Why regulators need resource scheduling optimisation for inspections

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The use of resource scheduling software helps regulatory agencies plan, manage, and allocate resources in a way that follows the optimisation goals of the agency. An inspection team leader can do effective inspection tracking and aid his decision making to keep the agency’s operational costs below a certain level. The use of field resource scheduling tools for high-risk regulatory inspections is vital for the long term efficiency of the regulators.

Here are 6 reasons why:

1. Visible results, no matter what the workload is

The results of effective resource allocation are equally visible when we’re dealing with large volumes of work or a small volume of tasks. In both types of organisations – large and small, inspection team leaders improve their planning efforts by making more intelligent decisions about resource assignments. No matter the size of the regulatory agency – the adoption of a field resource scheduling tool is always a good idea.

Related: How to find the best resource management software for inspections?

2. Save operational costs

Field resource scheduling is essential when allocating a limited number of resources to a growing backlog of inspections. Using an inspection management platform with a risk scoring algorithm can help team leaders allocate resources on the field only to high-risk reviews while assigning self-inspection to low-risk inquiries. Making this digitally ensures that team leaders give tasks to resources with a relevant skillset, and everyone will be notified about it in real-time. Reducing the error rate in-field inspection schedules will reduce the operational field inspections costs.

Related: Achieving measurable ROI from resource management – everything you need to know.

3. Improve efficiency

Suppose the same number of inspectors can complete inspections faster, with less driving time between jobs, less stress and less effort. In that case, this will eventually make inspectors more motivated and more productive. Team leaders always have visibility on workload and can also tackle balance to keep each team member productive without overloading his time.

4. Control the time better

How much is the driving time between jobs? What if you can reduce it via route optimisation? Then the resources can have the opportunity to spend less time driving, and the prediction of time needed for task completion is more accurate.

Related: The benefits of route optimisation in-field inspections

5. Achieve workload balance

Even if we use the most innovative field resource scheduling tool on earth, sometimes an inspection will run over schedule. Team leaders will have to quickly design a new work schedule with minimum disruption in the task orchestration.

Using proper resource & schedule management software can help regulators reassign overload tasks to inspectors with more capacity and spare those overloaded. Achieving this balance is vital for having a motivated and effective inspection team.

Related: How does resource optimisation boost task management?

6. Eliminate risks

Planning inspection schedules with priority over high-risk inspections will lead to less risk and improved safety standards. Assigning self-inspections to low-risk cases will take the unnecessary burden from the inspector’s shoulder and help them focus only on-field tasks with high-risk scores.

Related: How to implement resource scheduling tools in inspection workflow?

Do you want to have a free product tour with Canalix and see first-hand what our resource scheduling tool can help you achieve? Contact us now.

How Canalix transforms the world of regulatory inspections?

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How to find resource scheduling tool for regulatory inspections?

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Intelligent use of resources is crucial for effective regulatory inspection management. If human resources such as inspectors are scarce and the number of inspection requests progressively grows, the regulatory function of any agency would suffer.

How do we solve the human resource scarcity in regulatory inspections?

The most obvious answer would be to raise the number of available resources. However, that would also cost more. The use of public expenses requires regulators to spend them wisely. The efforts to improve efficiency should be directed not to acquire new resources but rather to manage existing resources more optimally. It requires good inspection planning and scheduling because mismanagement of resources can easily lead to waste and less efficiency. 

Related: Resource optimisation and regulators – the good practices from the private sector

modular digital transformationWhy is modularity crucial for your digital transformation strategy in 2022?

Download this whitepaper to understand:

        • The advantages of modular digital transformation
        • The vital architectural practices and technologies that enable modular transformation
        • Migration strategies to minimize disruption for the business and customers
        • How Jobtimizer can help public sector organisations make the transition
        • How a regulatory agency in the UK is benefitting from a modular approach

 

Read it now.

Good news for regulators looking forward to resource optimisation

Regulators that want to optimise their resource management can choose among different resource optimisation software tools. The variety of solutions may be overwhelming, so the research process is a bit of a challenge. If you type “What’s the ideal resource management tool for regulatory inspections” on google, you’ll hardly find a good answer. 

Related: Implementing resource scheduling software in the inspection workflow

Let’s try to answer these questions ourselves in this improvised guide. What can we consider as a good option for resource optimisation software? Which are the resource management features that an inspection planning software should offer? But before starting with these questions, let’s start with the WHY.

Why do regulators need resource management tools?

With resource management software, regulators can reach a higher efficiency level by utilising the existing resources better. A good resource management tool enables team leaders in regulatory agencies to keep track of who’s doing what and make better resource allocation decisions.

A resource management software like Canalix’s Jobtimizer is helping regulators to schedule and assign inspections to available resources – inspectors. As part of the platform CANALIX, Jotbtimizer can take resource scheduling to the next level by using an automated inspection risk scoring system and assigning high-risk cases with priority over low-risk cases. That helps in deploying the workforce at the right time to the right place – whether it be an on-site inspection, virtual remote inspection or self-inspection.

Related: The intersection point between remote inspections and resource allocation optimisation.

The use of an inspection management platform that combines resource scheduling, regulatory case management software, project management, etc., is essential for regulators because using a separate tool for each of these objectives is too time-consuming and can harm the productivity of inspection teams.

So, in a nutshell, regulators need resource management tools to ensure optimal resource utilisation, transparency, control and foreseeing problems.

Resource optimization and business scheduling software

CASE STUDY: How a regulatory agency cut costs with resource scheduling software?
          • reducing the scheduling time with up to 75%
          • increasing efficiency of operations with 40%
          • fully eliminating errors in the resource allocation process.
Download the case study.

How to identify a regulator-friendly resource management software?

How can you identify a resource scheduling software that works well for regulatory inspections? Here’s a checklist with the most critical resource scheduling features:

  • Complete visibility on inspections – performance, tracking and analytics. Having full visibility on inspection teams helps leaders pipeline their pending checks and help inspectors complete crucial tasks in time. Also, having good visibility on inspection performance via dashboard helps to reduce errors and always allocate the right resource to the right job.

inspection management analytics software

  • Paperless planning. Managing a physical calendar and filling it with inspectors’ schedules is unnecessarily complicated. The digital era changed this for good. But is it enough? No, it isn’t. Resource management tools like Jobtimizer go the extra mile and transfer all of the scheduling and paper-based operations in the cloud. It means that inspectors always have access and back up to their schedules and get real-time updates.
  • High configuration – one of the definitions that describe Jobtimizer best is its’ high configuration. What does a high configuration resource management software mean? It means that regulators can speed up their inspection processes by easily integrating the software with other platforms so that efficiency can remain high.

inspection case management

Resource planning on SaaS inspection platform

There are two types of software solutions when speaking of resource management – SaaS and installed on-premise software. The cloud-based SaaS inspection software can be used on any device, no matter where. In comparison, the on-premise installed software has limitations in that regard. 

Related: How resource optimisation improves task management in regulatory inspection

Since regulatory inspections require lots of fieldwork and mobility, SaaS resource management software is the more recommended option. It delivers flexibility and freedom to ensure convenience for inspectors and inspection teams.

How to find a resource planning tool? Where do we search? How do we compare prices?

Almost every research starts by typing a question in the google search bar. Many software marketplaces provide brief descriptions of different products. Comparing features and reviews is easy, but also -trying the free trial / live-demo version is essential before jumping to any conclusion based on automated comparison via a marketplace.

Related: Is inspection optimisation a risky digital transformation project?

Conclusion

It doesn’t matter if a regulator performs 5 000 or 50 000 thousands inspection a year. In both cases, resources must be managed intelligently. By following this guide, regulatory agencies can easily find a decent inspection management system for their resource optimisation objectives and deploy it successfully for better inspection management.

If you want Canalix to do the first steps for you, contact us now.

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Resource optimisation and regulators – the lessons learned from the private sector

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The smart use of resources is crucial for the economic growth of one of the most successful products in the United States. Uber, Airbnb, etc. are just some of the examples of  innovative products that employ technology to optimise the allocation of existing resources under a set of constraints. The entrepreneurial spirit of that kind spreads to the public sector as well, even though there it has its own challenges.

The so-called optimising economy impacts the public sector in a unique way. Government structures are trying to keep up with the trends, but at the same time, they are extra careful not to disrupt the existing procedures that are designed to maintain public safety. If we look at the government regulatory sector, we’d see a lot of opportunities for optimisation that match the trends in the economy via better resource allocation and asset optimisation.

Related: Remote inspections as the key to reopening the EU economy

What’s the common between optimising economy sectors?

Looking at the private sector and optimising economy products such as Airbnb, Uber, Lyft, etc., we can identify three pillars of optimisation: 

  • Customisation
  • Automated data analysis
  • Distributed resources.

These three pillars are transferable to the public sector’s optimisation effort as well. But for their potential to be fully realised, some challenges must be overcome.

Challenges for the regulators

The optimising economy, in a nutshell, can be explained in terms of contextualising – to turn an existing process into a better version of itself – to utilise resources smartly and realise the hidden potential of resources that haven’t been used before. However, governments are not good at contextualising, they are good at standardisation (to make rules that are equal for everyone). However, standartisation and generalisation are keeping government at bay to resist customisation – one of the three pillars of the optimising economy. Therefore the gap between the technological advancements in the private sector and the public sector grows. 

Optimising the government and the regulators – the example of the USA

The growing gap between customisation in the private sector and the standardisation in the public sector is one of the big challenges for governance in the US economy. It’s interesting to see how a country with well developed economy that relies on technologies such as cloud, AI, machine learning and data analytics is adopting the same technologies to optimise its regulatory resources better.

The US government’s challenges towards resource allocation optimisation

Since the use of computer systems is present in all government structures, one must think that it would be easy to optimise the regulatory inspection process. However, to achieve that, one must find a way to combine databases across the federal government and use AI to turn regulatory inspections into a more efficient process. Looking at this challenge Adam Finkel and Richard Berk at the Penn Program on Regulation have shown that the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration could improve its targeting of inspection resources dramatically by combining and applying AI, machine learning and data-driven automation to disparate governmental and private-sector databases. This analysis serves as an example of where the road to optimising the regulatory sector could start from and how challenges can be confronted. Some US regulators like the Environmental Protection Agency are considering how remote sensing can be used for improving regulatory monitoring. This on the other hand is an example for creativity as a mean to optimise the government sector.

Related: What resource optimisation means for regulators after the pandemic is over?

Conclusion

The major limitations for more optimal government are the resource constraints. Confronting resource constraints is a key factor for optimising public services. Creativity also has a big part in the equation for a more optimised government. Canalix as an inspection optimisation system helps regulators overcome the challenges that stand in their way to growth and efficiency – not only in terms of digital infrastructure but also in the creative part. For example, regulators that use Canalix for inspection planning and resource allocation improved their smart work by introducing remote inspections and self-inspections in the optimisation equation.

Watch how they did it in our video:

How Canalix transforms the world of regulatory inspections?

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