Real t ime access to data , anywhere and at any t ime , thanks to the ma i ntenance team automat i on apps
The recent years have witnessed na exponential growth of mobile devices, both in number and in potential. From simple phones created “just to call”, smartphones are now always connected to the world, thus allowing real time access to data. And this is the main interpretation of this innovation: real time access to data, anywhere and at any time. By focusing on the lift sector, this is invaluable from the technicians point of view, naturally leading to the demand by the entire lift market for “maintenance team automation apps.”
To respond to this request, firstly a careful analysis of the required functions is necessary, bearing in mind that the development of any software of acertain logical complexity has a beginning but does not have an end and also considering the worldwide software ecosystem, which the apps must necessarily interface with (Google Maps and WhatsApp just to name a few), is always evolving.
But what does “maintenance team automation app” mean exactly? What should the app do or, rather, what should it allow users to do? What positive impact can it have for the back office?
As mentioned before, any software development of a certain logical complexity has a beginning but does not have an end. Consequently, the answer to this question is an “open” answer, both concerning future developments and heterogeneity because each lift company has its own operating mode, we could say a certain operational family feeling, which must connect seamlessly, and not forcefully, with the app; think, for example, of the methods of calculating the maintenance rounds, which are often dissimilar between the various companies. A simple, or rather simplistic, answer to the question “what should the app allow you to do?” could be the option of “managing” the work performed on the lift installations. But what is meant by “managing”? This far from specific verb leads to free subjective interpretation which does not dovetail with an analysis which must necessarily be objective.
The answer would seem even simpler than the question: the technician receives the intervention data on the smartphone and carries it out, declaring the beginning and the end using the appropriate buttons. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? No, it’s actually not that simple.
Telephone calls are among the most complex types of issues, both because the call is unpredictable (except in the case of predictive maintenance through the IoT-AI combination which has a high probability of completely preventing the call) and not schedulable (it is not a maintenance visit or a repair) and because it often presupposes the need to carry out diagnoses, even rapid ones, of the problem, requiring the presence of several technicians in the most complex cases.
If we then add the need for real-time communication between Company headquarters and technicians and between technicians themselves, the picture is complete. Or, better still, it would be complete if after the technicians’ work there were no back office procedures, the company management software must perform the operational phases of billing, including an attached report, the issue of the repair estimate based on the suggestions provided by technicians, updating of plant and warehouse cards. I almost forgot to mention that the automatic time collection is also essential, as it is essential to be able to verify, from headquarters or from the app, the intervention currently being carried out by each technician to determine its physical position (with the aid of GPS such information can arrive even if the technician is on the move). It is also important to beable to take photos or record videos on the system and “attach” them to the call, and then be able to view them later both on the app and on site. Last but not least, taking the client’s signature (possibly also with OTP confirmation) and automatically including it to the report. Obviously, the functions described above must work in every place and on every device, with bidirectional data transfer between app and office in real time. Of course, in view of digitizing all business processes, the complete automation of maintenance and back office activities leads to the elimination of any paper support.
But the vision of an app that can be used by technicians to collect intervention data, even if complex, would be considerably reductive. Naturally technicians, having at their disposal such a powerful tool capable of com municating with company data, must not be limited to data collection but must be able to access information in the company management system, in particular the history of the work performed on the lift installation, the diagrams of the installations and any existing estimates. In view of optimizing time and resources, it is important to recognize the system by reading an NFC tag that may be concealed on the maintenance technician’s plate, with the advantage of being certain that the technician has actually visited the system. “Supervisor” management must be one of the functions sembly specific activity (assembly of the electrical part, assembly of the me chanical part) must be indicated as it can green light billing.
Furthermore, there is the need for companies of the same group to share systems between technicians of several companies: in this case, the technician must therefore be able to see and manage not only the systems of the company he belongs to, but also systems of other companies. of the same assigned group. Another essential feature for an app is that it can also be used via a browser, so on any device with a browser. Therefore, as explained, maintenance team au tomation is certainly not attributable (or reducible) to “the technician per forming the intervention data he /she received on the smartphone”. In some respects, the complexity is greater than the realization of an ERP management software, if only for the continuous bi directional data flow, with simultane ous operations on interventions by technicians and the back office, with out considering the calls received from external call centers and inserted au tomatically in the company database with immediate notification to the technician. There are certainly further aspects and functionalities (even advanced) to consider than the ones discussed in this article. However, I hope to have provided an overview of what a maintenance team management app
must foresee in order to make the ac tivities of technicians and the company back office more efficient and effective.
“Supervisor management must be one of the functions of a maintenance team management app, in particular for call assignment, revocation, returned calls management, overview
of activities in progress, which can be consulted both on site and on the move”
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Source: ANACAM Magazine
