Five signs your dispatch board is the bottleneck

When a field-service company stops growing, the instinct is to hire another technician. Often the constraint is not in the van. It is on the board.

1. The afternoon goes quiet

Technicians finish early because the board could not fill the gaps that opened during the day. If your fleet's last job of the day averages before three, the board is losing you an hour per van.

2. Your best dispatcher cannot take a holiday

If the schedule lives in one person's head, that person is the bottleneck, however good they are.

3. Customers ring to ask where the technician is

Every one of those calls is a slot the dispatcher spent reassuring rather than scheduling. Count them for a week.

4. Emergencies break the day

One same-day call should move one or two jobs. If it moves the whole afternoon, the board has no slack and no way to find any.

5. You cannot say what a job costs

Travel time, on-site time and the gap between jobs are the three numbers behind margin. If they are not on the board, the margin is a guess.

What to do

Measure the five for a fortnight before changing anything. Two of the five is a board problem. Four is an urgent one.