Working in partnership with Northage Information Sytems, Waterways Ireland recently developed an Application to replace an existing set of paper/spreadsheet based processes supporting Fleet Management - this was undertaken by EG Information Consulting (a development partner of NorthgateIS).
Waterways Ireland has responsibility for the management, maintenance, development and restoration of inland navigable waterways principally for recreational purposes. The waterways under the remit of the body are the Barrow Navigation, the Erne System, the Grand Canal, the Lower Bann, the Royal, the Shannon-Erne Waterway and the Shannon Navigation. The headquarters for Waterways Ireland is in Enniskillen, and regional offices are located in Carrick-on-Shannon, Dublin and Scarriff.
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Waterways Ireland required the development of an Application to replace an existing set of paper/spreadsheet based processes supporting Fleet Management.
The new system would fulfil a requirement to:
- Maintain a database of all fleet items owned by Waterways Ireland
- Record information on the fleet items such as location, supervisors, operators and daily usage against jobs and sites
- Control the mechanical condition and availability of the fleet items
- Generate events on a schedule for fleet items such as the following:
- Insurance renewal
- Tax
- MOT/DOE
- Audit
- Inspections
- Services
- Monitor the performance of fleet items
The new system would need to make managing 1400 Fleet items a much simpler task.
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The Delivery
Conducting a needs analysis alongside Northgate IS, enabled EG Information Consulting to create a development strategy to help Waterways Ireland cut costs and time and to introduce technology that was easy to use and had transparency from beginning to end, using Waterways’ existing processes as the benchmark.
The implementation of the application would enable users to:
- Find out the location and availability of fleet items either specific fleet items or a group, category or type of fleet item
- Ascertain information on what fleet is available for use in other locations so as to organise transfers between locations and sites
- Track the usage of fleet items, over any period and the type of work the fleet item was undertaking
- Control the availability of a fleet item. A fleet item can be taken out of service if there is an issue with the item. The user has the ability to raise this issue with mechanical foreman who can action
- Create scheduled events for the fleet item. The user has the ability to create repeat events, for example, a fleet item requires a MOT/DOE on a yearly basis and by a certain date, the schedule event can be created once on a 12 month cycle
- Monitor the fuel consumption performance of any category or type of vehicle over a specified period of time
The system would also make reports available, some of which are used for auditing vehicle usage and producing financial reports
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The Result
Waterways Ireland can expect substantial time and cost savings by introducing this new technology into their workflow processes.
- Users can check specific fleet item details at the click of a button where previously fleet items were recorded on a spreadsheet
- Now all the data about a specific fleet item is centralised online
- Recording fleet item usage is now electronic where before this
- Information was recorded in on a form
- Staff can check for the location of specific types of fleet instantly instead of phoning foremen throughout sites in Ireland
- The system automatically generates scheduled events upon completion of an old event
- Staff can easily perform audits by generating a list of fleet dynamically. These audits are focussed and can be created specifically by location, operator or even by categorisation of fleet item.
Other Benefits:
User can:
- Discover the availability of fleet items
- Check on what fleet items are being efficiently and productively used
- Check which fleet items are out of service and arrange repair more efficiently
- Control auditing processes more easily
- Generate reoccurring events easily
- Produce reports of a financial nature for making decisions upon fleet requirements
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For more information about this project or any of our Scheduling solutions please contact Colleen Bradley
cbradley@eg-consulting.com or call + 44 (0) 28 9087 2222