned downtime is critical to driving a solid return on capital employed. Companies have used several levers to reduce unplanned downtime including better maintenance planning, honing business processes, improving data accuracy, deploying new technology, and not in the least the skill of people. However, one untapped area that has not received enough attention until recently is Supply Chain Management for Maintenance Repairs and Operations (MRO)  

Supply chains in the oil and mining industries tend to be long and complex. Nature has provided us with abundant natural resources but often in the more remote parts of the world, and often a long way from the warehouses where plant equipment is sourced. If you're drilling for oil in Mozambique or mining for copper in Indonesia then chances are that the much of the equipment and spare parts required will have started their journey in North America, Europe or China. Most industry players have found it challenging to manage these complex supply chains. If you don’t have the right part, in the right place, at the right time, then plant downtime increases with a potential multi-million dollar hit in lost production.

The diagram below shows a typical international supply chain for equipment and parts. It starts in the suppliers manufacturing facility many thousands of miles away and ends with a customer (in this case a welder) on an offshore production platform. The physical material flow is complex involving numerous different players, starting with the material supplier through transport companies, freight forwarders, shipping companies, customs brokers and warehouse operators. The associated information flow is equally complex with systems that don’t talk to each other, manual processes and disconnects. The question for the customer is simple “where are my pants?” but often the answer is “we don’t know”.   

       

Oil and mining companies have some existing tracking capabilities but very few have complete end-to-end supply chain visibility. For example, the major international freight forwarders have had track and trace solutions for many years that provide partial visibility. These solutions capture the date when the material was picked up from the supplier and track the international shipping leg. Freight forwarders will provide access to their customers into their track and trace systems but if the customer is using several different freight forwarders it can be difficult to get consolidated visibility on all inbound shipments, at any point in time.

Supply chain visibility is often lost when the material arrives in the destination country and responsibility for the shipment changes, based on the agreed terms. Many developing countries suffer from under capacity in port infrastructure and it may take longer for shipments to move through the port than on the international shipping leg! When the shipment finally clears customs, they often arrive at the receiving warehouse unannounced. This makes it difficult to plan warehouse operations and most importantly meet the Required Onsite Dates critical to the engineers working on maintenance activities. These gaps in supply chain visibility lead to an increase in equipment and asset downtime, by not having the right part in the right place at the right time. 

At Innovapptive we are starting to see oil and mining companies tackle the issue of opaque end-to-end supply chains. Companies are embracing different initiatives to close the supply chain visibility gaps:

International Track and Trace Solutions - There are several companies including the large ERP vendors who can now provide more holistic international tracking solutions across all suppliers and they can even track equipment and materials through the supplier’s internal production process. These initiatives require big supplier enablement programs and can be time-consuming and expensive to implement.

Mobile access to Freight Forwarder Track and Trace Solutions - An alternative and simpler option is to link into the existing tracking tools provided by the global freight forwarders. This can be done through a mobile device by entering the purchase order number or a tracking number and the user is immediately provided with the current location of the shipment.

Advanced Ship Notice (ASN) – Widely used in the retail sector, the ASN is a very useful document for a warehouse confirming the arrival date of materials. It allows the warehouse to better plan workload and provides firmer Required Onsite Dates to the end-user. The ASN can be automated using Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) or at its most basic via an email confirmation.

Warehouse Visibility - In paper-based warehouse operations, physical activities and updates to the ERP system do not happen at the same time. For example, warehouse staff may have completed loading a container for the offshore shipment but the update in the ERP is done in the office a few hours later, by which time the material is already on its way. Mobile technology can be used to address this problem with warehouse staff transacting in the ERP system as soon as the physical activity is completed. This benefits warehouse managers and supervisors who now know exactly the status of all activities at any point in time. Additionally, engineers using mobile devices linked into the ERP system can track their order through the warehouse process and most importantly see when it’s going to arrive.

Outbound Track and Trace - From warehouse to the customer is the important “last mile” of a Supply Chain that could have started thousands of miles away. The “last mile” can be another black hole where company’s lose visibility of materials. This is also an area where using mobile devices can help. Driver and vehicle details can be captured including the loading completion date/time and departure date/time. Electronic Proof of Delivery (ePOD) can be used to track arrival at interim destinations and confirm receipt of the delivery. SAP’s Remote Logistics Management (available on mobile from Innovapptive) improves visibility of the outbound process all the way through to the offshore platform. Companies are also looking to get better inventory visibility in their offshore warehouses by using the same mobile technology that they use in their onshore warehouses.

Oil and mining companies are now showing a renewed focus on their MRO Supply Chains to get true end-to-end visibility. The prize is substantial through reduced plant downtime and increased production. Importantly, all the improvement opportunities described here are already available and based on existing technology. 

The Key to Maximizing Your Wrench Time

The money is in "efficiency" in maintenance organizations and the proof is in the pudding.

Many best-in-class manufacturing organizations relying on mobile employees have already learned how mobile apps and integrated back-end platforms can replace inefficient paper-based workflows. This has opened up a new world of effectiveness and productivity. Effective manufacturing organizations are ranking high on all spectrums: higher productivity, higher customer satisfaction levels, lower operating expenses, higher compliance levels and recognize more service revenue than the competition.

But tremendous profitability is not all that sets best-in-class manufacturing organizations apart from their competition. In fact, only a small percentage (22%) of organizations still rely heavily on paper-based forms, based on a study by the Aberdeen Group. Instead, a majority of manufacturing organizations have automated their paperwork, inventory management, dispatch, and other operations with mobile computers and printers—with fantastic results.

Manfacturing organizations are under steady pressure to increase efficiency and improve maintenance costs and lifecycle costs. Proactively identifying the right maintenance at the right time improves asset performance and assures regulatory compliance. Strategic asset management solutions drive continuous improvement and produce measurable results, improving your bottom-line.

Delivering ROI

Reactive maintenance and preventive maintenance programs are expensive. Additionally, they can also bring about issues with process and manufacturing reliability and performance. Organizations with a highly mobile maintenance workforce should integrate mobility into operational tasks to drive productivity and optimize costs.

Innovapptive’s Connected Workforce Platform empowers manufacturing organizations with the tools they need to provide a superior, personalized customer experience that boosts customer loyalty and creates new opportunities. Organizations give their customers (internal and external) convenient access to their billing, contracts, customer service, support calls, and insight on service disruptions. The solutions within the Connected Workforce Platform put visibility in organizations’ hands and empower highly productive, comprehensive environments leading to reduced service times, improved service quality and timeliness.

Improved wrench time is a key driver in Innovapptive’s Connected Workforce Platform. Innovapptive's mWorkOrder on-demand and role-based barcode scanning features allow field technicians, supervisors, planners to automate searching for parts, equipment, and history of equipment to doubling your wrench time. 

With Innovapptive's mWorkOrder with RACE™ Dynamics Forms, you can build robust mobile forms that will revolutionize your data capture - whether your objective is to improve productivity, increase visibility into operations, save time or gain data accuracy.

Lifting the Limits: Improving Your Workforce’s Wrench Time

Wrench time…Can it be improved?

Workforce efficiency in maintenance has a profound effect on the maintenance group’s costs and overall performance in any industry. It is safe to say, wrench time affects efficiency costs thus the overall costs for all organizations Can it be improved?

Research shows that maintenance workforce efficiencies can range from 18% – 74%, with inefficient operations being on the higher end of the spectrum of labor spend. Surveys estimate that the average wrench time within an efficient, or reactive, maintenance environment hovering around 30-35%. Breaking this down further: in an 8-hour day, there are only 2½ hours of actual hands-on wrench time or productive, or value-added, work.

A number of situations can impact wrench time of technician, such as

• Failure to have the right asset(s)/equipment available for the assigned technician(s) – due to the lack of visibility
• With limited visibilty, maintenance technicians are not able to plan for their routes and carry parts/tools they need for maintenance/repairs.
• Repeated travel back and forth from work site to the office/storeroom to collect parts, manuals, and assistance is time-consuming.  
• An issue reported to maintenance is wrong, due to various reasons such as ineffective paper-based processes, resulting in the wrong technician being dispatched to a job.  
• Unavailability of an asset’s maintenance history, equipment drawings, and details or service manuals for reference to conduct repairs.
• and more…

The cost of non-wrench time (5½ hours) leaves a great financial impact on the organization. That said, non-wrench activities are still necessary to get work done but are not considered factors in true wrench time.

For improving wrench time, it is essential for your organization to identify and eliminate barriers preventing your maintenance technicians from doing their jobs efficiently. One of the most effective ways to improve your technicians’ wrench time – streamline your organization’s planning and scheduling work order processes and improve strategies for preventive/proactive maintenance. Effective planning/scheduling processes help ensure that plant maintenance work is well planned, aiding in work orders being completed according to priorities.

To be more productive at work, your workforce needs to have the right information, such as asset details, along with maintenance history, real-time availability of maintenance parts/tools, and guiding instructions available in their hands. This increases your maintenance workforce’s productivity and reduces delays during jobs, thus increasing your bottom line.

Because of the mobile nature of the maintenance workforce, it is vital to equip your maintenance workforce with the right mobile workforce management solution. The “right” solution offers all the field-ready functionality necessary and connects their mobile workforce with your back office and other departments. Doing the right work, at the right time, with the right information and materials, in the right way will improve your technicians’ wrench time.  

Improving Wrench time with Mobile Plant Maintenance

The solution mWorkOrder – Mobile Plant Maintenance, offered by Innovapptive within the next generation Connected Workforce Platform, provides your maintenance technicians/workers anytime, anywhere access to the right information they need to do their jobs. mWorkOrder enables your workers to work safer, smarter and more productively. mWorkOrder‘s on-demand and role-based barcode scanning features allow field technicians, supervisors, planners to automate searching for parts, equipment, and history of equipment to maximize your wrench time.

Using mWorkOrder, planners/schedulers can create, update and view maintenance plans in real-time, and see where assets are located, accordingly. They can then assign work orders to technicians nearby. Also, supervisors are able to track performance and the start/stop times of technicians with the online/offline capabilities offered within mWorkOrder.

With the right information, your maintenance technicians’ productivity will increase – more completed work orders in a day result in improved wrench time. Having access to the right information along with material, equipment and exactly what tools they need for the job, will enable maintenance technicians to focus on their actual work, and complete work orders in their first visit.

Learn how Australia’s largest utility company utilizes Innovapptive’s mWorkOrder with RACE™ to optimize their maintenance planning, improve asset reliability, and save field workers time as they work on the go with real-time updates. Read their story here: https://bit.ly/2LWQXNQ

Delivering instant digitization framework to your field service

The demand for Geospatial-Intelligence has enhanced the GIS experience. How can enterprises succeed in using real-time data from SAP and GIS to streamline business processes? - drive additional ROI, with available time, provide situational awareness in the field, enable optimization and routing and more.

Recognized by GIA as a leading global enterprise mobility company. Innovapptive is channeling user experience within the SAP ecosystem since the past 4 years. It is focusing to accelerate the organization’s time to market value and reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO). The mobile apps are complemented by exclusive technology, platform-agnostic across all mobile operating systems, which allows infinite customizations through meek, non-complex configurations.

RACE ™ (Rapid App Configurator Engine) is the working phenomenon of Innovapptive’s technology. It provides the customer with an app with customized User Interface (UI) that perfectly matches with their business necessities. It Delivers an enhanced customer experience that provides a strong value proposition and improves the complete TCO and ROI with its easy configurable flexibility.

With the mission to Innovate, transform and Empower. Innovapptive is digitizing a large spectrum of global 2,000 customers. It is reaching across industries like Oil & Gas, Utilities, Life Sciences, Consumer Goods and Manufacturing.

With Critigen, the partnership has been forwarding towards providing GIS capability. The integration of ESRI GIS and SAP solutions is establishing support to the enterprise mobile ROI. Adding GIS to the field apps provide flexibility in work assignments for field teams, reduces error rates to enter work notes/records. Also improves usability and reduces training for mobile tools. Offline access to GIS information provides the managers and teams situational awareness in the field.

Having GIS integrated into the mobile apps drive additional ROI, with available time, workers easily identify additional work orders, notifications assigned to them or near them. Also, they get one-touch routing to job locations and the workers have both EAM information and engineering/ GIS information, offline. Integration to maps enables optimization and routing.

Mobile EAM Deployment, with RACE™ takes 8-10 weeks with a code-free admin tool kit to manage evolving business requirements. Across multiple mobile and web platforms, one tool to manage EAM processes reduces on-going maintenance costs by adapting to changes with ease.

The commingle of Innovapptive’s mWorkorder with Critigen Lemur benefits data alignment between GIS and SAP inherently and leverages current and future SAP geo-enablement. However, avoiding the offline GIS pitfalls is very necessary as the mobile device storage is often inadequate for the very large GIS data. Out of the box, ESRI offline/caching capabilities can crush production GIS infrastructure.

If you would like a demo of Innovapptive’s mWorkOrder (Mobile Workorder ) solution, please click on the link. Alternatively, if you would like to discuss with an Innovapptive solution expert, you can reach out to us by emailing us at sales@innovapptive.com or you can reach a sales representative at (713) 275-1804.