COUNTRY FOCUS:
COUNTRY
SOUTH AFRICA
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• Failures have been reduced by 50% due
to improved work management processes
• The significant reduction of operational
times has impacted positively on safety
issues for citizens
Meanwhile, Fisher noted that the
mobilisation of the system processing had
also become a journey of empowerment for
the users in the field.
While a few of the older workers had been
initially resistant, he said, they had reached
a point where they had embraced the
technology and been proud of the digital
empowerment this had brought them.
He added that more general benefits
brought by the mobilisation technology
included staff motivation, because staff
members feel empowered, output levels
have improved by over 20%; employee
safety because the device allows for tracking
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of staff and reports can be enabled if the
device is going off the expected route, and/
or no movement is detected; and a focus on
strategic objectives.
“Effective asset management results in
savings that can be used to invest in the
organisation’s objectives,” said Fisher.
“Taking the system information onto the
mobile device allows field workers to see all the
invisible underground assets in the area that
they need to know about. For example, storm
water or sewage conduits. Other processes
which are done in the field from the mobile
device allow the inputting of failure codes,
confirmations of the processes followed and
the updating of costings then and there.
“The end result of this particular service call
was a grateful message on Twitter, in which
the resident who had initially reported the
incident sent out an incredibly positive tweet
complimenting the City of Cape Town on a
job well done.”
Fisher explained that the City of Cape
Town was currently carrying out 22,000
maintenance orders per month, and that
there has been a real improvement in
wear-and-tear failures being eliminated
through preventative maintenance. “We are
continuously striving to improve our systems
and processes and are driving down the
numbers of issues even further on a monthly
basis, by holding ongoing meetings with the
relevant people,” he said.
“We aim for continuous improvement and
look forward to using Machine Learning to
allow us to fix even broader picture issues. It
has been a wonderful experience as a SAP
consultant to have had these types of tools
to use. It has made it much easier for us as
consultants to make a real difference in a
city like Cape Town.” n
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