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| Case Study |
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Mobile solution helps beverage major improve
speed and quality of maintenance calls |
Partnering with Patni helped a leading manufacturer and distributor of beverages achieve cost savings of US
$3.5 million due to better quality control and improved service call execution.
The Client
The company is a leading
manufacturer, marketer, and
distributor of non-alcoholic
beverage concentrates and
syrups. The company owns
nearly 300 beverage brands and
has its local operations in 200
countries around the world.
The Challenge
The company had a large installed base of beverage equipments in numerous
stores and restaurants. Keen on improving the quality of its customer service,
the client made consistent efforts to ensure that the end customers would get
the right amount of beverage with the required quality. To maintain high levels
of service, a team of trained field service technicians regularly performed
Quality Maintenance calls.
During a service call, the technician has to perform an exhaustive list of checks
which includes:
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Inventory Check: Checking information related to inventory such as
location, list of equipments, type, subtype combination and service
spares. This also includes checking syrup inventory details like list of
packages, products and expiry dates |
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Drink Quality Check: Verifying the quality of the drink by looking
factors such as Taste, Temperature, Carbonation and Quantity |
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Diagnostic Check: This includes performing a detailed diagnostic test
on each equipment. These tests also factor in data captured from
Quality fault checks and test results. |
Capturing information related to these checks and scheduling calls accordingly
was a challenging task. In the absence of a system to capture, handle and
schedule calls, the client was unable to detect unresolved calls. This had a
huge impact on customer satisfaction. The client decided that it needed an
application which could help it streamline and quickly capture information
related to different quality checks.
The Solution
After a detailed assessment, Patni suggested a solution which was a combination of
handheld and Web based applications. The handheld application followed the business
rules of the Web application for communicating with the server. The solution had a
synchronization module that facilitated communication between the mobile application
and the server. While the Web based application was primarily for coordinators in the
back office, the handheld application was used for addressing the needs of people in the
field. The solution also integrated seamlessly with the existing legacy back-end
applications.
The quality maintenance cycle is carried out in six phases namely:
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Planning: Deciding tentative dates for the service calls |
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Scheduling: Matching exact dates with the store manager considering
factors like store open time and store's weekly off |
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Dispatching: Assigning scheduled service calls to particular
technicians |
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Service call execution: Performing the in-store activities and
electronic capture of the results by technicians. Subsequently, the
technicians update the work order with these details |
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Finalizing: The work order is reviewed / edited and approved as part
of finalization of the service call |
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Billing: Billing activities for the completed/cancelled service calls
are performed. |
The Technology
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Technologies: eVB,JDK 1.3, Mqe |
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Languages: VB, Java,SQL |
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Operating Systems: WinCE, Win2K |
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Databases: DB2e,Oracle |
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The Benefits
The mobility provided by the solution improved the speed and enhanced
the quality of the checks. Other benefits included:
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Cost savings of US $3.5 million |
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Better quality control due to online availability of data related
to Quality Index |
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Increased accuracy in planning and scheduling tentative dates
for the service calls |
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Improved service call execution. |
The success of the implementation encouraged the client to implement
a similar solution with different trading partners.
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