Solving the final mile: how CHH keeps field engineers supplied and assets in the loop

At CHH we are always keeping a close eye on the market, listening out for the day-to-day challenges our customers and their peers are grappling with. A recent LinkedIn poll conducted by our Chief Commercial Officer Russell Parr provided a useful barometer. It asked businesses to name their single biggest challenge in supporting field engineers spread across the country. The result found that 88% pointed straight to managing logistics operations, with the remainder citing lost product along the way. It’s a challenge CHH has already built a solution around, through our final mile and Life Cycle Solutions capability.

Managing a workforce of field engineers spread across large geographical areas sounds straightforward on paper. Deciding what needs doing, where, when and by whom is the easy part. The real difficulty lies in getting the right consumables, tools and assets into the right hands at the right time, every time. Vans run low on stock mid-shift, orders are placed reactively, and engineers lose productive hours chasing supplies. Assets go missing between warehouse and site, visibility disappears the moment something leaves a depot, and the administrative burden of chasing answers falls back on already stretched teams. The cost of getting logistics wrong shows up in lost time, lost stock and lost engineer productivity, and it was precisely this pain that our poll respondents were describing.

Some time ago we identified a gap in the market for a final mile solution built around the realities of field-based work, and we built our Managed Services and final mile capability to close it. Outsourcing this non-core function to a specialist allows businesses to focus on their true core activities while we take care of the logistics. It also strengthens ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) credentials, since a smarter, more efficient distribution model means fewer journeys and lower emissions.

Our national network of CHH-managed pick-up and drop-off locations now stands at over 650 sites with more than 1,500 engineer locations, ranging from small lockers to entire secured rooms. Unlike many competitors, we place no limit on unit size, so the solution scales to fit the customer rather than the other way round. Every location is fed by our own nationwide warehousing network and serviced by our fleet of in-house drivers, giving full visibility, accountability and control from end to end. Our bespoke mobile app tracks every product, including the asset, from warehouse to point of installation and back again, helping us achieve total solution visibility and an OTIF delivery of over 99.5%. While smart metering has been our proving ground, the same offer, challenges and solution applies wherever engineers are deployed at scale, including the worlds of fire and security, facilities management and building automation.

Solving the outbound delivery challenge is only half the story. Every item that has to be returned, be it due to warranty, or an asset with a value requires the same amount of tracking, traceability, and care. Our Life Cycle Solutions capability captures data from the moment an item is removed or sent for return, tracks it through every stage of its journey, and reconciles that data against the customer’s own records to close the loop.

Our poll set out to gather insight, and it did exactly that, validating the solutions CHH has been investing in. If 88% of your peers are naming logistics operations as their biggest headache, the chances are you are feeling it too. The good news is that you do not need to solve it alone. Talk to our team today about how our final mile and Life Cycle Solutions capability can take the pressure off your engineers, your budgets and your ESG reporting. Contact CHH today for more details.