2. From where do the internal efficiencies come?
The drive for improved internal efficiencies is nothing new and for any company there
will be a history of eficiency initiatives. However the law of diminishing returns (see
Figure 1) is in force and any company wishing to progress in improving internal
efficiencies will not achieve it by repeatedly returning to the areas already addressed as
the magnitude of benefits will not be derived. The challenge all companies face is
‘where next’?
Figure 1
If a review is made of Companies
who have gained a competitive
advantage, often they have taken
advantage of a new combination of
technologies or ways of working.
They have looked for a new enabler
that can give them a way of
increasing efficiency, and if at all
possible, improving the product or
service to the customer at the same
time.
Field systems are iust such an enable.
3. Why field systems?
Field systems combine two areas of technology that have been in existence separately
for some time - telecommunications and handheld terminals. The development of the
infrastructure for cellular phone, which has now reached the stage of having vey good
coverage over most populated areas, has meant that it is a new tool available to use to
communicate with the work force. Similarly, development of handheld devices has
reached the stage where they are both cheap and sufficiently powerful to be considered
as a realistic and cost effective tool to use.
This ability to equip the field worker with this tool is important for any utility
organisation as the nature of the business is ‘geographic’. If the question is asked
‘where are the customers?’ the answer is ‘geographically dispersed’, If the question is
asked ‘where are the assets that deliver the product to the customer?’ the answer again
is ‘geographically dispersed’. If a further question is asked ‘where are the workers, who
are operating and maintaining the asset to provide the service to the customer?’ the
answer should be geographically dispersed. Currently the workforce is based in offices
or depots and for each task to be undertaken on the assets, or customer visited the
worker has to leave from the office or depot because all the job information and support
data about the task is only available there.
Using field systems as a new way of working can be introduced, where the field worker
is considered to have a mobile office. His information on tasks plus support data is
given to him on the handheld, and is delivered via the telecommunications links, The
field system is an enabler to let the field worker operate in a new and more efficient
way. The benefits from introducing this way of working will be likely to yield a
significant return as it is being introduced into a ‘green field’ area, i.e. an area where
there was nothing before. In the graph of the law of diminishing returns it is early in
the curve giving big increases in efficiency for small amounts of investment.
