Field service management (FSM) makes your service staff more productive by cutting the time lost to driving back, chasing information, paperwork and repeat visits. Technicians get the work order, the installation’s details and its documents on a phone or tablet. They record time, materials and the customer’s signature on site. How much time that saves depends on where your hours leak away today.
That applies to companies that maintain what they sell, such as a boatbuilder, or Canon, which sells and repairs cameras and printers. It applies equally to installation companies that only do maintenance and repairs.
Where do your technicians lose their time?
Mostly between the office and the customer. We often see technicians arrive on site without a clear picture of what they need to do. That means calls back and forth, and a customer who doesn’t know where things stand. You will recognise these situations:
- A technician drives back because a part, a drawing or the installation’s history is missing.
- After the last job they fill in job sheets, which the office then retypes.
- The same fault needs a second visit.
- The planner phones round to find out where everyone is.
- Nobody knows how many hours go on driving, waiting and the work itself.
Planning costs time too, as when technician A drives from Brabant to Amsterdam while technician B in Amsterdam still has room in their schedule. Choices like that belong in service planning, along with service level agreements (SLAs) and customer appointments.
What does FSM change in a technician’s day?
The day runs through a mobile work order instead of phone calls and paper. IFS Cloud has two apps for this: IFS Service MWO for service to customers and IFS Maintenance MWO for maintenance. Technicians see their jobs and set a status for each one, such as On Route, Work Started or Completed.
Each job shows the object’s details and the documents attached to the task. The technician adds photos and books time and materials against the job itself. In IFS’s request-based service process, the SLA commitment with the earliest due date is shown too. Van stock is a matter for parts and inventory management.
At the end, the customer can review the service report on screen and sign it. IFS can attach that report to the task automatically. The technician logs follow-on work as a new task, for themselves or for the planner. Some journeys disappear with remote assistance through the MWO apps, where it has been set up, or with IoT sensors that flag maintenance in advance.
With IFS Planning & Scheduling Optimization (PSO), technicians also pass their expected arrival time to service planning. These examples come from the IFS documentation for release update 26R2; check which release you run.
How can you see where your technicians’ hours go?
From the statuses technicians already set. With automatic time reporting switched on in the workflow configuration, the app books hours based on status:
- On Route starts travel time.
- Waiting at Location or Work Started stops travel time and starts work time.
- Completed stops work time, as does a pause or a job left unfinished.
If you also enable Return Travel, the app books the journey back when the job is completed. Waiting on site counts as work time; it only shows up in the status history, where IFS logs every status change.
For service work, IFS says booked hours can create a priced sales line, if the time type is set up that way. Whether they are invoiced separately depends on the contract; see service contracts and margins.
You decide which steps are mandatory. IFS can block completion until, for example, the customer has signed or the fault type and cause are filled in. Every mandatory step costs the technician time, and our field service advice helps you choose which fields are worth it.
What can a technician do without a signal?
Almost everything already on the device when they set off. According to IFS, some functions work online only, such as finding a part, picking up tasks from the shared pool and creating quotations.
Which objects are on the device depends on the app. By default, IFS Service MWO only downloads the objects of the technician’s assigned tasks, while IFS Maintenance MWO downloads all objects on the user’s sites. If a customer asks them to check a second installation, Service app users must first find and download it while connected. For objects not on the device, history is viewed online.
For a known location without coverage, your administrator can use a filter to send all objects at that location to the device. For forms, see the announcement of the Eqeep and OmniByte partnership.
How do you stop technicians driving back for a drawing or the history?
Get the object and the task’s documents in order before the job reaches the technician. From the work order, the technician opens the object, with its technical data, object structure and spare parts among other things. IFS says a synced object also brings measurements and service contracts. The service logbook can be cached too; if not, it is viewed online.
Drawings and manuals belong on the task as documents. The technician can download and view them in the app, and add documents of their own. You decide who attaches them and when, for example the work planner when the task is created.
Locations need to be right as well. A task can inherit its address and map position from the object or the customer. IFS notes that technicians may find a task’s location is not quite accurate, so they can update the map position on site.
Skills and certificates decide who gets a task, and what your technicians record today feeds into tomorrow’s service planning.
How do you measure technician productivity?
Against a baseline from your own data, taken before anything changes. Record at least:
- How much of each day goes on driving, waiting and work.
- How many jobs end unfinished and lead to follow-on work.
- How long it takes from job completion to invoice.
- How many jobs each technician completes per day, alongside travel time and backlog.
First-time fix is the share of jobs resolved on the first visit, without a return. MTTR (mean time to repair) is total downtime from failures divided by the number of failures. Our article on how EAM and FSM reduce maintenance costs explains how to count both.
We agree the priority and the baseline with your team. You decide which process changes first. Start with an analysis.
What did FSM deliver for Optronica?
According to the published story, Optronica Service grew without additional headcount. It gained more insight into individual technicians’ work, and customers received reports automatically after completed jobs. Optronica is an independent service organisation for ophthalmic equipment; its customers in the project were Dutch healthcare organisations.
With Eqeep, it set up the standalone IFS Field Service Management application, with mobile work and an AFAS integration. Implementation, migration and integration took about four months, without customisation. This was an earlier FSM project, not an IFS Cloud implementation. Read the Optronica story.
When is a full FSM set-up not the right fit?
A full FSM set-up is not always right for a small, simple service process. Start instead where capacity leaks away, such as repeat visits or job sheets written after the work. Our field productivity page applies that approach to grid operators and other energy businesses. Our IFS Field Service Management page sets out which service processes IFS Cloud connects.
Questions about technician productivity
How much more productive do technicians become with FSM?
It differs per organisation, so we do not quote a standard percentage. The gain depends on where your hours leak away today, for example travel, waiting, repeat visits or admin. Record that split before you change anything.
Does the IFS Cloud mobile work order work offline?
Yes, with the data already on the device. According to IFS, some functions work online only, such as finding a part, picking up pool tasks and creating quotations. By default, IFS Service MWO only downloads the objects of assigned tasks to the device.
Do technicians still fill in timesheets with IFS Cloud?
Mostly not. With automatic time reporting switched on, the app books travel and work time from statuses such as On Route and Work Started. Technicians can also report time manually, for themselves and for colleagues on the same task.
Which data must be right before FSM makes technicians faster?
Mainly the object, the task documents and the location. From the job, the technician sees the technical data, object structure and spare parts, among other things. Drawings and manuals belong on the task as documents. A task can take its address and map position from the object or the customer.
Discuss your IFS question
Tell us where you stand with IFS. After one conversation you will have a clear next step. Mention where your technicians lose most time today. Discuss your IFS question
