More and more manufacturers are adopting a mobile workforce to distinguish themselves from their competitors and ensure high quality of service. It's one of the most efficient solutions out there for meeting customer demand and providing a positive experience for clients.
But workforce mobility by itself can be difficult to manage. That's why manufacturers are now turning to mobile workforce management software as a way to seamlessly direct employees and assist them in their mission to deliver excellent service to customers.
So, what benefits can a manufacturer gain from using a specialized software solution to manage their mobile workforce?
Here are the three key categories:
- Aid employees in their mission to provide great customer service
- Reduce the twin costs of time and money while maximizing gains
- Enable data collection that can drive long-term company strategies
Read on as we delve into the nuts and bolts of how mobile workforce software can enhance the efficiency of employees and increase its value to your manufacturing company.
1. Manage Your Workforce Mobility for Employee Performance
No matter what manufacturing industry, maintaining productive employee performance is the best way for a manufacturing company to not only gain new customers but ensure repeat ones. Cultivating productive day-to-day activities through mobile technology will increase employee communication and availability.
With the ability to communicate in real-time, technicians can submit requests to their managers for immediate approval or feedback. Between the ease of scheduling and faster response time with field techs, manufacturers can increase customer service. The number one way to achieve high-quality customer service is by giving your employees the assistance that they need to provide it.
Here is how mobile workforce management software increases productivity with employees:
- Better management of customer projects and timelines. When customer time is respected, they will be more likely to recommend your service to others in the future.
- Minimize delay in reporting status updates. No one likes downtime. But if delays ever do affect service, the best way to mitigate the damage is via transparent communication with customers.
- Provide more accurate data on work completed against invoicing. Communication is also essential when it comes to payments. Customers like to know what it is they're paying for, and the more detail, the better.
- Empower employees with the tools they need to provide great service. When employees have the support of their organization, there's no limit to the quality of the service that they give to your customers.
2. Maximize Processes With Mobile Workforce Management to Improve the Bottom Line
Your manufacturing company might have the most dedicated and skilled workforce in the industry, but without active management, all that talent will go to waste. With the right management process in place, costs are minimal, and employee effort maximizes.
Mobile workforce management software helps managers to determine how best to utilize personnel while keeping alert to changes in the field. This software drives better business intelligence to align and accelerate the decision-making process.
The following are the key methods by which managers can benefit:
- Minimize “white spaces” in the schedule, prepare technicians with the right skills and equipment needed, plus much more. Say goodbye to the old days of making a schedule by hand. Mobile workforce management software makes it easy to avoid gaps in service and ensure that every employee will have access to what they need to perform their jobs.
- Improve time resolution, increasing field technician efficiencies.With workforce management software that tracks tasks and location, there's no need to round up or down to the nearest 15 minutes or half hour. Now you can get an accurate report of completed and current tasks down to the second.
- Real-time visibility into work execution and real-time notification on the job completed with associated labor codes. Workforce management software can provide a real-time report on exactly what tasks your employees are doing and what they've completed already, along with any additional information that your management team may need to know.
- Streamlined user experience with automated status updates and device notifications. Along with having access to all of the above information, the right software will package it such that it's easily accessible. Users should also be able to receive alerts via voice activations and audio notifications.
- Supports multiple devices. For the truly mobile workforce, a manager should be able to use any device handy to monitor employee performance. That's why good management software can be used not only from the desktop but a laptop, tablet, and phone as well. Plus, managers can access equipment remotely with machine-to-machine technology.
- Understand ‘cost-to-serve’ to improve profitability. How much does it cost to provide service to a client? Let management software do the calculations for you.
3. Real-Time Mobile Workforce Statistics for Continuously Optimized Solutions
Intelligently determining the direction of company strategy to optimize growth is easier said than done. But with the availability of highly accurate data, opportunities can be identified when tracking KPIs such that it's possible to act in the face of changing conditions quickly.
When using mobile workforce management software to collect data, manufacturers are able to improve prediction and identify areas of improvement.
Here are the advantages that manufacturers will be sure to accrue:
- Improved collaboration with stakeholders.As a company grows, the number of people with a stake in its operations also increases. Ensure that everyone is on the same page with easily generated reports.
- Inventory management, which can help executives accurately forecast inventory and staff requirements based on historical data to help reduce costs.Proper inventory management is crucial to maintaining the effectiveness of the workforce. By being able to refer to historical data, executives will be able to ascertain what was required and when thereby gaining a better idea of where company resources are spent.
- Tracking of field service teams and individual performance to drive productivity improvements. Employee monitoring can aid in isolating the best and worst performers and identifying what helps or hinders them in their jobs. The first step in improving productivity is by determining where we can make these improvements.
- Methodically applying root cause analysis techniques to missed business goals to achieve better planning policies and improved service processes. Despite the best efforts of your team, sometimes it might not be possible to reach a set goal. If that occurs, the best defense is to be proactive in analyzing the root causes of the failure and planning for its success in the future.
- Standardizing the visibility across your organization to resource planning and field execution to predict future resource needs. When everyone has access to resource planning information, they will better be able to provide actionable input into the allocation of resources in the future.
Why Mobile Workforce Management Software Is More Than Just a Tool
Workforce mobility can transform the operation of your manufacturing business, and the best way to make use of all the benefits that this modern organizational style provides is through management software designed for the unique needs of the mobile workforce.
With mobile workforce management software, your manufacturing company will be able to save money, save time, achieve superior customer service and optimize growth. There's no better way to solidify your place in the manufacturing industry and guarantee gains in the future.
Download our complimentary solution-based SAP White Paper Thriving in the Digital Economy by Adapting to Digital Transformation, and learn more about how the right data connectivity and dashboard deployment can help manage business performance.
