TELECOM FIELD OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT CONSULTING
Telecom Management Consulting - Field Operations
Objectives
- Increasing the overall performance of Field Operations.
- Increasing service levels to both residential and business customers.
- Reducing operating costs.
- Enhancing communication with the Field Technicians.
- Increasing employee satisfaction.
- Improving quality of work by reducing rework and repeat levels.
- Improving customer service and satisfaction levels.
- Reducing contractor costs.
Assessment Findings
Telecommunications Field Operations Assessment Findings
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Work Time
-
Non-effective Time
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Travel Time
- Technicians did not follow existing policies and procedures when preparing for a service call.
- Technicians were not solving the problem on the first visit, which resulted in rework due to skill issues or subpar job quality.
- Technicians would will keep ticket orders open for 2-3 hours before informing dispatch which then by-passed the whole automated dispatch system process.
- Technicians were going on completed jobs causing rework and multiple truck rolls.
- There was a lack of tracing information on work orders by previous technicians associated with jobs.
- Extra work was being completed with no charge to the end-use customer.
- Lack of effective job assignment led to technicians repeatedly calling the Dispatch Center for their next assignment.
- Mismatched capacities was caused by not enough work being dispatched for the hours of work available for the technicians.
- Technicians came back early to the Work Center due to a perceived lack of work.
- Not matching the tickets to the Technician’s skill set resulting in lower customer service and satisfaction levels.
- Technician profiles were not updated by the Field Directors, generating issues with the dispatching of the technicians and generating more calls at the Dispatch Center.
- First-Line Managers avoided following-up with their Technicians (they keep to a minimum the number of visits to the technicians on a monthly basis).
- First-Line Managers believed that since their people have been assigned from the Dispatch Center that they know what they need to do.
- First-Line Managers generally spent almost all of their time doing administrative activities in their offices, rather than being proactive with their people in-the-field .
- In planning the use of resources, the estimated work times are averages of historical performances and have not been developed based upon the pure time of the activities.
PVA's Response
- Improved individual, district and departmental performances resulting in the recovery of hours per technician per day.
- Reinvested these recovered hours to improve customer service and quality of service.
- Clarified roles and responsibilities of the First-Line Managers to spend more valuable time in-the-field with their technicians identifying and resolving operational issues.
- Established structured communication between the Dispatch Center and Field Operations to ensure that all First-Line Managers are kept informed of the daily workload of the technicians and can make necessary adjustments as required.
- Designed and implemented a standard performance measurement process based on an earned hour calculation and other critical Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s).
- Developed and implemented a resource planning methodology based on volumes and estimated hours to assess the up-coming workload requirements as opposed to using historical information.
- Designed and implemented weekly executive reporting (Balanced Scorecards) of Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s), trends and performance variances.
- Transferred hours into capital work through increased preventive maintenance and network activities.
The Results
Hover over graphs for more information
Some significant results obtained by our Client included:
- Increased load factors in terms of tickets per day for Technicians (25% improvement in tickets per day).
- Maintaining customer due dates while handling increased volumes resulted in improved levels of customer service and satisfaction.
- Sharing resources across geographical areas to increase overall performance.
- Contractor work brought in-house.
- 40% improvement in overtime levels.
Improvement in Supervisory Activities
Telecommunications Field Operations Supervisory Activities
PRE-PROJECT
3%
1%
61%
5%
30%
POST-PROJECT
40%
4%
36%
10%
10%
- Active Supervision
- Training
- Administration
- Travel Time
- Available
Realized Savings
During the course of the project
Installation & Repair
Standard Hr/Worked Hr
Cable Repair
Earned Hr/Worked Hr
Long Term Work Continuation
- A Client Coordinator was trained and certified during the PVA engagement.
- A quarterly audit program of the new Management Operating System was developed and implemented with the Coordinator.
- PVA conducted audits over 18 months to ensure compliance to the continued utilization of the Management Operating Systems.
- These Audits resulted in recommendations and action plans to further identify additional opportunities for improving operations.
