Overview
Notice: To return eir equipment using the Blocworx portal click here.
Eir returns thousands of products each year, therefore the tracking of these products is vital. The product returns must be refurbished to control waste management or scrapped if no longer functioning adequately. As a large telecommunications organisation, Eir has numerous shipment channels and outbound shipping stations. For example, these stations include product receiving stations to catalogue and track products received from customers. Eir needed a solution to map the production process of these shipment channels.
A Blocworx client, iQutech, acquired a contract from Eir to provide repair and refurbishment services. To track the production process, iQuTech needed a platform that would control and manage all the complex data of operations. Blocworx was identified as the best workflow management system to manage the field service and refurbishment process due to its flexible station and form builder and vast array of fields and rules that could be chosen from.
Building a tracking system without needing to code
Initially Blocworx mapped the essential processes including data inputs and data outputs. This profiled all the products, channels and service providers. Blocworx then built an inbound shipping station, receiving station, cosmetic inspection station, test and packaging stations and more. Lastly, a rework, scrap and outbound shipping station was curated to map the process of refurbishment., all without having to write a line of code. This framework allowed for multiple data insights to be derived from the system including quality assurance, productivity management and performance management. Additionally, Blocworx created a structure that could set product rules for shipment channels and outbound shipping stations based on business requirements.
Numerous shipment channels and a diverse product portfolio were categorised into one system. The integration of the platform also allowed service partners to utilise the system. Furthermore, the solution also allowed for the generation of data and reports to implement a customer follow up system based on items not returned by customers. To accommodate the need to ensure data privacy and regulations, a compliance control was set up based on employee roles. Thus, a control rule was set up for admin, finance, management departments and specific supervisors and operators. This allowed the control of who could access specific data fields on the system.
The Result
Blocworx digitised a critical function within the telecom’s operations. Service inventory purchases were dramatically cut and service partners NFT Distributions rates were also substantially reduced. For the first time in Eir’s history, fixed rates substantially increased. Moreover, 12 tonnes of electronics per week were diverted from landfill with the excellent service of iQuTech using Blocworx dynamic software solution.
Test data captured on the system supplied Eir with procedure information to develop new technical support scripts. Service partner scripts were also updated with the data captured on the platform. The digital mapping of operations provided accurate in-depth insights leading to multiple process improvements. The process advancements made by Eir resulted in remarkable service partner cost reduction. Finally, capacity planning similarly improved as more accurate processing data could be produced, tracked and controlled.
Supply Chain Manager, Simon Harton of Eir Ireland noted some of the insights and data Bloxworx allowed Eir to manage, this included:
- Aftermarket Services Partners
- Automated Reporting
- Data Analytics
- Productivity & Performance Management
- Channel Management
- NPI Management
- Field Service Management