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Increasing ROI of Field Service Engineer Labor Costs – Part 1
Most companies experience “inefficiency pains” as they grow. Inefficiency pains occur when the methods that were once used effectively to attain goals while a company was smaller, no longer yield the same result; the previous methods that were in place do not scale in proportion to growth. Further, if the company does not properly address the underlying issues behind its inefficiency pains, it will begin to experience negative impacts on profit margins and operations. In an effort to mitigate these impacts, often times, companies invest large amounts of time and money to increase & develop their workforce and improve & streamline their operations.
Customer Services Program Challenges
In early 2019, we approached a Customer Services Region Vice President from a major health technology company to discuss how our framework & software technology, 4SightGPS could benefit his program. Our client was responsible for leading a team of 22 Field Service Engineers (FSEs) to service 3 modalities: Computer Tomography (CT), Magnetic Resonance (MR), and Image Guided Therapy (IGT) for multiple hospitals in his region.
• Long timelines to accomplish *FSE productivity• Low first visit fix rates for less experienced FSEs, • Increased workloads for Senior Level Engineers, and • High Senior FSE overtime labor costs
Our client communicated a strong need to find a solution that would address his problems without negatively impacting staffing levels or service quality. Our team found the complexities involved with solving our client’s problem to be very exciting and we eagerly took on the challenge!
*FSE productivity is defined as the ability for an FSE to independently perform Preventative Maintenance (PM) and resolve service calls for a modality.
Organizational Goal Attainment Program
For organizations, the benefits of our framework and software technology are realized through the implementation of a measurable “Goal Attainment Program.” A Goal Attainment Program focuses the efforts of all stakeholders toward attaining organizational goals and allows stakeholders to understand how their efforts contribute to the accomplishment of their goals and how well they are performing against preestablished performance criteria. Additionally, decision makers understand the adjustments that they need to make to keep their programs on track.
Understanding the root cause that hinders Goal Attainment is key to our success.
Goal Attainment Program Development Phase 1 - Working Session
What we did
Discovery
For the Discovery portion of the working session, we met with a representative group of Field Service Engineers from our client’s program. The team possessed varying levels of experience and expertise and we facilitated discussions to understand the challenges that they faced while working to reach organizational, program, customer, and career goals. From Discovery, we were able to capture the following key issues that were contributing to our client’s operational challenges:
• Ineffective onboarding process, • Ineffective technical training, • Insufficient mentoring & leadership engagement, • Inadequate career progression planning, and • Inadequate succession planning
The Discovery portion is very critical because it allows our team to understand how & where we need to apply the 4SightGPS philosophy and framework to address operational inefficiencies & productivity issues.
4SightGPS Training
For the training portion of the working session, we educated the team on our 4SightGPS philosophy and framework and showed them how to apply it to reach their organizational, program, customer, and career goals. Additionally, we educated the team on the interrelations between their organizational, program, customer, and career goals. With this knowledge, the team understood how their day-to-day efforts & activities could impact the success of their company & customers as well as their own personal success.
When we conduct 4SightGPS training our client’s don’t just benefit from increased efficiencies & productivity, they gain an understanding of how to apply it to their everyday lives.
Breakout
For the Breakout portion of the working session we pulled out the flip charts and worked with the team to capture the organizational, program, customer, and career goals that the team felt were critical. Next, we worked with the team to develop detailed measurable plans with to meet their goals.
Our expertise and framework played a pivotal role in helping the team think through the process of developing solutions to address their challenges.
Team participation and buy-in are essential to the success of a Goal Attainment Program
The ability for the team to discuss their problems and develop their own solutions, gave them a real sense of empowerment and a new found appreciation for the value that they brought to their organization. Additionally, as the working session progressed, we noticed an increase in the team’s connectedness to their company’s mission.
Though this session required a lot of detailed thought & analysis, it was very fun and engaging. Our goal for this session was to minimize the time commitment of our client’s team and we were very successful in meeting this objective. This was made possible because of the high-level of energy, innovation, & engagement that our client’s team brought to the session and the extensive upfront prep work and planning that completed by our team.
Lastly, we conducted a “post survey” at the end of the session and the results were impressive. For example, the post survey results showed significant increases in the percentage of respondents who “Strongly Agreed” that they understood how their efforts contributed to the accomplishment of critical organizational, program, customer, and career goals. Of which, there was a 200% increase in respondents who “Strongly Agreed” that they understood how their efforts contributed to the accomplishment of their organizational goals.
Increasing FSE ROI Labor Cost Series - Part 2 Preview
The information that we obtained from our working sessions will provide the foundation for our next phases. Join us for Part 2 of this series, where we will discuss our next steps in the development of an organizational Goal Attainment Program.
At Directed Analytics we specialize in developing and implementing Goal Attainment programs for organizations. With an established Goal Attainment Program leaders and staff members are able to understand how their efforts contribute to the success of their organizations.
At Directed Analytics we’ve created 4SightGPS, the philosophy, framework, and Controllable Software Solution for accelerating Complicated Goal Attainment.
Contact us at info@directedanalytics.com to learn more about Goal Attainment Programs.
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Increasing ROI of Field Service Engineer Labor Costs – Part 2
Increasing ROI for Field Service Engineer Labor Costs – Part 3
Great “Value Add” starts with a true understanding of the problem. Directed Analytics experts work with the world’s leading organizations to accelerate their Goal Attainment.
