Scheduling engineers at Miele – immer besser!

Customers of Miele can count on top-flight products. And they also of course expect an excellent customer service. If an appliance doesn’t work properly, an engineer armed with the right know-how, tools and components must be dispatched without delay. And this job should preferably be seamlessly scheduled right before his next. This is often much easier said than done!

Miele seeks the advice of Déhora

Worldwide Miele enjoys a leading position as a supplier of household appliances. Thanks to a network of 70 trained technicians, Miele is able to respond extremely rapidly to repair and maintenance requests. In scheduling its household engineers, Miele faced a number of challenges: relatively long customer waiting times, too little leeway in the case of ‘minor emergencies’, reactive rather than proactive scheduling, a lack of clear guidelines for engineer scheduling, occasional disregard for working times and a lack of scheduling objectives.

Miele called in the know-how of Déhora

Déhora headed a detailed analysis of the scheduling using the PlanScan. Déhora closely examined the work organisation and various work processes. Sore points were identified and translated into concrete improvement proposals.

Calm and uniformity in scheduling

Working with Déhora, Miele immediately set about working on a number of areas of improvement. Not just quick wins, but also long-term improvement objectives. The organisation of the scheduling was improved and a team leader appointed to lead and motivate the scheduling team. The team leader received continuous ‘on-the-job’ preparation to develop into a true scheduling expert.

The schedulers’ tasks were checked against and adapted to the team’s new organisation. The Déhora consultant drew up a transparent leave schedule that could be adapted on a monthly basis for improved forward planning. The results of the scheduling were made more transparent through the use of performance indicators. Clear procedures and agreements were fleshed out to create greater structure, calm and predictability in the scheduling.

Interim scheduler for bridging periods of illness

Miele is not only a supplier of household appliances, but also the number one producer of washing and professional cleaning machines for laboratories and hospitals. Owing to an urgent medical procedure, the Miele professional planner would be out of the running for a number of months. With the deployment of a Déhora interim planner, Miele was able to respond speedily to this unanticipated event. This occasion was utilised to optimise the scheduling, which resulted in a number of quick wins. Agreements and procedures were fleshed out to guarantee continuity.