EcoGest for operational control of environmental services: routes, shifts and costs
An environmental cooperative runs its day in the field with EcoGest: a calendar generated from services, routes, shifts, breakdowns, recoveries and costs.
The client
An Italian cooperative working in environmental services and land management, with an operational workforce of over 200 employees.
Every day it coordinates activities that differ in type, frequency and method, assigning staff, vehicles and equipment according to each service. Complexity grows when absences, replacements, breakdowns, delays, extraordinary services or activities to be recovered are added to the ordinary plan.
Key results
- Operational calendar generated automatically from master data
- Automatic checks on missing or unavailable resources
- Quick daily changes through drag and drop
The starting point
The organisation needed a tool able to manage the entire operational cycle of each service, without treating master data, planning, shifts, vehicles and financial data as separate elements. Each activity has its own schedules, seasonality, specific days, particular frequencies, compatible vehicles, authorised staff, documentation, routes and operating instructions.
The goal was to make the initial configuration of each service the basis for automatically generating the plan and guiding daily operations.
Key challenges
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01
Very different services
Daily, weekly, monthly or seasonal activities, or activities following specific calendars such as alternate days or particular recurrences.
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02
Matching staff and vehicles correctly
Each service requires different resources, and the system must check their availability and compatibility before assigning them.
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03
From the theoretical plan to the real day
A plan can change quickly because of absences, delays, breakdowns or unfinished activities.
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04
Routes and operating instructions
Some services require streets, mandatory roads, frequencies and information to be defined and made available to operators in the field.
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05
Linking each service to its costs
Knowing that an activity has been scheduled is not enough: its internal cost must be assessed and compared with the amount invoiced to the customer.
The solution
Labinf Sistemi configured EcoGest as a vertical platform to manage service planning and execution in an integrated way. Everything starts from the job master record, where the information that directly feeds planning is defined.
The platform automatically generates activities from the configured frequencies and schedules and displays them on a monthly, weekly or custom basis, split by macro-area and with access to the details of each job. A colour scheme shows the status of the plan: green when resources are available, yellow for a warning, red for a problem or block; automatic alerts flag when a person or vehicle is missing. The system also produces job sheets and routes for operations managers.
For each service you can configure
- Type, schedules and periodicity
- Frequencies and public holidays
- Compatible staff
- Compatible vehicles
- Attachments and documentation
- Streets and operating instructions
- Routes and mandatory roads
- Linked services and recurring jobs
- Specific customer requirements
Daily activities are managed with drag and drop: if a person or vehicle becomes unavailable, the manager changes the assignment, adjusts the time or handles the activity as extraordinary. When a service is closed, the system checks whether everything was completed and records when any remaining work will be recovered, for example at another time or on the following day; colours distinguish activities to be recovered (purple), completed (green) and recovered later (blue).
Staff are linked to services through shifts, on-call duty, holidays, compensatory time off, short shifts, morning, afternoon and night shifts, post-night rest and other configurations, with a weekly count of hours. Only the planned vehicles can be assigned to each job; breakdowns are recorded with location, circumstances, date, status and closure, and can be exported to Excel or CSV.
Where and along which route
EcoGest links each service to territorial information: streets associated with the job, frequencies for individual streets, mandatory roads highlighted directly in the plan, operating instructions and routes, with GPS and Google Maps integration. It also handles non-routine services such as illegally dumped waste, recorded with method, location, quantity, reason and job status, and includes digital signage functions to communicate plans and theoretical schedules to staff.
What each service really costs
The cost of each job is managed by integrating data with the customer’s accounting system or with iDempiere. Cost logics such as euro per shift and euro per weight are available, along with a comparison between internal cost and invoiced amount; historical data remains available for analysis and reporting. Alongside the question “was the service carried out?” comes “how much did it cost us?”.
The benefits
- Operational calendar generated automatically from master data
- Automatic checks on missing or unavailable resources
- Quick daily changes through drag and drop
- Tracked recovery of unfinished activities
- Shifts, on-call duty and weekly hours under control
- Routes and mandatory roads visible in the plan
- Vehicle breakdowns recorded and reflected in planning
- Cost and margin of each individual job
- Activity history for analysis and reporting
Configurations and frequencies can be adapted to each customer’s needs, with integration into accounting and ERP systems.
In short
With EcoGest each service is configured once and becomes the starting point for generating the calendar, assigning people and vehicles, managing routes and shifts, reacting to unexpected events and controlling costs.
