Simon Hegele
Simon Hegele is a highly specialized provider of logistics services along complex supply chain processes. In the field of healthcare, the company is specialized in the worldwide transport, assembly and commissioning of medical high-tech devices, most of which are large appliances such as computed tomography scanners or radiological facilities. Simon Hegele is the market leader in this segment.
Optimized operational planning by creating a “bidirectional interface”
When a hospital or a practice decides to purchase a new magnetic resonance tomography (MRT) or another medical device for imaging diagnostics, the transport and the assembling constitute a special logistical challenge. Simon Hegele has the required knowhow and equipment for such high-tech transports as well as specially trained technicians to take these devices to their destination safely, to assemble them and to brief the staff.
For the installation the customer service team arranges an appointment with the client and creates an order in SAP SD. Afterwards, the dispatcher creates a CS order with this data and selects a team of at least two technicians who were trained accordingly. Until 2013, the coordination between the customer service and the disposition was handled by telephone and with Excel lists at the three locations in Forchheim, Karlsruhe and Duisburg. Because of the constantly growing customer requirements Simon Hegele decided to optimize the operational planning with a field service management software. The test version of mobileX-Dispatch convinced the logistics service provider to introduce the field service management software in the healthcare division.
Since summer 2014, 15 dispatchers and three customer service officers use mobileX-Dispatch to plan the worldwide assignments of 120 technicians. In doing so, the graphical operational planning serves as a “bidirectional interface” between the two departments. Colleagues do not have to check up on the phone anymore since the available appointments and technicians are now visible for both teams at a glance. This way, customer service officers can pass on the technician’s name and his qualification to their customers directly after the operational planning.
The right technician in the right place
Two to three technicians are needed for each transport and assembly on site. They usually require ten days on average for an order. Every order – an assembly, a move or a disassembly – consists of several processes which are assigned to the individual employees. According to the task requirements of the process a skill matching via mobileX-Dispatch helps to select the suitable technician. The technicians are trained and certified for the respective products by the manufacturers. In mobileX-Dispatch these qualifications are stored as an extract of the HCM master data in SAP.
The technicians receive their orders with the operational data via mail. They fill in their feedback reports on paper. For the future it is planned to create a mobile connection for this process as well and to further optimize the technical field service.
The introduction of mobileX-Dispatch has significantly improved the process of the operational planning for us. Thanks to the “bidirectional interface” the customer service and dispatching team now have the same view on the available resources. This way, we can offer our customers a faster and better service.
Conclusion
In the future, technical devices are supposed to be planned via mobileX-Dispatch by the dispatchers as well to ensure an even more comprehensive resource planning.
Simon Hegele Gesellschaft für Logistik und Service mbH is one of the largest logistics service providers in Germany with annual sales of €200 million. The service areas at the logistics company range from production-synchronised procurement through manufacturing supply to worldwide distribution logistics, as well as installation and commissioning on-site. The company has an extensive global presence with over 2,500 employees at 24 locations nationwide and an additional four locations in England, Turkey, Australia, and the USA.