All too often the load and complexities of work placed on support teams can result in people and processes failing. If the failure is on a mission-critical application, a piece of equipment or a task that should have been completed, then the ramifications to the business can be substantial.
Most organisations have relationships with both customers and suppliers; invariably there will be contractual obligations. Missed renewal or cancellation dates are a costly failing if the appropriate actions were not fulfiled.
In a preventative maintenance environment planning the work load is critical in order to minimise breakdowns and excessive depreciation of assets, whether equipment or facilities. Timely, routine repairs circumvent fewer large-scale repairs and reduce secondary failures.
The most important reason for task scheduling is to reduce costs.
RMS Task Manager can help to reduce costs in a number of ways:
Can schedule and control any known repetitive job
RMS Task Scheduler can control any planned or repetitive action for a job that can be scheduled in advance of the due date. Tasks are set up in advance, released according to the timetable and then tracked through to completion via the RMS Service Desk.
These jobs could be as diverse as the maintenance of plant and equipment, painting a building, a cleaning program, component replacement, contract renewals, health checks etc. RMS Task Scheduler has SLA controls for monitoring work and providing management with service level reports.
The system has 3 main components:
Defines the job details and frequency to the system and provides reports. A list of all jobs currently defined can be viewed. From the list, jobs can be added, updated and deleted. Query and sort options allow the jobs to be displayed by customer, team, date and description.
This process runs continually and releases tasks to the Service Desk that have fallen due.
Tasks that have been released are tracked by the Service Desk and can be updated/viewed/changed as appropriate.
A missed service or repair can also impact safety and quality issues. Failing to meet Health & Safety guidelines for tasks such as PAT testing on electrical equipment can also impact insurance premiums.
Surveys suggest that over 70% of daily tasks are repetitive. The key to managing repetitive tasks is scheduling and execution. Scheduling should be automated to the maximum extent possible. Using a mechanism to control any planned or repetitive actions that can be scheduled in advance will help to minimise many of the risks to the business identified above.
