A CPO Single Source Of Truth.

A single pane of glass for all a CPO’s operations.

We have discovered working with the EV charger sector that what everybody in this sector struggles with is having a whole range of information, in a range of information sources, but no single source of truth to manage all their operations.

At the start a maintenance or operations manager will be responsible for ensuring uptime and controlling maintenance costs. It can seem like a small-scale issue. EV chargers are in themselves very reliable, and operators only have a few installed. However when every down charger can result in lost hours of work for commercial EVs and as the charger network becomes bigger, it is easy to lose oversight of how efficiently reactive and planned maintenance is managed. At that stage maintenance operations become a critical factor in an organization’s profitability.

Typically operators in this sector have to report to asset owners (for example local government), or clients that are paying a subscription cost for charging assets. Software to automate the management of these operations and offer observability of uptime, efficiency and costs are key to ensuring stakeholder satisfaction.

Companies in this sector might be using:

1.?????Software ticketing systems if they are managing firmware versions in the chargers.

2.?????Operational ticketing system for on-site maintenance operations.

3.?????Document control software for construction and maintenance operations.

4.?????Databases and spreadsheets for resource management of the contractor/maintenance teams.

5.?????Charge point management software, sometimes multiple packages one for each Charger manufacturer.

6.?????Data/network management software to manage communications and ensure all assets are functional.

7.?????POS management software.

8.?????Accounting software for tracking expenditures, control billing and giving management insight into costs, and automating where possible.

All these systems are disparate and normally not directly connected. If a company does not have a single source of truth then operations cannot be managed effectively.

How do we fix this problem?

A single source of truth, connecting all aspects of maintenance operations means the operator has a clear view of

1.?????What assets are performing better than others? – to help with purchasing decisions (MTBF or Mean Charges Between Failures)

2.?????What kind of locations suffer more than others from vandalism and misuse? – to help with future installation decisions.

3.?????Which contractors have the best firsts time job completion rate and manage jobs effectively?

4.?????Job completion in conformance with SLA or where compensation might be owed by a contractor.

5.?????Where operations costs are matching budget, where they are deviating, and why?

6.?????Reducing the number of man-hours required to efficiently manage operations.

7.?????Do the on-site team have all the right tools at their disposal?

·???????Repair instructions.

·???????Site drawings.

·???????Asset warranty information to eliminate unnecessary expenditure.

·???????Spares listing.

·???????Location information.

·???????Work order/failure details.

Assets other than the EV Charger can render a charger unusable or unpleasant. It is important that a management tool can also consider these additional factors.

1.?????Canopy collapse or damage, giving users a feeling of danger.

2.?????Damage to screens, making them unreadable or unusable.

3.?????Bumpers damaged and blocked access.

4.?????Lighting out of action, making users feel unsafe.

5.?????Security camera or data connection not working affecting insurance or disabling charging operations..

Planned operations.

A key part of maintaining a good charger network is to ensure that compliance and preventative maintenance are also effectively managed. This work can slip by the wayside and so increase potential liability, but its routine and ongoing nature mean that to be effective it should be managed as part of the complete package. If not effectively included in operations management:

1.?????If warranty status is not tracked warranties could be invalidated by work undertaken, or not undertaken.

2.?????Opportunities for undertaking planned work when an engineer is in the area responding to reactive tasks are lost. (Ringfencing task notifications to a given geographic area and time slot)

3.?????Compliance and insurance costs can increase if the appropriate inspection or preventative work is not undertaken effectively.

4.?????Avoidable breakdowns and a negative reputation can increase.

Experience has shown us the commonest cause of faults is damage caused by the cars of people trying to use charge points and secondly, in some locations, vandalism. These issues are seldom picked up by charger management software, but they still need to be quickly and easily reported by users or attendees. ?Techniche CMMS is a key tool to solving this problem too by making it possible for users to report issues with a few taps of the phone as well as the usual call to a call center.

All of this information included or connected to a single package gives our clients a clear path to ensure they have not just an impeccable reputation but also achieve all their uptime goals, and have all costs under control.