Nomadia > Case Studies > Optimizing Field Technician Scheduling with IoT: A Bubendorff Case Study

Optimizing Field Technician Scheduling with IoT: A Bubendorff Case Study

Applicable Industries

Equipment & Machinery

Applicable Functions

Procurement

Use Cases

Inventory Management

Services

System Integration

About The Customer

Bubendorff is a company with over 50 years of experience in the design, manufacture, and sale of electrical rolling shutters. The company has more than 650 employees and holds over 60 active patents. Bubendorff is ISO 9001 and NF Fermetures certified and has more than 50 technicians. The company offers a 7-year warranty on parts, labor, and travel and has more than 4 million shutters under warranty. Bubendorff sells its products to building professionals in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, and Spain.

The Challenge

Bubendorff, a company specializing in electrical rolling shutters for the past 50 years, was facing a significant challenge in optimizing the scheduling of its field technician rounds in France. The company, which offers an exclusive free warranty on parts, labor, and travel, had been making service routes since 1998. Initially, they had 9 technicians who divided the territory among themselves. However, by the early 2000s, callouts were running at approximately 15,000 per year. The era of paper-based routes and disparate tools was no longer sustainable. Bubendorff needed a comprehensive, reliable, and ergonomic solution that would allow it to fully leverage cartography to optimize the management of scheduling appointments for its field technicians.

The Solution

After conducting a market analysis, Bubendorff selected Nomadia and its flagship scheduling optimization solution, Opti-Time. The tool was implemented and customized to include parameters such as callout lead-times (5 days if the parts are in stock, 10 days if a part has to be remanufactured), as well as the technicians’ skill sets and availability. When a user detects a fault with his electric shutter, he contacts his installer who relays the request to Bubendorff’s customer service department. The request is logged by a data entry assistant with the shutter's serial number, the customer's details, and the nature of the fault. The callout data are geolocated in real-time and replicated in the Opti-Time scheduling interface. The system then optimizes all the pending appointments overnight, enabling the scheduling assistants to contact the users directly the next morning.

Operational Impact

The implementation of Opti-Time has significantly improved the daily operations of Bubendorff's repair and customer departments. The solution's ease of use, reliability, and performance have allowed scheduling assistants to confidently propose logical callouts to field technicians, who receive their callout sheets at the end of the day along with the confirmation of their next day’s schedule. This has not only improved the working conditions for the teams but also increased the callout appointment scheduling capacity. The solution was operational in a short time, enabling Bubendorff to improve the processing of callout requests in the long term. This has resulted in increased satisfaction among directors, scheduling assistants, technicians, and customers.

Quantitative Benefit