ARCHIVE FOR THE ‘bybox’ CATEGORY

Ensuring your field service engineers are best positioned to deliver a first-time fix becomes a moot point unless you have an efficient service supply chain.

Claudine Mosseri, General Manager, Field Services, ByBox outlines the benefits of outsourcing this critical function...

Running an effective supply chain can seem like a necessary evil for many businesses.

With multiple touchpoints and high margins for error, supply chain management requires a comprehensive and considered approach.

Running an effective supply chain can seem like a necessary evil for many businesses.After all, being unable to successfully deliver goods to customers is detrimental to both service and reputation. For many companies, a solution to the supply chain conundrum is to outsource the operation – either in its entirety or in parts – leaving them to focus on the day-to-day running of their operation and growing their business.

Supply chain collaboration goes beyond transactional relationships in warehouse management and transportation to encompass value-added processes, such as demand planning, configuration and returns management. At ByBox, we have made significant investments into effective parts management and increasing stock visibility.

Our approach is to move the data, not the part.

What does this mean?

It enables us to take a holistic view of where all spare parts are, whether they are with an engineer, in a warehouse or stock holding facility, or in a secure location such as a locker bank. This view of the supply chain provides customers with new ways of getting an item from A to B.

Establishing a dramatic improvement in inventory visibility is at the heart of next-generation supply chain methods.Establishing a dramatic improvement in inventory visibility is at the heart of next-generation supply chain methods. Historically, pallets of parts have been moved blindly through distribution networks, only to be moved somewhere else the following day. Our approach exposes that data, helping customers make informed management decisions.

All movements can be traced in real-time online to see at precisely what stage of the supply chain a customers’ part is located. As a result, businesses spend less money on same-day transport and unnecessary stock holding.

Modern logistics is constantly moving forward, with businesses trying to stay on top of the latest trends and technologies while satisfying customers. Re-evaluating supply chain partners can help businesses to speed up service, improve customer experience and review costs.

There are additional reasons for reviewing visibility within a supply chain:

1. Increased Efficiency:

Working with a partner that understands the need for efficiency can help you increase it within the business. By exposing real-time data and full visibility of stock movements, your technicians always know what parts are available for collection.

Visibility in a supply chain not only reduces stock loss but also provides clarity over what jobs can be completed.

2. Saves Time and Money:

When you outsource to an external partner, you can save a great deal of time and money by cutting down on wasted stock. Finding suitable space to store your products, a means for transporting them, and qualified staff to carry out the dispatch process can quickly add up.

Outsourced providers can leverage economies of scale, and scope, to provide compelling value-added services.

3. Consultancy:

Exploring more effective ways to manage and improve the supply chain could take up a great deal of time.

The same goes for hiring a team of staff and providing them with necessary training. Working with a business that invests in spare part visibility can provide you with the information needed to reduce stockholding, while also increasing efficiencies and SLA performance.

4. Scalability and Flexibility:

Outsourcing some of your supply chain management needs can lead to more flexibility to scale up or down, accommodating your current, and future, business requirements. As your business needs change, you’ll need to be able to adapt accordingly.

Not having enough space, manpower, or transportation could prove detrimental to your business.

By working with an outsourced company, you have access to their knowledge and resources, which means expert help in developing a more extensive and appropriate infrastructure.

5. Adapt to Customer Demand:

Customers now demand 100% uptime of technology in the field and are intolerant of failure. To achieve this, businesses are required to get vital spare parts to field engineers as quickly as possible. At ByBox, we don’t believe this should come at a higher cost, which is why we don’t rely on same-day deliveries.

Our unique technology is paired with app activated locker collection, so engineers can access parts delivered overnight, whenever they need them.

Outsourcing your field service supply chain, focusing on stock management and visibility can mean you’re better equipped to cope with changing business requirementsIn conclusion, outsourcing your field service supply chain, focusing on stock management and visibility can mean you’re better equipped to cope with changing business requirements, shifts in customer demands and changing market conditions.

Using a supplier that offers full visibility and flexible solutions - such as locker delivery - can reduce cost on stock, transportation and overheads. It’s not just about reductions, the right partner can also increase efficiency and customer satisfaction, adding value to your business and reducing the bottom line.

Be social and share

Claudine Mosseri, General Manager, ByBox explains how the use of technology and Big Data has allowed field service to lower emissions and reduce environmental impact...

Simply type the word emissions into Google news, and it’s clear that the issue of what’s coming out of our exhausts has never been so high on the agenda. Obviously, this has a tremendous impact on those who move items and parts around the country daily.

Recent news about the number of vehicle fleets looking at shifting the proportions of their alternative fuel vehicles is just the tip of this iceberg. However, the use of technology and big data has allowed field service to lower emissions and reduce the environmental impact of their, and others’, businesses, beyond simply looking at the fuel sources of their engines.

Operating in the sector that we do, of course we are all aware of the simple fact that moving goods from A to B creates emissions, and the vehicles used in large supply chains are often among the worst polluters. Heavy good vehicles and vans produce, on average 7% of the UK’s overall carbon emissions.

With that being said, the investment in technology and the better use of data has allowed us to find cost and resource effective ways to send replacements. The world is becoming ever more reliant on technological automation, especially given Gartner’s recent prediction that 8.7 billion Internet of Things (IoT) devices will be installed by the end of this year. These connected devices and the data they produce are allowing business to pin point areas of improvement.

 

The industry’s environmental role goes well beyond head office commitments to carbon offsetting.

Our products, such as virtual warehouses, use data so that wherever your parts are, they can be accessed and moved to the right place. For example, in a busy field service supply chain, there will always be a significant amount of stock out in the field.

This might include good stock that an engineer has just picked up or it might also include returns which have just been taken off a customer site. This data tells you precisely what stock you have in the field and where it is. Clever stock systems, big data and tracking allow a logistics manager to raise an order, reroute and group together items, ultimately reducing congestion and reducing carbon emissions.

Away from cities, deliveries still require large vehicles, so to cut down on emissions, many are looking to instead limit their mileage. One approach involves investigating downtime data. For example, when replacing parts for a client, we spotted that typically, within a week of part A breaking and a replacement being issued, part B would also fail.

This allows us to be able to get our engineers to replace part A and part B simultaneously, which cuts down transport times, and ultimately reducing congestion due to fewer vehicles on the road.

 

ByBox has integrated technology and data to every part of its products, with Smart Boxes, our mobile applications, the use of our Thinventory™ platform and Stockonnect which has systematically allowed us to connect devices into our field services. With continuous changes like these occurring and influencing how we live our lives, there is a real demand on supply chains to ensure that when products or parts wear out or fail, they can be fixed or replaced quickly.

Of course, not all of these technological solutions will work for every business. Some face a lack of 24/7 access to their facilities, or have to factor in travel to remote locations. ByBox is lucky: point to point delivery is part of the DNA of the business, so we move the data, not the part.

However, by looking at the big picture and considering the influences of increasing automation on a number of different industries, it is clear that the field services sector has a bright and fascinating role to play in keeping businesses and devices running both effectively and environmentally.

 

---

 

Be social and share

Could the UK consumer’s passion for Internet shopping be heralding in a new era in parts deliveries for field service engineers? Sharon Clancy reports...

UK consumers are renowned as some of - possibly even the - world’s most enthusiastic on-line shoppers. In the process, they have driven up delivery and service standards, raising expectations of what they consider acceptable service from the companies they deal with to new levels.

They expect to order up to 10 p.m. in the evening and receive delivery the next day – some don’t even object to paying for an early delivery.

What they will object to (and quite possibly take their business elsewhere) is if you can’t offer them a one-hour delivery window or a choice of delivery options.

Faced with the complications and costs of providing doorstep-deliveries that come even close to meeting the ever-rising expectations of hundreds of thousands of consumers, on-line retailers have developed a raft of alternative delivery solutions, including locker banks and click-and- collect points at local stores.

Locker banks for through-the-night deliveries to service engineers are not new, of course. What is new is that, thanks to this huge demand for flexible deliveries of Internet purchases, there has been a veritable explosion in the numbers of locker banks throughout the UK.

They’ve become a common site all over the UK – supermarkets, railway stations, fuel stations. Accompanying that, has been more click-and-collect parcels networks at local convenience stores.

 

On the face of it, this might seem a less secure destination for those vital parts, but in fact the delivery companies have invested huge amounts in ensuring those on-line goods end up with the right customers, so this is a less a concern than it might have been in the past.

Of course, getting this sort of collection right requires integration of order-intake and scheduling, but field service companies have plenty of expertise at that.

It also suits, too, those smaller service companies who rather than have a huge parts inventory, will source required parts from on-line parts suppliers and an on as-required basis.

So how do all these delivery solutions work?

Locker banks

ByBox and InPost are the best known of the European locker bank providers. ByBox actually built its business in providing an overnight pre-8 a.m. secure locker service to the field service sector using its own delivery network.

Located at easily -accessible sites such as fuel retailers, railway stations and supermarkets, locker banks are increasingly popular as a click-and-collect choice.

Consumers like them because it puts them back in charge of the delivery.

Engineers will like them for the same reason – they can collect at a convenient time to them and drop off returns (either pre- or -post the last call of the day, for example).

Behind the apparent low-tech façade of locker banks, there’s some clever real-time technology enabling a seamless collection process.

Security is a top priority - suppliers need to have proof that the correct part was delivered to the correct box, for the correct engineer.

 

There are numerous methods of authorising access to an individual – pin coded access, digital signature, QR code.

Some box banks incorporate video camera images as a further security measure – for themselves and their customers.

When the locker transaction is complete, immediate notification is sent to the sender. In the event of any dispute, there’s a record of box activity.

Once goods are delivered to a locker, of course, it’s no longer available until the engineer collects the parts.

It’s a fine line between allowing the engineer maximum flexibility on when to collect the parts and freeing up the locker for future deliveries – of parts or goods to a consumer.

Goods sitting in a locker uncollected benefit no-one and create locker congestion – a particular issued over busy periods such as Christmas and one that is not going to go away as consumer demand for click-and-collect grows.

ByBox’s expertise has been developed providing secure collection points for parts deliveries to field service technicians. The company has manufactured over 57,000 lockers, installed in 20 countries.

It also licences its technology providing turnkey Click-and-Collect solutions as software-as-a-service to global partners – including UK supermarkets.

Its Thinventory solution incorporates an integrated SupplierDirect service, in which stock can be ordered from suppliers and sent directly to their engineer’s Smart Box before 8am the very next day.

Locker customisation options include self-closing doors, integration of engineer signature and image capture, and the option to provide customer support at the locker via a video link to a customer support centre.

Each locker is connected to ByBox Cloud for real-time management of activity, including door openings and configurations.

The Locker server manager connects to each locker via ByBox Cloud to provide real-time communication with each locker, managing openings and configuration.

InPost operates in 16 European countries and has a 1,000 strong UK network of electronic locker banks. The lockers have integrated closed-circuit TV cameras and barcode scanning capability.

Consumers with smartphones can be sent a QR code as collection authorisation, and the box bank’s central console will be able to scan this from the phone’s screen and open the relevant locker door purely on this basis – potentially making the pickup extremely fast.

 

An API (application programming interface) integrates the click-and-collect service into retailer web sites, offering consumers a choice of the five locations nearest to their target address.

Convenient convenience stores

On-line parts distributors are also able to offer an alternative to locker-collection via local convenience stores.

Convenience store chains have enthusiastically signed up for click-and-collect, attracted by the promise of extra footfall into their shops. From the engineer point of view, they are very local and they tend to be open until late evening.

CollectPlus is one of the biggest with a network of over 5,800 local stores in the UK, including Londis, Co-operative McColls, Spar, Nisa and Costcutter.

Customers simply visit the store and sign for their parcel.

Standard parcel size is limited to 60x050050cm and maximum weight is 10kg – mainly due to potential lack of storage space at the store the customer chooses.

Pay extra, and you’re allowed bigger parcels and more weight.

To allay consumer fears about parcels going astray, CollectPlus provides online tracking and, for £1, a signature as proof-of-collection. Insurance of £50 as standard with up to £300 available.

For sellers with high volumes, CollectPlus offers the option of sending customers an email and/or text including a unique collection code.

The customers present this code and proof of ID to collect their parcel - the CollectPlus store and IT systems do the rest.

 

---

 

Be social and share this feature