Embarking on New Technology Partnerships Can Be Risky

Picture the scene: A Facilities Manager at a supermarket chain has been in his role for 10 years; times have changed and technology has evolved, but the manual process of monitoring the machines via a 'staff will alert us when something is faulty' system has done the job with only a 'handful' of issues since his first day back in 2005. His team of 32 staff know the system like the back of their hands, and any issue can be resolved within a couple of days because Malcolm in IT knows all the machine manuals off by heart, mostly. However, an enthusiastic consultant has just been employed to assess the energy consumption and cost effectiveness of all machines within the business, because the economy isn't being kind and the Board of Directors have decided to take action.

Fear spreads across the department. Nothing needs to change. Everything is just fine as it is thank you very much. 

Mr Consultant puts together a proposal that is agreed by the Directors and filtered down to the Facilities Manager and his team. Without even reading the proposal, he writes a big fat NO on the front and sends it back. What does this Consultant know? He has only been here 5 minutes and already he is proposing a complete overhaul of the monitoring system. 

What our Facilities Manager doesn't realise, is that what Mr Consultant is proposing will not only make his life easier, but will benefit the entire company.

His proposal is to implement a Machine Management Software that will allow all machines in all the stores to feed all their data back into one simple, easy-to-manage system. The fridges, ovens, lighting, conveyor belts, hand dryers and even the staff coffee machine will all be speaking the same language and feeding their real-time status back into a simple and easy to understand platform. Any faults can be predicted and resolved before they happen, due to the system knowing the lifecycle and common faults of each machine individually. If required, the system can predict a fault, notify an engineer and provide details of the part needed.

Not only can the system monitor the effectiveness of the machines, it can monitor the effectiveness of the engineer. A separate Productivity Management System can be implemented to gauge which engineer is closest to the site geographically using GPS technology, assess if that engineer is qualified to fix the problem, estimate the time it will take them to fix the fault to ensure it is in line with the SLA, and automate engineer dispatch based on these individual factors. 

So, if our Facilities Manager had read the proposal, he would realise that he could not only fix faults faster and more effectively, but he could prevent them from happening all together. When he has to feed back at the end of the week how much stock was lost due to the fridges being too warm, how many complaints were made due to there being water on the floor, or how often the 'Out of Order' sign came out, he would be able to report back that these issues were at an all-time low. When asked how many times the SLA was breached due to an engineer being sent from 30 miles away when there was another engineer down the road, or asked why the wrong part was ordered because an order number was put into a spreadsheet incorrectly, he can breathe a sigh of relief and say "None!"

It can be scary and risky implementing a new technology into your business, people generally tend to hate change and will always campaign to keep things as they are. However, if you are open to new ideas, excited to move with the times, and willing to take advantage of what incredible technology is out there, your staff will be too. You will increase efficiency, save money, consume less energy and be a better business.

Does this sound like something your business would benefit from? If so, let us help you with the transition and see what we can achieve together.