Field Service Management Glossary

Learn more about field service management terms, phrases and expressions

Field service management

Field service management is the practice and theory of managing on-premise work, including personnel, equipment, service, and work operations

Material ordering

Material ordering is the process of ordering materials to a warehouse or storage location.

Bill of materials (BOM)

A bill of materials is a detailed inventory of raw materials, parts, and instructions required to build, manufacture, or repair a product or service.

Service Level Agreement (SLA)

A service-level agreement is a document outlining the relationship between a service provider and a client. SLAs are usually broken up into sections like deliverables, quality, availability, responsibilities, deadlines, and expectations in order to create a clear, and transparent agreement between the two parties.

Supply chain

Supply chain consists of the entire production to distribution process. When it comes to FSM, a field technician needs to know that things are in the right place, at the right time in order to be productive. From materials, bookings and task briefs and equipment, everything needs to align properly. 

First Time Fix Rate (FTFR)

First Time Fix Rate (FTFR) is the percentage of time spent by a technician to fix an issue or task the first time they engage with it. It’s apreframnce metric for mobile services providers. 

Preventive maintenance

Predictive Maintenance is the method of leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things IoT technologies to detect and address flaws and possible defects in equipment before they turn into full-blown problems. It’s a proactive field service management practice that aims to safeguard operational workflow and equipment life-span.

Real-time data

Real-time data refers to the access in information without any delay. In a field service management context, immediate access to data can help with faster, more informed decisions, better scheduling and more efficient technician performance.

Route optimization

Route optimization is the practice of finding the fastest, most efficient driving route while taking into consideration factors such as traffic, time-slots, adjustments, new information, and deadlines. 

CMMS

Computerized maintenance management system, also known as computerized maintenance management information system, is a software package that maintains a computer database of information about an organization’s maintenance operations.

Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF)

Mean time between failures (MTBF) is the average time between system/machinery breakdowns.