EAM’s MobileFocus feature – Do your field staff have the right tools to capture asset and maintenance data in the field?

Many organisations still work paper-based forms or with 3rd party applications such as smart forms for capturing data in the field. This can be for instance printed maintenance work orders or smart forms for capturing inspection results.

The data then needs to be manually loaded into the maintenance management system or bespoke interfaces need to be developed in order to update the central system, with this resulting in additional administrative effort, risk of errors and potentially loss of important data that wasn’t able to be captured.

An example of such scenario could be when the technician, whilst performing inspection of wayside signalling equipment, unexpectedly identifies an issue with the roof of a nearby cabin.
Does the technician then have the tools to capture detail of such issue? Does the technician have to call in report over the phone or take memory note to raise a defect report when back at the workshop? And if so, can all important details and if required, photographs, be captured?

Evaluate your field data capture and maintenance management
See if MobileFocus is right for you by assessing challenges, complexity, data risks, connectivity needs, and efficiency gains. Optimize your field operations now!

Another commonly identified limitation when using on-line based applications for workarounds Laptops and other devices might for IT policy or network coverage reasons not be able to remain online at all locations of work. For example, devices may lose internet or corporate network connection when work is performed in blackspot or remote areas such as tunnels, basements or other environments lacking coverage resulting in inability to record further data or even loss of entered but not yet saved data.

Trapeze has developed our mobility solution, MobileFocus, with this in mind to ensure that data is both cached locally in the device as well as automatically synchronised with the main EAM system whenever the device has network connectivity, to ensure field staff can continue working and capturing data seamlessly in the same manner without worrying about if network connectivity is lost.

MobileFocus functions as a true extension of our EAM system to ensure technicians have access to all their required functions whether logged on at the workshop or in a tunnel without mobile or network signal.

Asset details and tasks are loaded on to the field technician’s smart phone, tablet or laptop.

The technician can then at the touch of a button access asset details and assigned tasks and report any work performed against these such as:

Time spent on travel and tasks based on real time tracking or labour postings.

• • Part transactions or material requests.
  • Record inspection and test results or asset condition assessment scores.
  • Attach photos and files.
  • Report new defect or service request.
  • On re-establishment of connection with the EAM system, the data is automatically synchronised with the EAM database ensuring all inputs are automatically processed and any new issues are routed to the correct team for attention.

This covers just some of the functions of Trapeze MobileFocus offers to improve and streamline asset and maintenance management in the field. To learn more about Trapeze Enterprise Asset and Maintenance Management solutions contact us.