Like many Prologis maintenance techs, Mike Dominik is in the office just a couple of times each month. Because he is focused on serving his customers, he operates without much face-to-face interaction with his industrial property management team. So, he relies on technology to bridge the gap. When something needs attention, he snaps a picture with his phone, annotates the picture with an app and sends it to his manager for input. For example, when he was working on a new gate for the front of a building, he used a finger-drawing app to create a rough rendering so his manager could weigh in on the plans.
This mobile technology is also useful for communicating with vendors. Renumbering dock doors used to require an on-site meeting with a sign company. Now Mike snaps a picture, marks it with required changes and sends it off to the vendor. What used to take more than an hour now takes seconds. In addition to speed, these digital solutions increase accuracy.
Maintenance tech Chris Parker also leverages innovative mobile tools on the job. For roof leaks—where speed is of the essence—he uses a digital measuring device to pinpoint the location of the leak, inputs that information into the RoofManager software system and conveys requirements electronically to the repair team. Because the location of the leak is documented accurately, the roofing company can start work immediately upon arriving at the warehouse.
Chris has used mobile technology to solicit bids for some repairs and coordinate work on others. Apps allow work to move more quickly and with greater precision and clarity. Chris can pull up a picture, document or map, and easily add colors, arrows, comments and more.
Prologis customers are the primary beneficiaries of this adoption of mobile technology. When a longtime customer wanted to reconfigure the parking pattern at his property, Chris used Google Earth to capture an aerial of the property and an annotation app to quickly sketch a new configuration. He emailed it to the customer who called and said, “That’s exactly it! It’s like you were reading my mind.” Chris recalls, “It took five minutes of my time, the tenant was happy and the paving company knew exactly what the scope of work was.”
In Prologis’ collaborative environment, word about the positive impact of mobile technology has spread quickly. Mike and Chris have provided many interested colleagues with impromptu tutorials. At a Chicago area tech café event, the two shared their experiences with using mobile apps to increase productivity and improve customer service. Feedback was so positive that Prologis’ learning and development team created a training module that is available online for all Prologis maintenance techs. Now maintenance techs across the globe are using mobile apps to make their jobs easier and customers happier.
