Best Practices for Utility Field Management
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Utility field management is challenging because it’s like an octopus that has its tentacles integrated into many other areas of the business. From taking calls, to sourcing components and equipment, to dispatching crews, it involves a lot of moving parts. And that was pre-pandemic; now, things are even trickier.
Luckily, there are a few things that utilities can implement to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their processes.
Tips for Optimizing Utility Field Management Processes
According to this article from Energy Central, there are 4 things that can be done to improve utility field management.
- Consider a system upgrade. Many utility companies have dispatch systems that are outdated. These old “systems” – like spreadsheets or paper logs (or even sticky notes, yuck!) – tend to lack integration and do not facilitate information sharing. Cloud-based software systems can solve this problem relatively easily.
- Utilize mobile time-tracking tools. Manually keeping tabs on crews is a waste of time. New mobile tools can be deployed that automate this tracking function as well as provide increased management visibility into workorders.
- Deploy a digital inventory management solution. These tools help centralize and automate the inventorying and tracking of components and parts, making it easier for employees to find what they are looking for and reduce unnecessary trips to the warehouse.
- Consider implementing one or more customer collaboration tools. These are generally online tools that enable inspections, customer Q&A, and product demonstrations to be conducted virtually. They are effective because it reduces person-to-person contact, which is extremely important in this new post-COVID world.
The bottom line is that utility field management is an area in dire need of upgrading for many in the industry. Improvements in this area can help boost productivity, optimize organizational learning and collaboration, maximize employee and customer safety, reduce costs, enhance customer satisfaction, and even improve emergency preparedness. For these reasons, the time is now to move these processes into the 21st century!
