IT-supported deployment planning

VitalAire, a nationwide service company, delivers medical liquid oxygen to patients' homes using special transporters as part of long-term oxygen therapy.

130 drivers fill up the special containers at the customer's premises every one to four weeks. Delivery of the medical devices, including patient instruction, is carried out by 15 specially trained drivers. Maintenance of the medical devices is the task of 55 service technicians. Several thousand jobs are carried out here every month.

In 2009, VitalAire was looking for a solution to centrally manage and plan the deployment of delivery drivers and service technicians. The aim was to increase the efficiency of deployment planning and to do away with the fixed territorial division in order to keep pace with the increasing order volume.

Previously, the drivers had fixed routes and appointments in their area. Once a month, the service technicians received an order book with the maintenance due in their zip code area and arranged their own appointments with the patients.

VitalAire opted for the graphical control and planning tool MobileX-Dispatch. The seamless integration into SAP CS and SD as well as MobileX's understanding of VitalAire's specific requirements were decisive factors.

The rollout of the solution started in September 2009 with six dispatchers. Today, eleven dispatchers plan the deployment of service technicians and delivery drivers centrally and across all regions from Dortmund.

The liquid oxygen drivers are managed by 17 dispatchers based in Dortmund, Dresden and Stuttgart. The maintenance orders are generated from SAP CS, while the sales documents for deliveries and oxygen refills come from SAP SD.

Thanks to a special adaptation of MobileX-Dispatch, follow-up appointments for further deliveries are automatically created after the first delivery of liquid oxygen. However, the dispatcher can still make individual adjustments if circumstances or the patient so require.

Route planning for maintenance work is also partially automated. The workforce management solution suggests certain routes and dates to the dispatcher, which they can accept or change. For initial deliveries or replacement of devices, appointments are coordinated individually with the patient.

As the vans carrying the liquid oxygen are equipped with GPS devices, they report their position to the control center in real time. This allows the dispatchers to plan the routes on a daily basis based on the position data if necessary or to intervene quickly in emergencies.

In 2013, the automation of MobileX-Dispatch was optimized based on the experience gained from four years of scheduling at VitalAire. The rapid growth of VitalAire also meant that - contrary to the original plan - the dispatchers of the liquid oxygen drivers did not also manage the service technicians. Instead, separate dispatchers were hired for them.

The drivers, who set off daily from 20 locations throughout Germany after filling their liquid oxygen tanks, receive their orders via a mobile solution that transmits their appointments and routes to their Panasonic Toughbook.

The service technicians currently still receive their maintenance orders on paper at the branch office or by email when they set off from home. The plan for the future is to also connect them via the mobile solution.

Conclusion

After five years, VitalAire draws a positive conclusion from the workforce management project.

"Planning service technicians with Excel spreadsheets would no longer be possible to this extent. With the introduction of MobileX-Dispatch, we have definitely increased the efficiency of our deployment planning.

The central control system has also enabled us to dissolve the territorial boundaries by zip code and introduce optimized route planning. Our service technicians can now finally concentrate on their actual tasks, namely maintaining the devices at the patient's premises"

summarizes Imke Stoltenberg, Head of IT System Development at VitalAire GmbH.