To read this content please select one of the options below:

Benchmarking the engineer availability process: A case study

S. Evans (Regional Service Developnent, Automobile Association, Stanmore, Middlesex)
B.G. Dale (Quality Management Centre, Manchester School of Management, UMIST, Manchester, UK)

Benchmarking for Quality Management & Technology

ISSN: 1351-3036

Article publication date: 1 March 1997

5254

Abstract

Presents the main findings of an internal and generic benchmarking exercise on the engineer availability process. This process seeks to predict customer demand in terms of the incoming call rate and match this against the available supply of engineering resources. Describes how the internal benchmarking revealed considerable differences in the way in which the different internal business units managed their engineer availability process. Explains that the main reason for the difference was in the clustering of self‐managing work groups of engineers. Also points out that there are three main elements involved in ensuring the success of an engineer availability process: an accurate forecast of customer demand; a method of operating which yields an effective revision of supply to fit customer demand; and a high support environment.

Keywords

Citation

Evans, S. and Dale, B.G. (1997), "Benchmarking the engineer availability process: A case study", Benchmarking for Quality Management & Technology, Vol. 4 No. 1, pp. 7-17. https://doi.org/10.1108/14635779710163019

Publisher

:

MCB UP Ltd

Copyright © 1997, MCB UP Limited

Related articles