In 2014, The Department of General Service’s Business Process Improvement Office (BPIO) discovered that facilities further from the downtown “outward facing” buildings were neglected and in poorer condition than the either the War Memorial or Abel Wolman buildings. Buildings outside of the downtown area were impacted by slow response times for completing work orders pertaining to corrective maintenance.

BPIO’s response to this problem was to implement a “mobile technician” pilot program that aimed to service buildings in the worst conditions through the use of preventive maintenance on a regular, specified route. This pilot proposed to improve BPIO’s list of Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) which include such factors as: customer service satisfaction, work order completion and closing times, the volume of preventive maintenance compared to the volume of corrective maintenance, and the volume of total work orders. The mobile technicians transport vans are equipped with an ample inventory of supplies, including iPads that enable the technicians to open and close work orders on-the-go instead of traveling downtown which previously reduced time in the field. These tools allow the Facilities Maintenance Division technicians to work on issues immediately.

A recent Q1 analysis showed that after just three months of operation, the mobile technician pilot reduced work order durations for various problem types from 29 days to 16 per work order at the pilot facilities. Prior to implementation, work order durations in pilot facilities were 123% higher than those of facilities downtown. Post implementation, this figure fell by 31% in its first three months.

The volume of total work orders, customer service, and the preventative maintenance to corrective maintenance ratio are all showing significant improvement. There has been an increase in the volume of work orders created in the pilot facilities which proves that positive action is a proven approach to expedite fixing problems in these buildings.