Insight
Having the right inventory in the right place at the right time is critical. To meet demand quickly and effectively, stock needs to be placed in strategic locations. At ByBox, we offer various solutions to help customers keep their critical inventory close to where they need it to fulfil their increasingly challenging SLAs.
ByBox’s Micro FSL solution, as an example, places strategic stock in lockers located close to the point of failure whether this been a retail store, a business premises or a critical facility such as a hospital a data centre or an airport. Holding inventory in this way allows broken equipment to be fixed more quickly and less expensively, ensure end customer SLAs are exceeded and service penalties avoided.
Improved Response Time and Customer Satisfaction
One significant advantage of pre-positioned inventory is the dramatic improvement in response times. With Micro FSL, parts are visible and accessible 24/7/365. Engineers can order parts easily, collect from the locker and head off to the service fault nearby; no waiting around for an expensive sameday vehicle to arrive and no hunting for parts at a large or complex site. By strategically placing spare-parts close to customers, our customers can improve their first-time fix rates, reduce spend on expensive sameday transport and ensure engineer time is optimised.
As consumers we all expect rapid and flexible deliveries, and service levels within Field Service are also becoming more and more demanding. Micro FSL helps meet these ever more demanding requirements, 24/7/365.
Optimisation of Inventory Levels
Pre-positioned inventory allows supply chain and inventory managers to balance stock levels optimally across various strategically placed locations, close to where the fault is likely to occur. Interestingly, overall inventory levels can be reduced by removing the need for duplicate van stock across multiple engineers. Why have multiple engineers supporting an area with duplicate van stocks, when a MicroFSL can be placed in the heart of the work patch for all engineers to access? This is becoming increasingly important as vehicle fleets migrate to electric, and payloads need to reduce.
Better SLA Performance and Fewer Penalties
Service Level Agreements (SLAs) vary from next day, to eight hours to four and two-hour, and it is becoming more difficult and more costly to hit these time critical SLAs with road congestion, congestion charges and increasing costs of transport. By strategically positioning inventory in a locker, close to the point of failure, companies can remove the need for expensive and challenging sameday transport, instead using our lockers and supporting technology. Improving SLA performance in this way, not only reduces the cost to our customers but reduces potential fines and penalties, enhances customer relationships and reduces carbon footprint.
Support for Seasonal and Regional Demand
Managing seasonal spikes and regional variations becomes more manageable with pre-positioned inventory. At busy periods such as a Bank Holidays or Christmas, why not proactively pre-position inventory in advance in anticipation of a spike in demand, then pull back once the peak demand period is over? By analysing historical data, forecasting demand and using intelligent planning tools, customers can anticipate periods of high demand and ensure that stock is available close to the customer at exactly right time, and where it is most likely to be needed. This proactive approach further enhances the ability to increase fix time fix levels, even during the busiest periods.
Conclusion
Pre-positioned inventory, held much closer to where the actual faults occur, is a powerful strategy that offers numerous benefits, including improved response times, optimised inventory levels, reduce cost and enhanced SLA performance and customer satisfaction. And it can be done with lower overall inventory.
ByBox offers the MicroFSL solution, with over 1400 locations across the UK. We can be sure that on average we can place customer stock 4-5 miles away from where the part will be needed. By leveraging MicroFSL, customers can access this stock 24/7/365 with improvements in engineer productivity and reduction in carbon footprint. We believe this solution, which utilises our cutting-edge technology and unparalleled logistics expertise, represents a significant advancement in supply chain management across field service.
For more information on how pre-positioned inventory can transform your field service supply chain, bybox.com today.