Enables better use of engineers' time
June 1st 2006

ByBox, specialists in overnight parts distribution, has expanded its portfolio of services to further increase efficiency in the field. Simply called Goldfish - or flexible scheduling - the service facilitates better use of an engineer's time and reduces service failures due to engineer overrun.

A problem in the field service industry is the over allocation of jobs to engineers so they are unable to fulfil their job allocation for the day.

Most carrier's despatch systems require customers to print labels as service calls are received. Parts are then allocated for the next day's work without taking into account of the status of the jobs currently in hand and whether any of 'today's' jobs are likely to move into the next day. Working closely with its customers, ByBox developed its Goldfish software to instantly address this problem.

Customers are now able to print labels consisting simply of a barcode containing their job reference. At the end of the day customers complete the allocation of jobs to engineers for the following day. This allocation file is then transferred electronically to ByBox at which point ByBox scans the goldfish label to create the actual despatch label to route the consignment to the engineer who has the capacity to do the job and to whom the job has been allocated.