HOLT CAT, the largest US dealer of Caterpillar machines and engines, has adopted Augmentir’s Connected Worker platform to speed-up the process of training new technicians and to standardise job times.

The company operates across construction, mining, industrial, petroleum and agricultural sectors, selling, renting and servicing equipment. The firm will look to spread the Augmentir platform across other areas of its re-manufacturing and rebuild operations, including their business systems and workflows.

Artificial Intelligence's effect on Field Service Productivity

The firm’s new workforce approach will see them dovetail Augmentir’s AI-centric software with Salesforce’s Field Service Lightning, a platform they currently employ, and a move that Brandon Acosta, VP of Enterprise Operations at HOLT CAT, says should enhance productivity and output. “We truly believe that the seamless connectivity of Augmentir with that platform [Field Service Lightning] will empower our technical staff within one end-to-end digital platform; not just what to do, but how to do it,” he said.

Russ Fadel, Augmentir’s CEO and Co-Founder is confident HOLT CAT will see progress in staff training and overall productivity. Commenting, Fadel said: “We are excited to be selected as HOLT’s connected worker platform for its service, repair and maintenance applications. Our AI-based Connected Worker Platform helps industrial companies to intelligently close skill gaps so that the entire workplace can perform at its peak.

The Augmentir platform uses Artificial Intelligence in a suite of tools that assist firms in the digital transformation of their operations, for example moving from paper-based procedures to digital, augmented work instructions. It can speed-up the process of training new technicians by capturing legacy worker knowledge creating digital work instructions and workflows.

It recently upgraded its remote-connectivity capability, Augmentir Remote Assist, which now includes real-time chat, live video and audio collaboration and a recording capability to enhance knowledge sharing, a requirement gaining traction as social distancing rules from Covid-19 permeate service operations.

---

Further Reading:

• Read more about Artificial Intelligence in Field Service @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/artificialintelligence
• Read more Augmentir @ www.fieldservicenews.com/augmentir
• Read more about HOLT CAT here. 
• Read more about the impact of Covid-19 on Field Service @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/en-gb/covid-19

FieldAware's Field Service hub extends best-in-class customer engagement.

 

FieldAware, the leader in made-for-mobile, cloud-based field service hub solutions, and Localz, the leader in real-time customer communications and service tracking solutions, has announced a partnership to bring day-of-service communications to field service organizations.

To build better service experiences, FieldAware has partnered with Localz to expand its cloud-based field service management hub offerings. Localz On My Way complements and extends the functionality of the FieldAware offering to include automated customer communications, real-time service tracking and feedback capabilities to existing workflows.

Automated Field Service Workflows

The partnership uses FieldAware job data seamlessly integrated with Localz technology to trigger automated customer communication workflows before and on the day of service. Combining fully integrated, automated field service workflows with real-time technician tracking and post-appointment feedback reduces costly truck-rolls, improves service efficiency and increases first-time access. This powerful combination delivers double-digit improvements in customer satisfaction and profitability for service-based organizations across industries.

"Partnering with Localz allows our clients to quickly digitize their day of service operations and deliver customer experiences similar to the likes of Uber and Amazon," said Steve Mason, COO at FieldAware. "As a cutting-edge field service hub enabling field service companies of all sizes to automate processes and streamline operations, it was a natural step to incorporate a best-in-breed customer engagement solution."

"Now more than ever, B2B and B2C customers alike demand transparency and clear communication around service appointments. Our partnership with FieldAware allows us to make processes even easier for companies to get back to business while delivering frictionless experiences for end-customers," said Tim Andrew, CEO of Localz.

For more information, please contact: marc.tatarsky@fieldaware.com 

---

• To find out more about FieldAware click here.
• To find out more about Localz click here.
• Read more about customer communication in service @ www.fieldservicenews.com/customerservice 

Mark Glover spoke to Roy Chikballapur about the role of edge computing in Industry 4.0, how a comparison with the cloud is not useful and why bringing the two technologies together could benefit the smart factory.

 

In a recent LinkedIn post I pondered if edge computing would ever replace the cloud. 

service innovation from Automation

A comment from Roy Chikballapur from MachIQ caught my eye. “I would say that they are heavily complementary, and neither can deliver without enough advancement of the other,” he wrote, “The edge hyperbole is an automation-industry led backlash that doesn’t fully capture the opportunity of the speed with which innovation can be implemented on the cloud and distributed to the edge.”

This was all great stuff. I quickly messaged Roy and we arranged an interview the following day. This was the kind of insight I was hoping for, however the Skype call we set up had other ideas, booting Roy off the line halfway through.

Skype operates via the cloud, having moved there in 2016 after existing primarily in P2P networks. However, as proven by my call with Roy, connections can drop out as the application gobbles up bandwidth. 

Our connection used a trickle of data compared to that of a connected smart factory and it seemed ironic that our video-chat set-up to discuss the role of cloud and edge computing should drop out.

“You can’t have (connection issues) like we just had right now,” Roy says, using our dis-connection as an example of what can’t happen in an industry setting. “You can’t afford that break in the network when you’re running any type of factory because machines just can’t stop.”

Roy is absolutely right. For manufacturers time is money and asset downtime is loss making. The digital sinews that connect smart factory assets need to work all the time and Roy’s initial comment in response to my LinkedIn post, that the cloud is unable to handle these intricacies (that it was unable to handle our Skype call is another article) made sense.

Of course, the cloud is not in the sky, it’s very much on the ground, stored on data centres and server farms, sometimes a long way from the asset that’s asking to communicate with it. It’s this geographical distance that causes ‘lag’ or latency in “cloud speak”- the time it takes to get the data sent, dealt with and then sent back. A lag of several seconds may seem trivial but for industry it’s pivotal.

The news item that prompted this piece, centred on an analyst report from GlobalData who suggested edge computing was primed for the Asia Pacific (APAC) region. 

"Edge computing operates by being physically closer to a device..."

The APAC consists of East and South Asia, South East Asia and Oceania and is made up of large sprawling countries like China and Australia. It covers approximately 2.8 billion hectares of land blanketing nearly 22% of the global land area. It’s huge.

In the report, GlobalData predicted benefits for the region’s manufacturing sector if it fully adopted the edge including the streamlining of industrial processes, supply chain improvement and more autonomous use of equipment.

The uptake, the report claims, is due to the widespread adoption of connected assets in the region including smart homes. It forecasts by 2024, given the current adoption rate, it will become the second-largest market of edge computing, second only to North America.

In contrast to the cloud, edge computing operates by being physically closer to a device, rather than stored in a data centre several hundred miles away; operating on the ‘edge’ of a network thus transporting the digital instructions quicker and negating lag. 

The report says China will spearhead the adoption, and given the country’s size (9.5 million km²), lag from a server in a Beijing datacentre for example to an end user in Shanghai could be avoided.

If, as the report claims, manufacturing is to benefit, it’s important to understand Industry 4.0; the fourth industrial revolution as it were, where data is the new coal and a natural environment for the edge to operate.

In our home, we tinker with the heating while on the train home from work; or look through our security camera while waiting for a bus. It’s this societal shift in the use of connected devices, Roy says, that has pushed the fourth industrial revolution forwards. 

“If you see where the Internet of Things came from, it has origins in implementations such as Google’s Nest,” he explains. “Here the sensors would send signals to the Cloud to make sense of the data, determine what action the device needed and carry them out.”

This was a step on from Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs), the first industry-based conduit for connecting machines to networks and a significant step in manufacturing’s development. 

Pre-internet and pre-big data their use was limited but large B2C tech firms: Microsoft and, in this instance, Google, with the eventual advent of the cloud, took the technology further. Today can get your living room lights talking with your mobile phone. “That was basically how Nest really started,” Roy says.

"The industrial firms knew that the cloud alone could not sustain the real-time demands of smart factory operations..."

PLCs were game changers for of GE and Schneider in terms of industrial automation (Schneider would eventually purchase Modicon, the company credited with producing the first PLC), they understood the value of real-time data in a factory setting; that continuous uptime and production was paramount to their operations. Which bring us back to Roy’s point on industrial continuity and how the lag from cloud connectivity will not only affect output but, most importantly, employees’ wellbeing too.

“If it takes multiple seconds for data to travel back and forth, for instructions to be sent from a cloud-based controller to a device in the factory,” Roy says, “it can sometimes literally mean the difference between life and death as there are cases when worker safety inside the plant is affected. And that just can’t happen.”

The edge vs cloud debate was fuelled by industrial actors like GE, Schneider and Siemens responding to IT players including the aforementioned Google, Amazon and Microsoft’s assertion that the cloud could oversee everything, including industrial, operational technology.

The industrial firms knew that the cloud alone could not sustain the real-time demands of smart factory operations. It just wasn’t possible. The stand-off went on for some time until Moore’s law – his 1965 theory that over time, more and more transistors would fit into silicon chips - made it economical to embed sufficient data storage and processing capacity within the asset itself, enabling much of the real-time computing that make smart factories “smart”.

“Computing that was initially supposed to be carried out in the cloud could eventually be carried out on the device itself, by attaching a processor inside. This is basically what edge computing is.” Roy says before suggesting the technology could and should work in perfect harmony with the cloud, particularly in industrial environments. ”There is a space for both these technologies to operate side by side and complement each other perfectly well, to deliver exponentially higher value to industrial plants than either one being utilised alone.

There’s more to discuss here, particularly around edge and the Cloud working together, but I’m saving this for an episode of the Field Service Podcast with Roy as my guest.

---

Further Reading: 

• Read more about cloud computing in field service @ www.fieldservicenews.com/edge
• Read more about customer servitization in field service @ www.fieldservicenews.com/servitization
• Read more articles by Mark Glover here.

New research charting the servitization journey of companies shows a significant gap in progress between firms with only 3% surveyed at a stage of maturity.

The study, instigated by IFS and extrapolated by global analyst firm IDC, surveyed 420 global manufacturing companies, active across the physical value chain, who were at varying stages of their servitization strategy.

From the data, IDC developed a Servitization Maturity Framework (The IDC Servitization Barometer) comprising four levels that segments companies based on their level of adoption.

 

The Four Stages of Servitization Adoption

The ‘Splintered’ stage, and the lowest level, represented 14% of firms.Typically these companies operated in silos, running dis-jointed, manual processes and fragmented business systems producing little or no visibility in performance.

The next stage, ‘Side-Car’, was the largest representation of companies (49%). Here firms had standardised their back and front office operations but were yet to integrate the two.

‘Joined-up’ companies have integrated front and back offices in both directions and have progressed to leverage technologies such as IoT to feed core systems with real data. This segment was represented by 39% of firms surveyed.

Only 3% of canvassed firms operating at the fourth ‘Borderless’ stage (or “Servitization Nirvana,” the report says). These companies have processes that start and end outside of the organisation with operations and technology facilitating the connection between different elements of the value chain.

However, IDC said those firms at the ‘Joined-Up’ stage, who were exhibiting some, but not all elements of a servitization strategy, for example an integrated back and front office and the use of IoT, were still able to show significant financial proof-points, with service revenues - on average - one third larger than their peers’ as a proportion of total revenue.

“Organisations that bundled projects with services or offered their capabilities in a consumption-mode are already enjoying competitive advantages,” Phil Carter, Chief Analyst at IDC Europe and one of the authors of the report says. “Manufacturers engaging in this transformation should demand applications that are natively connected across the full value chain, from the shop floor to customer support and service.”

IFS carried out the survey in July 2019 and the President of the firm’s Service Management Business Unit Marne Martin said IDC’s maturity framework identified the key barriers firms are facing in their quest for full servitization adoption. “The IDC Servitization Barometer lays out the key hurdles facing many manufacturing organisations,” she says, “including the lack of internal know-how and the perrenial problem of running legacy, disjointed business systems.”

---

Further Reading: 

• Read the full report IDC Sertvization Barrier - Charting your Path to New Revenue Streams here.
• Read more about customer servitization in field service @ www.fieldservicenews.com/servitization
• Find out more about IFS here.
• Find out more about IDC here. 

Monitoring the driving behaviour of your fleet can have tangible positives for KPIs but negative affects culturally. Mark Glover spoke to Alistair Dobson from Whirpool about his approach to integrating a positive safety culture.

When engineers carry out on-site maintenance there is always an element of risk. I've written many times on the dangers of lone workers, which field service engineers essentially are. However, there is another high-risk environment that engineers often operate in, and that's even before they've got to the job itself.

Driving is a Central part of the Field Service Industry

Driving is an important metric of a technician's day-to-day. Time wasted while travelling either from heavy traffic or an poor route-planning can have a detrimental affect on that day's output. Fortunately, route-planning software and telematics solutions can assist in the latter, but the fact remains the roads will always be a risky environment.

In the UK, more people are killed or injured in at-work road accidents than in all other workplace accidents put together. It is estimated that around 200 road deaths and serious injuries involve someone driving whilst at work and around a third of all crashes are estimated to involve someone who was at work at the time. This means that up to 1,000 lives are lost in the UK each year through driving for work-based practices.

In the US, the figures are obviously higher. Motor vehicle crashes (MVCs) are consistently the leading cause of work-related fatalities in the U.S. A total of 8,173 workers died in work-related MVCs on public highways from 2003 to 2008, representing 24% of all work-related fatalities for the period.

We're tracking them so we had to very quickly move away from the fact that we're not tracking you. This is a health and safety initiative, this is about keeping you safe.

"Driving is 30 per cent, give or take, on average of an engineer's day of what we do," said Alistair Dobson, speaking at a recent Field Service News Think Tank session. Whirlpool's Service Operations Director explained that his fleet typically travel very short distances between customers in a designated local area, a routine common for the majority of service engineers where time is spent more on residential streets rather than high-speed motorways or roadways.

Alistair and his team took the decision to integrate telematics into their fleet strategy six years ago. It was a decision met with some resistance. "We invested in telematics which was a huge step and one viewed negatively viewed by the engineers," he recalls. "We're tracking them so we had to very quickly move away from the fact that we're not tracking you. This is a health and safety initiative, this is about keeping you safe."

Outlining the Benefits to Your Field Service Engineers

The moral and ethical questions around tracking technology are part of its implementation however, framing the technology as a safety initiative, one that is in place to protect drivers rather than a spy on them. This approach can help sell the technology to cynical engineers.

"It goes back to trust," Alistair continues, explaining how fragile the relationship between engineer and manager can be. "I'm not putting these cameras on your vans to watch and monitor you. I'm doing it to help keep you safe.

"Because if you're talking about culture and trust and you do things that destroy that trust, like, 'I'm going to be watching you every single day and I'm going to have someone in an office watching you on a screen,' then you quickly erode that trust."

One element of manifesting trust, Alistair explains, was being transparent with his own driving habits. He had the technology fitted to his own car and shared his own scores in a weekly email to the workforce.

"If I'm asking my engineers to do something why should I not be prepared to do it myself? What have I got to hide?"

Engineers were encouraged to 'Challenge Alistair', to try and beat his own table-leading metrics from driving safely. A combination of friendly competition and setting a tangible example helped cement the trust further. "I was driving very slowly because I've got an example to set. Leading by example becomes a key thing. If I'm going to ask the engineers to have it fitted then I should also have it fitted. If I'm asking my engineers to do something why should I not be prepared to do it myself? What have I got to hide?

"We're running a very consistent programme and we haven't changed it after six years. The methodology hasn't changed, we still need to go out and repair things in an economical way."

As we look into the next 12 months, one that is inevitably going to be affected by Covid-19 then communication between management and team will become more important.

Fleet management and the deployment of drivers as the lockdown lifts stringent will require a new approach in bringing the system back up to speed and engineers will be expecting clear, concise and controlled instruction.

It may require another shift in culture, another period of operating slightly differently to what's gone before yet what's important is consistency.

"And it's that consistency that creates that culture," Alistair explains. "So, when you talk about culture change, if you can gain that respect it means I can do something from my level down which drives the culture and behaviour."

We're operating in a Covid-19 affected world right not and it's a challenging time for everyone that offers little certainty. When I write next year's article for the Handy Little Book, I look forward to speaking to Alistair again to see how he drove that culture change in fleet management in such difficult times and ultimately thrived.

---

Further Reading: 

• Read the full Field Service News Think Tank Executive Briefing on Health and Safety on the link below

• Read More articles from the Field Service News Think Tanks @ thinktanks.fieldservicenews.com
• Read more about Driver Behaviour @ www.fieldservicenews.com/DriverBehaviour
• Read More about Fleet Technology @ www.fieldservicenews.com/fleet-technology
• Read More articles from Mark Glover @ www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/author/mark-glover
• Read more about Whirlpool on their blog @ www.whirlpoolcorp.com/latest-news/
• Connect with Alistair Dobson on LinkedIn @ www.linkedin.com/in/alistair-dobson-25128826/

New research into the digital service trends of large manufacturers shows they are lacking the necessary IT infrastructures and are struggling to meet the expectations of customers in the servitization era.

The research ,Drivers for Digital Growth in Service, was carried out by Noventum in collaboration with HSO and Microsoft and canvassed product manufacturers and technical services companies via electronic surveys and personal interviews.

Struggles with Servitization

The study comes as the influence of servitization - the sale of an outcome, rather than a one-off purchase - has prompted a move away from traditional one-off large product investments to pay-per-use and subscription models bringing a new set of customer expectations.

Customers now expect their suppliers to assist in other business goals, such as increased production and even influencing innovation and operations. To help them achieve this, the report finds, firms must adopt new business models to deliver outcome-based, data-driven services for their clients.

However, while the study showed 80% of companies are planning to deliver or are currently delivering customer business related services, 40% admitted that their current IT framework was not robust enough to fully support these new business models.

The results suggest that firms need to adopt a digital services strategy, encompassing the entire organisation in order to deliver a successful and services-based business.

The research was conducted at the beginning of 2020 before the Covid-19 outbreak and in an introduction to the report Noventum acknowledged the impact the pandemic could have on service business growth, while suggesting it could prompt a positive change in focus leading to new service-led business models. “...for the companies who have been negatively impacted by Covid-19,” the statement said, “it will be vital to adopt the new ways of working that have been learnt during the crisis and to put in place growth strategies that will ensure the survival and sustainability of the business.”

Further Reading: 

• Read the full Executive Report from the research here.
• Read more about Servitization here @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/servitization
• To find out more about Noventum click here.
• To find out more about HSO click here.

As the service sector looks to reduce site visits in line with current social distancing measures Aquant suggests a solution to maintaining continuity during the pandemic lies in (Artificial Intelligence) AI, remote technology and better data collection.

The service industry does what it does best when in the field, repairing or maintaining equipment. But the medical community is urging us to #StayHome while we fight the pandemic. Service pros can’t unilaterally stay home, but there are ways to reduce the number of site visits needed, while still solving customer issues. And even as the pandemic declines, we are likely to see some social distancing remain, and a rollout of more rigorous health and safety policies that slow a full return to business as usual.

 

THE BEST WAY TO MANAGE fIELD SERVICE CONTINUITY

Service leaders are accelerating longer-term transformation plans that include self-service solutions, AI tools, more remote diagnostics, better data collection for predictive maintenance, and other changes that limit the number of visits technicians must make to work sites. While some solutions can be deployed more quickly than others, there are ways for service organizations of all sizes to immediately resolve issues faster.

 

Problem Solving & Planning With AI

 

1. Increase First Contact Resolution

Resolve less complex issues on the first call. Al tools can enable customer support agents to triage problems during initial contact. To do so, empower agents with the assistance of a robust triage tool that understands every customer and their equipment, and is able to make intelligent service recommendations.

That smart system gives your customer support team the ability to walk through dynamically generated, intelligent checklists with customers. Unlike decision trees, these checklists are created by using smart algorithms that are validated and improved by expert employees and continue to learn and evolve over time.

The more information the agent can prompt the customer to provide, the more accurate the suggested solutions, and the shorter the job duration. For example, the more time spent on remote triage upfront, the better prepared a technician will be on arrival — bringing the appropriate parts or tools. In addition, it provides opportunities for customers to undertake simple solutions themselves when possible.

2. Offer Self-Service Solutions

In addition to providing customer-facing agents access to a diagnostic solution, consider adding a self-service tool to your website for customers to access directly. Direct customers to use the resource to diagnose, and in some cases resolve, simple issues remotely without the need to dispatch a field technician. The most important aspect is that self-service tools are intuitive and:

• Includes an easy-to-use UI
• Asks questions in plainly worded language
• Can understand customer intent regardless of word choice they use to describe a problem
• Recommends the most likely fix that’s possible to achieve remotely.

The addition of self-service tools will immediately mitigate some of the travel problems associated with COVID-19, while also laying the foundation for a longer-term strategy that reduces the burden on an over-scheduled workforce.

3. Use the Right Parts the First Time

Most service organizations face two big parts problems:

The first is a lack of parts or rather a lack of the right parts. If a technician goes into a job without enough context about the issue or is a more junior member of the workforce, there’s a good chance the first visit will simply be a diagnostic one, and then they’ll need to return at a later date with the correct part or parts to complete the job. No technician wants to make multiple visits right now.

The second problem is often harder to detect. That’s the challenge that goes by many names including shotgunning, swap ‘til you drop, or troubleshooting with parts. It’s far more costly when field technicians cycle through more parts than required for a job. It’s also a drain on resources when inexperienced technicians, without the right guidance, struggle by swapping out parts until the issue is resolved. Instead of trial and error, choose AI tools that tap into organizational data, analyze that data, and provide techs on-site with the most efficient path to resolution — decreasing the time it takes to complete a job while also lowering service costs.

4. Analyze Hidden Data to Transition to a More Predictive Service Model

We’ve talked to service leaders across the country, and a common thread is that they are preparing for the post-pandemic, new normal. Future-looking service organizations are driving towards more planned and predictive models which will allow for more strategic workforce planning, fewer site visits, and more steady streams of revenue. And they know that to get there, they need better ways to wrangle historical data along with the ability to monitor and react to IoT and machine outputs effectively.

Start Planning for the Future What’s next for your service organization? Learn how AI-powered Intelligent Triage reduces repeat visits, increases first contact resolution, and creates a better customer experience.

---

Further Reading: 

• Read more about remote technology in service @ www.fieldservicenews.com/remote
• Read the latest news about Covid-19 and service @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/covid
• To find out more about Aquant click here.

Field Service Finder comes in response to covid-19 recruitment challenges.

A collaboration between ServiceMax and freelance marketplace Krios has produced a digital job board for the service sector aimed at firms whose operations are being affected by Covid-19.

ServiceMax Field Service Finder advertises open roles including volunteer opportunities and short-term assistance requests.

impact on Field Service Management Recruitment

The platform comes in response to the pandemic’s impact on service continuity with ServiceMax identifying a varying shift across the sectors it serves. The Biotech and Medical Device verticals, it says are ramping up operations and scaling production, with others reducing or sidelining staff and some switching to a new focus altogether.

"Our mission is to help field services teams keep the world running, and now more than ever there are critical jobs to be filled," said Stacey Epstein, Chief Marketing and Customer Experience Officer at ServiceMax. "Because of our close relationships with our customers across industries, we're in a unique position to help connect the talent supply with the talent demand. We're inspired by the efforts made by our customers to pivot and respond to today's crisis and want to support our customers and the industry with their workforce needs now, during this crucial time, as well as in the future."

Prior to the pandemic, there had been significant signs that the service sector was experiencing challenges in filling an expanding talent gap. A Forrester Consulting Study in 2019 interviewed 675 global service professionals on challenges around digital transformation where 97 per cent cited recruiting talent as a major barrier. More specifically, 47 per cent said finding candidates with appropriate knowledge and skills to fill roles was a significant roadblock and it is feared the current situation could exacerbate these issues.

Service is now moving from 'reaction' to consolidation; where the global lockdown is loosening, and service is turning back on having been left dormant. How should we approach this new phase?

 

 

In the latest Field Service Podcast, Deputy Editor Mark Glover is joined by Martin Summerhayes who gives new insight into what the sector should be considering as we emerge, blinking slightly, into a new service world. In this excerpt from that podcast Summerhayes explains why precise planning pre-empt proactive performance... 

---

Want to know more? Check out the this full episode of the Field Service Podcast as well as all of our previous episodes in the podcast section of our Premium Content Library by clicking here

---

 

Planning for Fully Reopening the Field Service Sector

"We are going to come out of this at some point," Martin says. "However, it is not going to be a mass switch on of services; mass opening of markets and outlets - think of a giant “Turn On” switch being pulled - rather, it is going to be phased approach."

In this episode and off the back of a recent article exclusively for Field Service News, Martin takes the ubiquitous 'Five Ps' business acronym - Poor Planning Promotes Poor Performance - and swaps in new first, third and fourth words:  Precise Planning Pre-empts Pro-active Performance is a possible blueprint for service directors who might be daunted or overwhelmed when sizing up a re-start.

"Take a set of scenarios to then precisely plan the impacts," Martin says, unpacking the first part of the acronym. "This evolves around asking a series of open ended questions and describing in detail the responses and impacts. This is where elements of “scenario planning” and an element of “game theory” comes into their own. 

Martin backs the theory with an example: a mixed legacy IT estate distributed across a number of outlets. Here he applies open-ended questions on health and safety, customer expectations and spare parts to garner these responses and impacts.

Proactive performance is approached with questions also but the aim is to spot patterns: "Have you captured all of the impacts, potential outcomes and put it into a plan? A resource profile? A spares planning spreadsheet? Have you shared this across your organisation teams?" he says. "You will need to explore at least five different customers and scenarios to start to see a trend and start to see the common elements that you need to work."

At the moment our feeds and inboxes are being bombarded with webinars, articles and other podcasts taking a long view approach to service's current challenge. Here, Martin suggests stepping back and concentrating on the now might be the way forward. 

However, he acknowledges this approach might not be the best way and he is keen to hear your feedback and to be challenged on his theory. So please let us know your thoughts.

---

Further Reading: 

• Read more from Martin Summerhayes @ www.fieldservicenews.com/martinsummerhayes
• Read more Covid-19 related content @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/covid19
• Follow Martin Summerhayes on LinkedIn here.

---

Want to know more? Check out the this full episode of the Field Service Podcast as well as all of our previous episodes in the podcast section of our Premium Content Library by clicking here