Just In Time intelligence: the new age of working for field engineers
Everyone's heard of just-in-time manufacturing. It revolutionised production by eliminating the costly burden of warehousing inventory. The principle was simple: hold only what you need, when you need it.
But there's another kind of asset that field service companies have been carrying for decades. One that's valuable and complex to manage at scale. Intelligence.
The hidden cost of knowledge storage
Think about what we expect from a field service engineer:
- the commissioning procedure for every boiler model they service, and the differences with new models
- the error codes for dozens of different systems
- the compliance requirements for social housing versus commercial properties
- the specific SLAs for each client contract
- the safety protocols for working at height in occupied buildings
And much more.
It's a lot to be able to do their job well. Whole training programmes have been built, onboarding processes, and quality control systems have been set up on the assumption that engineers will learn all of this information.
In reality, this becomes expensive, ineffective, and unsustainable.
Training a new engineer to memorise your operational procedures takes months, or even years. The cost isn't just in the direct training time, it's in the mistakes made while learning, the senior engineer’s time answering repetitive questions, and the jobs that take twice as long because someone's rifling through a 300-page manual in the back of a van.
Even worse, when that senior engineer leaves, decades of accumulated knowledge walks out the door with them.
Just-in-Time intelligence
Just-in-time manufacturing taught us that storing physical inventory is unnecessary. Now, the same principle applies to company knowledge. Your engineers can't be expected to memorise every manufacturer's instruction guide. They shouldn't need to. And they definitely shouldn't be carrying ring binders full of technical specifications, flipping through pages whilst a client waits.
What they should have is instant access to the exact information they need, at the exact moment they require it.
This is just-in-time intelligence.
Instead of keeping knowledge siloed in someone's head, a quick WhatsApp message from the job site can get them the information they need. From precise technical specifications to compliance requirements and everything else, engineers can pull information directly from your company's documentation with a quick conversation with AI.
No searching through files. No phone calls to the office. No hoping they remember correctly.
The WhatsApp revolution in field service
Engineers already use WhatsApp when they're stuck. They message their supervisor. They call a senior engineer. They interrupt someone in the office.
What if, instead, they could message an AI tool that instantly searches your entire library of technical manuals, operational procedures, and client contracts?
- "What's the gas safe procedure for meter installation?"
- "What compliance checks are required for social housing electrical work?"
- "What's our SLA for emergency callouts at the Riverside Housing contract?"
The answers come back in seconds, pulled from your actual documentation, not generic advice from ChatGPT, but your company's specific procedures, written in your voice, following your standards.
The office stops fielding the same questions repeatedly. Senior engineers stop being interrupted mid-job. New starters get up to speed in record time.
And most importantly, the engineer on site gets the right answer immediately, improving first-time fix rates and reducing costly return visits.
Why this matters for Operations Directors
If you're running a field service operation with 50+ engineers, you're almost guaranteed to deal with some of the following:
- Training bottlenecks: New starters take months to become fully productive, costing you time and money.
- Knowledge silos: Your best engineers have decades of experience in their heads, but there's no seamless, scalable way to share it.
- Inconsistent service quality: Different engineers follow different procedures because they remember guidelines differently.
- Office interruptions: Engineers regularly call in with questions that could be answered from your existing documentation.
- Compliance risk: Engineers make judgment calls in the field without access to the latest regulations or client-specific requirements.
Just-in-time intelligence solves all of these challenges. Not by making engineers memorise more, but by making your company's knowledge instantly accessible when and where it's needed.
The competitive advantage
Field service is moving fast with AI. With many either already implementing AI-driven knowledge systems or planning to. The companies that embrace just-in-time intelligence will see:
- Significant reductions in office interruptions because engineers can self-serve answers
- Faster onboarding with new starters productive in weeks rather than months
- Higher first-time fix rates because engineers have instant access to technical specifications
- Better compliance with engineers able to check requirements on-site before making decisions
- Improved customer satisfaction with faster, more professional service delivery
From theory to practice
Just-in-time manufacturing wasn't adopted because it was interesting. It was adopted because companies that implemented it could operate more efficiently and profitably than those that didn't.
The same truth applies to just-in-time intelligence.
Field service companies that recognise knowledge as a key asset have a fundamental operational advantage over those that don't.
The technology exists. The engineers are already on WhatsApp. Your documentation is already written. The only question is: how long can you afford to keep storing intelligence the old way?
Centrus AI provides just-in-time intelligence for field service companies, enabling engineers to access company knowledge instantly via WhatsApp. Learn more about transforming your field service operations at centrus.ai.