Many don’t view field service as a way to help your company reach its sustainability objectives. But with greater attention on the environment, more and more companies are focused on how their business practices affect the environment and what can be done to lessen the impact. In fact, half of best-in class companies already have a service-specific sustainability initiative in place, according to Aberdeen research. See how Schneider Electric solves sustainability with field service. So maybe it’s time to take a closer look at how your service team can contribute?
Service leaders often look at their team’s performance from the cost perspective. Can we keep fewer parts in stock? Can we optimize routing so technicians can fit more jobs in a day? Interestingly, solving for cost savings can also help reach sustainability objectives. For example, when you optimize drive times between appointments, it helps technicians complete more jobs and saves on fuel costs. From the environmental perspective, optimizing drive times helps curb air pollution. Similarly, for parts management, when a technician sends in parts for refurbishment instead of throwing them out, the company saves the cost of buying brand new parts. From the sustainability perspective, refurbishing parts helps minimize waste. And the list goes on.
Here are five important areas where service execution benefits companies’ sustainability objectives:
- Equipment efficiencies and reduced energy consumption
- Reducing carbon footprint, costs, and mean time to repair through efficient dispatching of technicians or remote service
- Smarter parts management cuts costs, waste and improves planning
- Digitizing service processes reduces paper, ink, and waste
- New service models enabling sustainability
If you put a sustainability lens on field service operations, there is a lot of alignment with what field service leaders are already doing to optimize service execution. And the right service execution management solution can help you optimize processes to get there faster.
For example, with an accurate record of all your as-maintained equipment, you can keep track of your installed base and make sure you deliver maintenance at the right time for every piece of equipment. Maintaining assets at the right time helps increase equipment lifespan and performance.
Another example is digital parts management. It can help get the right parts to a technician on time for maintenance jobs and track old parts for refurbishing. If the parts management process is broken, technicians may instead do overnight orders for brand-new parts and throw away old ones instead of refurbishing. This is both expensive for the company and taxing on the environment.
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