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Dispatching

Workflow: dispatch triage and capacity management

Morning triage, honest capacity, parts readiness, and customer promises that survive the day.

Quick answer

Quick answer

Dispatch triage matches promise to reality: classify demand, verify parts and access, assign by skill and geography with buffers, then measure first-time completion—not only utilization.

Workflow overview

Triage is where emergencies and PM obligations compete for the same finite hours. Without explicit rules, dispatch becomes reactive and customers experience randomness.

Capacity is a data product: it should reflect parts, access, and skill—not headcount alone.

Visual workflow steps

Ordered phases your team can operationalize as SOPs, dispatch rules, and automation triggers.

  1. Step 1

    Classify demand

    Tag life safety, contract due-risk, revenue-critical, discretionary.

    Publish default response expectations per class.

  2. Step 2

    Verify readiness

    Parts pickable? Access confirmed? Customer window real?

    Block hard commits when critical dependencies are unknown.

  3. Step 3

    Assign by skill first

    Geography second; avoid wrong-tech short drives.

    Track skill fit exceptions as coaching inputs.

  4. Step 4

    Communicate windows

    Narrow windows only when upstream data is reliable.

    Log deferrals with reason codes for weekly review.

  5. Step 5

    End-of-day backlog review

    Burn down due-risk; escalate systemic misses.

    Feed realistic durations back into templates.

Operational objectives

  • Fewer ambiguous arrivals
  • First-time completion rises without unsafe rush
  • Reschedule reasons become actionable taxonomy

Recommended KPIs

First-time completion (scoped)

Pair with short-window callbacks to detect gaming.

Backlog age by tier

SLA tiers are meaningless if aging is invisible.

Travel % of paid time

High travel often signals territory design—not technician speed.

Role responsibilities

Dispatch manager

Owns triage doctrine and publishes regional capacity honesty.

Parts lead

Stages kits; flags stock risks before routes finalize.

CS

Confirms access for commercial clusters; validates approver paths.

Automation opportunities

  • Highlight jobs missing PO/approver before dispatch hardens.
  • Auto-suggest technician cohort by recent asset success.
  • Detect invisible WIP stuck in assigned-without-parts states.

Common failure points

Optimistic drive-time defaults

Seasonal traffic breaks promises; customers perceive randomness.

Parts fiction

Scheduling assumes stock that is not pickable; first-trip success collapses.

Related Equipify features

Related SOPs (Help Center)

Implementation checklist

  1. One-page triage doctrineLife safety, due-risk, revenue, discretionary—with default windows.
  2. Parts gate on commitDefine what must be pickable before customer promise hardens.
  3. Weekly exception reviewTop drivers: access, capacity, parts, customer availability.

FAQ

Should dispatch be centralized?
Either model works if triage rules and backlog visibility are shared—not org-chart aesthetics.