Improving resource efficiency in regulatory inspections: Ultimate Guide for 2023

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Resource optimisation in inspections is essential because it helps ensure that limited resources, such as funding and personnel, are used effectively and efficiently.

There are several reasons why regulators should have a resource optimisation strategy in 2023:

  • Budget constraints: Many regulators face budget constraints and are under pressure to do more with less. A resource optimisation strategy can help regulators prioritise their workload and efficiently use their resources.
  • Increasing workload: The workload of regulators will likely continue to grow in the coming years due to various factors, including population growth, economic development, and new regulations. A resource optimisation strategy can help regulators manage this increasing workload and ensure they have the resources they need to carry out their duties effectively.
  • Improved outcomes: By optimising their resources, regulators can ensure that inspections are conducted thoroughly and consistently, which can lead to improved outcomes, such as increased compliance with regulations and a reduction in risks to public health, safety, or the environment.
  • Industry and public trust: A resource optimisation strategy can help regulators be more transparent about their inspection processes and priorities, improving accountability and building trust with the industry and the public.

Overall, a resource optimisation strategy can provide both: short-term and long-term benefits for regulators, including cost-effectiveness, improved efficiency, quicker results, sustainability, improved outcomes, and increased trust. In this piece, we’ll focus on the quick wins that resource optimisation strategy can bring to public sector regulators.

3 resource optimisation strategies for regulatory inspections

We’ll focus on three strategies that regulators can use in 2023 to optimise the resource allocation for inspection management and achieve quickly their first positive results. These strategies have been outlined by  our team and their experience with providing resource scheduling solutions to public sector regulators.

  1. Prioritise inspections based on risk: Regulators can prioritise inspections based on the level of risk that an industry or facility poses to public health, safety, or the environment. That can help ensure that limited resources are focused on the areas that pose the most significant risks and require the most attention.
  2. Use data analytics to identify patterns and trends: Regulators can use data analytics to identify patterns and trends in inspection data. That can help them target their inspections more effectively and identify areas needing additional attention.
  3. Collaborate with other agencies and the industry: Regulators can work with other agencies and the industry to develop and implement self-inspection services or joint inspection programs, or third-party certification programs, which can help reduce the need for regulatory inspections.

Implementing these strategies can help regulators optimise the use of their resources and achieve quick results in regulatory inspection management. Let’s explore in-depth how each of the three resource optimisation strategies help regulators improve their efficiency.

How the risk-based inspection process is helping regulators?

  • Risk-based inspections allow regulators to focus their limited resources on the areas that pose the most significant risks to public health, safety, or the environment. By prioritising inspections based on risk, regulators can ensure that they can address the most significant risks first.
  • Risk-based inspections can help regulators identify and address emerging risks more quickly, as they are more likely to target industries or facilities at higher risk of noncompliance.
  • Risk-based inspections can improve the efficiency of the inspection process, as they allow regulators to allocate their resources more effectively and avoid spending time and resources on inspections that are not likely to yield significant results.
  • Risk-based inspections can ensure that regulatory resources are used in the most cost-effective manner possible, allowing regulators to focus on the areas that pose the most significant risks rather than spreading their resources too thin.

How do data analytics enable regulators to perform inspections smarter?

There are several ways in which regulators can use data analytics to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of inspections:

  • Identify patterns and trends: Regulators can use data analytics to identify patterns and trends in inspection data. This can help them target their inspections more effectively and identify areas needing additional attention.
  • Improve resource allocation: Data analytics can help regulators optimise the allocation of their inspection resources by identifying high-risk areas or facilities that may require additional inspections.
  • Monitor compliance: Data analytics can be used to monitor compliance with regulations over time and identify trends or patterns of noncompliance that may require additional attention.
  • Identify best practices: Data analytics can help regulators identify best practices or effective strategies used by the industry to comply with regulations, which can inform future inspections and regulatory approaches.
  • Improve communication and transparency: Data analytics can be used to create reports or dashboards that can help regulators communicate their inspection activities and priorities to the industry and the public, improving transparency and accountability.

Why collaborating with other agencies and the industry can optimise the resource utilisation?

  1. Joint inspections: Regulators can work with other agencies to conduct collaborative inspections of facilities or industries that multiple agencies regulate. That can help optimise the use of resources and ensure that facilities are being inspected in a consistent and comprehensive manner.
  2. Information sharing: Regulators can share inspection data, reports, and other information with other agencies to improve coordination and reduce duplication of efforts.
  3. Collaborating with the industry: Regulators can provide self-inspection services to the industry. Self-inspection programs can help regulators to focus on high-risk cases while the industry is self-servicing the low-risk cases.

Overall, having a resource optimisation strategy can help regulators better manage their workload, optimise the use of their resources, and achieve improved outcomes in the coming years. Should you adopt a government case management system with resource scheduling module? Should you adopt a stand-alone workflow automation within existing inspection management system? Find the answer by asking our Canalix experts about resource optimization for public sector right now from the form below:

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How to reduce rework and downtime for costly resources in inspection management?

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For regulatory agencies, the investment in highly qualified inspectors is perhaps the most valuable. However, this investment may lose some of its value if there are scheduling issues. That’s why many regulators choose to invest also in good inspection software as a solution to optimise operational costs and cut spending caused by frequent rework or downtime in qualified inspectors’ schedules. So there come the question: how to reduce rework for inspectors? And also:

How do downtime impacts operational costs?

How reducing downtime can help regulatory agencies optimise their spending? If your regulatory agency has only one highly qualified inspector with certification in Explosives, it will be more expensive for you to have his schedule filled with time gaps. If, because of the time gaps, the inspector doesn’t spend the entirety of his time on work that matters, catching up at the end of the month will be more expensive and may hurt his productivity. If the efficiency of processes starts suffering because of lousy scheduling, a new inspection check may be required much sooner than planned. So the price of a single inspection check may become more pricey than initially planned.

On the other hand, with a well-built inspection scheduling software ( one that makes optimal schedules with minimum travel time between jobs), the efficiency of the process can be improved, and the necessity for rework and overtime work minimised. That will ultimately lead to lowering operational costs. And last but not least,  by not having to conduct emergency rework and overtime, the regulator can use more opportunities.

resource scheduling software

Simplify the resource scheduling procedures

If the inspection scheduling process has issues, it’s normal not to have expected results. Desk workers can give feedback on the problems they have with inspection scheduling. One of our clients is a national regulator in the UK. They asked for feedback from their workers, and that’s how they realised that the inspection scheduling process requires the automation of repetitive tasks.

After adopting our resource scheduling software Jobtimizer, their scheduling managers sped up their work and reduced the errors in their tasks. Download our case to see how our resource scheduling software Jobtimzier helped a regulator reduce time spend on manual scheduling with up to 75%:

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.

Follow the compliance standards.

When conducting an inspection check, inspectors must follow compliance standards and measure the risk for future hazards to get an accurate risk score. That is valuable data that may play a significant role in scheduling future inspection checks. If the risk score is low, the follow-up inspection may be scheduled further in time or appointed as a remote inspection. But if the risk score is high, the following inspection check may have to be scheduled sooner.

If the inspector is handling the inspection checks with tons of paper, it’s easy to miss an essential procedure and forget to check a box in the inspection checklists. Our client avoided these issues by using our inspection management platform Canalix and conducting inspection checks with a tablet. By giving inspectors the required tools and system, they can easily follow and maintain high compliance standards.

Faster response on emergency requests

Sometimes an emergency event may require an inspection check earlier than scheduled. In these instances, our tool Jobtimizer triggers automatic scheduling that prioritises the emergency request over other appointed events, and automatically reshuffles the rest of the schedules to avoid conflicts.

Use the right inspection management system

Not every resource management software is a good fit for a regulator. Government agencies have specific needs, and using a particular purpose-built inspection management software is always better than using some generic, customisable solution. The right inspection software can help regulators automate repetitive tasks and record and store data in the right way that can further be used for visualising patterns and other data.

The data collected by inspection management software like Canalix can help you keep track of how many inspection checks were completed for a period of time and observe how your government agency managed to cut costs with time.regulatory case management software

Why Jobtimizer is the right resource scheduling tool for your government agency?

Jobtimizer is a stand-alone module to the Canalix Inspection Management platform. Jobtimizer provides a configurable and extendable AI-based scheduling engine that allows scheduling constraints and business priorities to be defined.

Constraints can be classified as ‘Hard’ where they need to be fulfilled and ‘Soft’ where it’s desirable that these are met, but not a must for a schedule to be viable. The emphasis or importance placed on a soft constraint is defined by providing each constraint with a score. A typical example of a hard constraint is ‘resource availability”, “availability of required equipment”, and “qualifications or skills” required to perform the job. A typical example of a soft constraint would be job priority, FIFO, and total distance across a scheduled work program.

Book a demo here.

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What are the impacts of resource-constrained scheduling?

Since the pandemic hit, the impacts of resource-constrained scheduling became a pest to many organisations with costly caseworkers. The bright side is that this crisis presents many long-term resource scheduling optimisation opportunities. The question is whether the organisation would recognise such opportunities or not.

What is the problem with resource-constrained scheduling?

Many of our solutions focus on delivering resource optimisation to public sector organisations. Such organisations include regulators dealing with limited resources – technicians, inspectors, equipment, technology. Those constraints put them into a situation where all of their resources are suffering work overloading, or the workload is missing balance. Some resources are overbooked with jobs, while others are not using their time on work that matters. Eventually, resource scheduling under constraints leads to inefficiency and productivity suffers. 

The opportunity such situations pose to organisations is that they can decide to change their work model to accommodate their resource constraints in a way that will combat inefficiency and optimise operations in a sustainable way that will bring long-term cost reduction and productivity boost.

How to tackle resource-constrained job scheduling?

Organisations under resource constraints usually need a digital transformation of some of their processes. These customers are generally looking for quick results, and therefore full-stack digital transformation is not the thing they need. Our approach in such a situation is focused on analysing the area that would have the more significant impact in terms of resource scheduling optimisation. 

Helping customers overcome the limitation of resource scheduling with modular digital transformation delivers fast and visible results. This approach is a good tactic because when early wins are visible, they serve as evidence for further digital transformation endeavours. After all, the trust of the leadership is already won.

Here are four benefits of approaching modular digital transformation the combat the impacts of resource-constrained scheduling. They are achievable through the resource optimisation software Jobtimizer, developed by Canalix.

Jobtimizer - Your AI-Enhanced Resource Scheduler

Read more: 7 resource management software tools to look for in 2022

4 digital transformation benefits solving resource-constrained scheduling.

  1. Minimise work overload, overbooking and delays in schedules.

Transforming the resource scheduling to consider multiple constraints like availability, geo-location, required accreditations, complexity, etc., can deliver the shortest schedules with the available resources. By reducing the travelling time between jobs, prioritising high-risk cases over low-risk ones and considering resources’ certifications, the efficiency of operations has a good ground for optimisation and delivering quick wins. For example:

  • Reducing the delays
  • Overwork is rarely registered
  • Keeping deadlines and allowing costly resources to focus on work that matters

2. Avoid the traps of re-scheduling

When a last-minute change occurs, it’s hard to make a new schedule without causing delays and other disruptions. When we have limited resources, schedule changes have a more critical impact on efficiency. That’s why the resource scheduling system needs to be backed by advanced technologies that may automatically shuffle resources and schedules to reflect real-time changes.

Read more: Why real-time data is important for efficient inspection tracking system?

For example, Jobtimizer’s job scheduling process is done by an AI engine that automatically calculates the changes in real-time. The AI produces a new optimal schedule that reflects the changes for seconds. With this technology, we can avoid disruptions and even improve the new plan compared to the previous one. 

3. Adopting new operation models 

The modular digital transformation approach allows organisations to optimise beyond resource scheduling. In other words, combining different modules will enable organisations to enhance their efficiency even more. 

Case study “Marketplace” module

After our client transformed their inspection scheduling operations with Jobtimizer, they decided to continue their digital transformation journey with another module – the marketplace module. The goal: to further enhance the efficiency and productivity of the inspection process.

The marketplace module enabled our client to integrate a digital workspace within their existing inspection management system. Within this workspace, our client’s staff was able to post details about pending inspections. Imagine it as a data pool with tasks. Access to these tasks is ensured through a secure portal to external agents who can take over jobs and complete them on the client’s behalf. Each task file has a unique ID, requirements, and due date for inspection check. Only agents with the required certification can take and complete corresponding tasks.

The outcome

The marketplace module allowed our client to expand their operating models by outsourcing low complexity tasks to external agents. That enabled their internal costly case resources to focus on critical tasks and jobs that matter the most. First, our client managed to transform their resource-constrained scheduling process into a more optimised version. Then, with another module, they adopted a new operating model to focus their case resource’s time only on work that matters the most. Both modules delivered quick wins, and our client is now planning further digital transformation with other modules.

resource constrained scheduling

4. Preventing non-critical tasks from becoming critical

When we have resource-constrained scheduling with no proper plan and method for tackling the issue, many non-critical tasks that get pushed back constantly are slowly turning into critical ones. Resource management solutions like Jobtimizer help our clients combat the impacts of resource constraint scheduling and not let non-critical tasks turn red and become critical. 

Are you interested in adopting new operating models with quick wins? Contact us here.

The opportunities of resource-limited scheduling

When the costly casework resource is limited, and the workload grows, organisations look for opportunities to tackle the problem—not making any effort to transform existing processes or adopt new operating models will only make the existing process more complicated. Complications end up in delays, overbooking of staff, overwork, etc. That leads to loss of money, unhappy employees and unhappy customers. By approaching modular digital transformation, organisations can combat resource-constrained scheduling and even eliminate this issue by transforming the work model itself. 

Get to know how Canalix can help you optimise your resource scheduling with modules like Jobtimizer now.

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7 Resource management software tools to look for in 2022

Making efficient resource planning, scheduling, and constant resource management optimisation is crucial for transforming business processes into a more sustainable and cost-efficient version of themselves. And of course, the metrics that are going up are employees’ productivity and overall performance.

The resource management software is a powerful tool organisations use to improve their project planning and automate different processes. While we can point out a couple of highlights that define what makes a good resource management tool, we’ll still have to choose between a wide variety of choices. So it’s hard to narrow down our search to just a couple of resource management solutions. That’s why we made this selection for you.

How do we choose a good resource optimisation software? 

You can always start with our list of seven tools for resource management to look at in 2022. Before delving into the selection, let’s remind ourselves what makes resource management software a powerful optimisation tool.

What is a resource management software?

There are hundreds of definitions for resource management, so the world doesn’t need another one. The best description of such a tool may be given by simply listing what it can do:

  • assign resources such as inspectors or field technicians to a project
  • allocate technical equipment, operational time, travel distance to a project
  • control workload balance
  • monitor data about the performance

Thanks to these features, a good resource management software will help you cut operational costs, improve processes, and increase productivity. Since it’s hard enough to go through each resource management software’s website to check pricing, features and other functionalities, we made this list for you. Let’s start comparing!

1. Jobtimizer – resource management, job scheduling and workflow optimisation software.

scheduling resource optimisation 

Jobtimizer is a resource management software that optimises schedules and delivers immediate results. Because of the software’s modular nature, it can be easily integrated within an existing system.  The benefits it offers: time-saving schedules, efficient resource management and swift decision making, enable Jobtimizer’s user to face quick and efficient results from digital transformation faster than ever before. Basically, Jobtimizer can play the role of the perfect resource planner, with the help of an AI of course.

Jobtimizer is designed to respond to 4 crucial goals:

  • Improving efficiency and productivity by removing the need for overtime and overtime payments and helping organisations save costs by optimising their resource utilisation.
  • Optimise wasteful activities by reducing driving time, fuel costs and the carbon footprint, always assigning the right person and equipment to the right job and eliminating re-work.
  • Increase customer satisfaction by reducing customer waiting time and eliminating service backlog.
  • Laying the ground for further improvements by allowing organisations to leverage on better operational insights.

 

inspection scheduling software

 

Best For

Jobtimizer as a resource management software is perfect for mid-sized companies, enterprises and public sector organisations that work with costly resources with everyday schedules on the field.

Price

Pay per use system

Key features:

  • Resource optimisation
  • Resource scheduling and allocation
  • System integration via API and modular approach
  • Case management
  • Workflow automation
  • Risk assessment
  • Automated scheduling and route planning
  • Document management
  • AI engine

 

2. Microsoft Project — A Universal Resource Management Software

microsoft project project planning

Microsoft Project is a project management tool developed and sold by Microsoft. It is designed to assist a project manager in developing a schedule, assigning resources to tasks, tracking progress, managing budgets, and analysing workloads.

Best For

Microsoft Project is good for small and mid-size organisations.

Price

Pay per user system.

Key resource management features: 

  • Resource Analytics
  • Visual Heat Maps
  • Project Management
  • Interactive Dashboards
  • Automated Workflows

3. monday.com – Bringing teams to work together in a centralised workload space

resource management monday.com

Monday helps teams work together in one organised place. The software can delegate work projects to one or more team members. This tool makes it easy to track work-related things with great visual style. There are chart views, calendar views, etc., which any team can use. This resource management app allows everyone to create their workflows using simple building blocks.

Best For

Microsoft Project is good for small and mid-size organisations.

Price

Pay per user system.

Key Features

  • Modern UI
  • Customisable
  • Pre-Built Templates
  • Automation
  • Integration with Other Apps

4. Resource Guru – cloud-based resource scheduling app

resource scheduling guru

Resource Guru is a cloud-based resource scheduling application suitable for organisations of all sizes. This application enables booking and rescheduling through a calendar feature and a drag-and-drop scheduling tool.

This tool is exemplary for remote teams within different time zones. However, Resource Guru also has some limitations, such as the lack of task dependencies and time-tracking. So that means that not all types of work are suitable for it.

Best For

Resource Guru is good for freelancers, small and mid-size organisations within different time zone.

Price

Pay per user system.

Key Features

  • Personal Dashboards for All Employees
  • Resource Utilisation Reports
  • Great for Project Managers
  • Drag and Drop Interface
  • Resource Allocation

5. Toggl Plan

toggl resource planning

Toggl Plan users come from all kinds of different industries and team sizes – creative, marketing, development & other tech teams and agencies, construction companies, and similar businesses requiring a simple planning solution.

Best For

Toggl Plan is good for small and mid-size organisations.

Price

Pay per user system.

Key features

  • Managing workloads
  • Project scheduling
  • Task management
  • Team collaboration

6. Infinity — An All-in-One Resource Management Software

infinity resource scheduling

Infinity is an universal resource management platform. This tool enables employees to organise their projects better. It keeps the workspace clean and clear and keeps the critical data close to the users who work with it.

Best For

Perfect fit for small and mid-sized companies that embrace teamwork, run multiple projects and clients.

Price

Flat Rate pricing

Key Features

  • Activity log to track employees in real-time.
  • Data export and import
  • Document Management
  • Team collaboration
  • Mobile integration

7. Paymo – project management software for resource scheduling

paymo resource tracking software

 Paymo is a project management software that teams use for resource scheduling, planning, time tracking and invoicing. They can plan task execution, their duration and the dependencies between them. Paymo visualises in one place everything you need to know about your work – workload, capacity, availability.

Best For

Perfect fit for small and mid-sized companies that embrace teamwork, run multiple projects and clients.

Pricing

Pay per user system

Key features

  • Drag and drop resource scheduling
  • Auto scheduling based on previous task details
  • Auto-sync between tasks and bookings
  • Resource capacity indicator at a user/task/project level
  • Vacation and leave management

Conclusion

Seven is a lucky number; that’s why we end our list here. Some of these resource planning tools have a free trial, but if you’re looking for highly configurable low-code solutions, Jobtimizer is the one to start with. If you like to know more about Jobtimizer and watch the video below or contact us here.

Frequently asked questions

  1. How improving resource scheduling impacts resource optimisation?
  2. Which resource scheduling features help organisations optimise their costs?
  3. Resource management tool for regulatory inspections – where to find it?
  4. How does resource scheduling optimisation works?
  5. How to achieve measurable ROI from resource management software?
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How automating manual inspection processes helps regulators?

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The digital transformation journey in the public sector may look different in different government agencies. Sometimes the process starts with a specific problem that identifies the needed technology. But sometimes, the process is reversed – it begins with particular technology being applied over the existing work process. Our practice as a digital transformation partner taught us that the former approach is the more efficient one, while the latter brings more risk of failure. These observations are especially relevant to the regulatory sector and the transformation of manual inspection processes.

Costly resources like inspectors and highly qualified technicians often have to perform repetitive tasks: running inspections from site to site, recording their checks within paper files. Then this documentation gets entered into an electronic system, which often leads to data errors. The use of digital inspection management tools allows inspectors to focus more on higher-level tasks such as analysing data to improve operations, which by itself is an upskilling benefit. The upskilling of the workforce is essential evidence for the success of digitally transforming manual processes.

rpa automation in inspection management

The automated data collection provides a consistent and accurate work process, enabling inspectors to update their progress more frequently. On the other hand, this benefit allows decision-makers to react quickly to critical changes in the collected data.

In the past, the automation of manual inspection processes was often dismissed as a too complex and expensive endeavour. However, today we have the technologies to transform manual processes without the challenges of the past. With cloud-based infrastructure and affordable wireless devices such as tablets, data gathering and sending is fast, and automation becomes a more realistic goal.

Transforming manual inspection processes with AI and Machine Learning

Regulatory agencies have access to automation technologies such as AI and Machine learning. But their efficiency is present mostly when they are fed with accurate information. The use of digital tools on inspection sites guarantees the gathering of quality information via digital checklists and real-time data transmission. The AI engine can provide decision-making support and improve efficiency and compliance with high-quality data input.

Theoretically, this is the ground regulatory agencies step on when undertaking the digital transformation process. But how are things actually with real-case scenarios? Let’s look at some customer stories we have at Canalix – inspection management platform and dive deep into how the platform handles the inspection process.

Monitoring of critical tasks

Some regulatory agencies no longer consider manual inspections enough for high-risk cases and require digital monitoring or the regular submission of self-inspection data. The compliance improvements need the automation of safety-related inspection schedules.

Improving the safety compliance of high-risk projects requires the automation of safety-related inspection schedules. After a periodic on-site inspection, the regulator may demand new monitoring points submitted by the inspectee via a self-submission portal. Doing this without the costs of sending an inspector on-site and getting the needed data is a classic example of cost-optimisation of operations that goes hand-to-hand with compliance improvements. A double benefit gain that inspection automation services like Canalix are helping regulators achieve.

Turning inspection data into process optimisation insights

Automating the data gathering stage by inspectors is only the first of many steps towards the digital transformation of the inspection process. When quality data is assured, what comes next? Reasonably, it is to turn this data into actionable information and insights. Those insights will help decision-makers to improve operations and strengthen the agency’s regulatory compliance rate.

Turning data into insights is more than just aggregating data from a historical perspective. Canalix, as an inspection platform, collects data that gives individual pictures over each inspector’s capacity and workload so that team leaders can prevent burnout and assure balance is kept in the process of resource scheduling.

Acting upon the gathered data and insights

And, of course, data can be presented in many contexts to different actors within the organisation. For example, an inspector may see information about the inspection site’s conditions in previous inspections or check alerts from IoT devices on the inspection site. This data may shape the structure of the inspection round so that the inspector can focus his attention on the most critical aspects. All for the sake of efficiency, of course. This model of turning data into insights supports the observe, orient, decide, act loop. It enables team leaders to decide based on relevant data that would direct action within the organisation that’s supposed to correct something that’s not working well enough.

The digital transformation approach as a modular step-by-step

Some organisations are looking at technology as a tool to help them fix a single issue – like automating manual inspection processes. Others aim at substantial digital transformation projects that will transform the whole organisation by replacing entire systems, not just separate modules step-by-step. And some organisations wish to test the technology without knowing exactly where they should begin. Canalix offers digital transformation solutions focused on resource optimisation that can speed up progress regardless of which category from those mentioned above we’re talking about. Contact us if you need to know more.

Related: How a regulatory agency cut operational costs with modular digital transformation approach?

 

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Case study: Cutting costs with automated job scheduling software and further optimisation

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Digital transformation can hardly bring a quick fix for teams’ productivity and operational costs if an inefficient process is just covered with a layer of technology. Тhe nature of these initiatives is strategic and affects many parts of an organisation – people, systems, processes. Sometimes, to get the desired quick fix, organisations need to update the technology and the process itself. So ultimately, the quick fix turns out to be in not such fast motion. But it doesn’t mean it can’t be successful if approached right.

That is the tactical move one of our clients – a national regulator, learned when they deployed our automated job scheduling solution Jobtimizer. It helped them automate repetitive tasks like job scheduling with RPA technology. The result was that they managed to secure efficiency improvement without replacing entire systems. But at the same time, they laid the ground for further optimisation initiatives. This tactical modular digital transformation approach targeted an area from the operations cycle with a huge impact that would subsequently facilitate further process optimisation. Our practice with regulatory agencies enabled us to make the right suggestion at the right time so our client can start their digital transformation journey from a well-thought starting point. At the same time, we helped them plan the following points from this journey ahead of time.

inspection platform modules

Assessing the existing work model

As a national regulator, our client’s core processes are within the inspection management field. They are performing their services with a network of inspectors with different skillsets, certifications and locations. When inspectors are allocated to various jobs, they have to inspect the job site to determine whether it complies with the public safety standard and assess the risk of future hazards. Depending on the outcome of the check, the inspection site is marked low-risk or high-risk for potential accidents.

The regulator conducts approximately 800 000 inspections each year. Their back-end officers are responsible for the inspection schedules. When the caseload is too big, the regulatory agency employs third-party inspectors (external workforce), which results in higher operational costs. Inspectors are using tablets with inspection checklists for the type of inspection they have an appointment for. When they complete the check, they upload the inspection data to the cloud server and generate an automated outcome report sent to the inspectee.

Optimising the inefficient inspection job scheduling

Even though the inspection process functioned with automated rules that guaranteed the inspection execution according to the regulatory requirements, there were a lot of manual processes involved in it. Our client receives thousands of inspection requests every day, and then an employee manually assigns inspectors to inspection jobs based on their availability. Inspectors often had to travel in and out of the same town within the hours of a single day. That was harmful to their productivity, motivation, and impacted operational costs because of the growing spending on fuel for travelling.

job scheduling software

Our client was aware of the inefficiency of this manual type of job scheduling. They knew that the possible solution was within the field of digital transformation and inspection scheduling. That’s why they decided to transform their processor with a job scheduling software that takes constraints likes availability and location to map more efficient schedules where inspectors take the smarter route. Before taking this step, an inspector had to go to and leave the same town twice for a single day because of inconvenient scheduling; with Jobtimizer, they didn’t have inefficient schedules anymore. This transformation itself removed a significant burden off the inspectors’ shoulders.

The further need for process optimisation

job scheduling tool

Our team regularly reviewed the optimisation data our client shared. They managed to optimise the weak points with job scheduling, but another problem in their inspection process was still brewing. The backlog of inspection cases gradually grew, and they had to hire external inspectors to meet the rising number of inspection requests after the pandemic’s outbreak in 2020. Even with our intelligent job scheduling assistant at hand, our client faced increasing difficulty managing the caseload and its balanced distribution.

Step 2: from job scheduling optimisation to changing the entire inspection model

The growing workload and the limited resource meant that our client had to update their inspection management system, not just the job scheduling part. The road ahead for them was to enable inspectors to focus on high-risk inspections and allow the low-risk inspection requests to be self-served.

Since we already had experience with other regulators that transformed their inspection management system with self-service modules, we knew that the risk-based inspection methodology would work with them too. Our client purchased Canalix to change their inspection management system entirely by adopting a self-service module and remote inspection program for low-risk and middle-risk cases. The advanced AI engine automatically scores the risk and complexity of each inspection request, and the high-risk risk cases are allocated to inspectors for the on-site check. In contrast, the low-risk jobs are redirected for completion via a self-submission portal. Since Jobtimizer as a job scheduling tool is built to work flawlessly with Canalix, our client had an easy time adopting Canalix.

inspection scheduling transformation

Why start with a tactical modular digital transformation and not replace the entire system from the very beginning?

Replacing an entire system requires rethinking technology, replacing systems integrated to other core systems, and holding years of data to be migrated. In other words, it’s a costly and time-consuming endeavour. Automation can deliver efficiency improvements and work with existing components, so it was the smart and right starting point for our client’s digital inspection transformation journey. The case with Jobtimizer as an RPA technology enabled them to automate repetitive operations like job scheduling while meeting pre-set goals, criteria, and priorities.

Do you want to get deeper insights into how Canalix helps regulatory agencies to cut operational costs and improve productivity? Download the free case study now!

Resource optimization and business scheduling software

CASE STUDY: OPTIMISING THE RESOURCE ALLOCATION IN REGULATORY AGENCY
          • 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.

 

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How real-time resource scheduling takes optimisation to the next level?

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Getting costly resources like certified inspectors and technicians to start and complete on-site jobs on time defines the efficiency of their service. Resource management software helps such teams to maintain the quality of their service by optimising their schedules, balancing the workload, improving the precision of job completion and getting on a long-term cost optimisation plan. With that in mind, resource optimisation software developers are constantly trying to keep up with the demands of the market by giving more power to the organisations when it comes to optimising resources. And by more power, we mean more visibility over real-time data so that the real-time scheduling decisions respond adequately to all kinds of situations.

An example of software that addresses various uses and aspects of resource optimisation issues is Jobtimizer. It’s a tool that understands the need to get costly resources to their scheduled jobs on time, with the required tools, skillset and information.

Allocate the right resource with the right skill to the right job. And even more!

When we talk about resource optimisation software, we’re talking about a tool that matches the right resource with the right job. Automatically. But what if the resource management software optimises other aspects as well? What if there’s an emergency that disrupts the work schedules for days ahead? To reroute expensive resources and create new schedules that keep operational costs under control is crucial for efficiency. And usually, a good resource scheduling software does that. But a great resource scheduling does even more because schedule disruptions also present an opportunity to reduce travel time (compared to the previous work schedule). But to have an efficient rerouted schedule, one must have a fast and prompt reaction to the changes. And this is where the interesting questions and even more interesting answers come.

Jobtimizer - Your AI-Enhanced Resource Scheduler

Talking about benefits is good, but how exactly are they playing our with resource optimisation software?

Match the right job with the right human resource

“Just match a job to the right person who can finish it”. Sounds simple but is it? What exactly are we matching – the skillset, the geolocation of the resource (whether it is the one nearest to the job site) or the availability status? If we juggle through different constraints, job matching becomes a very complex task. Jobtimizer can take all these constraints and automatically make a balanced schedule. The result is that only employees with the required skills and certifications will be eligible for the job and it will be allocated to the one nearest to the job site.

Each schedule is optimal in its own

It’s great that the resource management software enables back-office employees to sneak as many jobs as possible in work schedules, but what about the travelling time? What if the route between jobs is too long. The point of designing an optimal work schedule is to fit as many jobs as possible in it. But also – to reduce travel time, so that on-site workers can finish their jobs without overtime.

Jobtimizer is created with a focus on optimised route planning so that costly resources like inspectors, technicians, etc. won’t have to drive to the same town multiple times a day. Jobtimizer visualises schedules on a map and designs the most optimal route with minimum travelling distance between jobs.
And of course, aside from the benefits for the on-site workers, smart route planning delivers even more:

  • Reducing the carbon footprint
  • Reduce the vehicle maintenance costs by decreasing the millage
  • Last but not least – improves the response time to service calls

High-risk prioritisation

Sometimes high-risk checks should be priorities over low-risk ones. If there’s an emergency that requires a fast response, Jobtimizer allows you to schedule a resource that’s near the location of the emergency check. The best part is that Jobtimizer will automatically make a new schedule for the resource who’s sent as an emergency responder (if the high-risk appointment replaces a low risk one). The power of using resource rerouting tools is most evident in emergencies because at the end of the day there are no missed checks and the service is delivered without compromise in its quality.

Resource scheduling optimisation is about being in the present

Putting a real time-data in the hands of the people who make real-time decisions about scheduling is what makes Jobtimizer efficient resource management tool. Trying Jobtimizer is free, so you can book a demo here or just request a 15-min product tour.

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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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