Are your operations transparent?

Are your operations transparent?

WHAT is happening right now?

This question may arise for many business executives when they need to complete projects or other on-site services with their company that they may not personally attend for any reason. It is still relatively easy to manage one project or activity of this nature either in Excel spreadsheets or e-mails, but as the number of projects increases, the number of activities, deadlines, responsibilities, worksheets or other documents are increasing too. Or let's take a realistic example; if a company dispenses vending machines, coffee machines or other similar equipment, even in the form of leasing, they must ensure that they are regularly filled, maintained and repaired. That doesn't sound complicated, does it? So let's just think about the task of managing this activity, in case say 500 machines...

  • Travel to 500 places
  • Perform thousands of maintenance tasks
  • Hundreds of thousands of parts to handle - warehousing, logistics, purchasing, shipping, replacements, warranty service...
  • Multiple teams at different geographies are doing the same job at the same time...

All of these activities must be managed at the same time and preferably without errors. This makes the activity chain much more complex! It is impossible to keep all of these things in mind, and to manage them without the right tools. Without proper management, there is a risk of error, and the quality of service cannot be guaranteed.

Service related processes

Be it virtually any operational activity, they can certainly be organized as parts of activity chains. Of course, if the individual projects or other operational processes are only similar in a large scale, it is not expedient to organize these activities one by one, mapping all the elements of an activity. However, with the same boundary conditions, we can still handle the various larger units and get many questions answered. Alternatively, we can apply a controlling approach to ensure that each activity is profitable. Examples include:

 

  • Working hours, workdays
  • Calculated working hours / working days vs. real working hours / working days
  • Required tools
  • Necessary raw materials
  • Procurement management
  • Deadlines, Schedule
  • Manage subcontracting payments
  • And others

There could be a couple of other points to mention, but perhaps the above list is also a good indication. Of course, the more complex a project and the more of these run at the same time, the more important it is to manage them properly in a system that can handle all these needs - and is customized to fit your company's operations.
You can implement the control of any repetitive project-like activity, that is, if we look at our previous example of continuous maintenance, we can see that they are repetitive tasks which must always be the same. So while we can't call them "classic" projects, they still have many similarities, so they can be designed and controlled in the same way.


Managerial regards

We'd like to present some real life examples regarding managerial key points pertaining to the previous activities and operational challenges.

  • Assigning jobs, assigning repetitive tasks (eg. maintenance) to employees - transparently, accountably, or automatically
  • Manage worksheets - without these certifications, the work done cannot be billed!
  • What is happening with which machine? What is the maintenance period of the machine (eg first or second year maintenance? Complete renovation every three years? 1-3-6-X monthly regular maintenance? Maybe more at once?)
  • Who did the job? What parts and accessories did you bring with you? Which of these has been used? Unused parts have been returned to the warehouse?
  • Have a machine been replaced? Has the machine been returned to the warehouse? Do you have warranty work to do?
  • Was subcontracting adequate? Receipts for Completion Received? Can the invoices be paid? Do we owe or claim?

It's no coincidence that completing these tasks and knowing exactly the issues above are essential for any manager or business owner! A properly parameterized workflow system is capable of executing the above workflows according to your needs and producing real-time reports for those responsible - so you get immediate feedback on every event, no more forgotten deadlines, fewer "lost" parts and competent people always know, where, with whom, what is happening.

That's why we recommend the xFLOWer Cloud workflow system, which solves these problems. See the best solution for you on our website by clicking here!