Some ways that I used empathy in the Envirotech project included...
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Listened to concerns on the phone in our initial conversation
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Came into the office to get a better view of what goes on in their office/ maintenance vehicles
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Brainstormed some basic ideas of why the field workers may not be restocking their trucks, without assuming they’re “lazy” or “irresponsible”
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trying to empathize with field workers to get their side of the story and why they might not be restocking their vehicles
Phone Interview with the owner:
Basic Info: They have 7 trucks that must have a certain amount of parts, so that they are prepared to serve any client in the HVAC industry. They must know how many is in the shop AND the truck
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They already have an inventory Excel Spreadsheet
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They already have an invoice system where the workers can tap the specific part on a program on their iphones and it automatically goes to the computers at the office (In-office server)
Issues: They have no way to track how many parts the workers are taking from the office
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Usually, they take too many, and the next guy won’t have any left for his truck
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Or, they will completely forget to restock and James has to drive out to a client
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Needs a good way to know an estimate for the year, so that he can buy in bulk and therefore the parts will be cheaper
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gas and time is being wasted and unnecessary wear tear is being put on the work trucks because of irresponsibility
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Workers are not responsible and keep forgetting to restock vehicles
Going Into the office to observe maintenance vehicles and their current organization:
Some ways I used empathy at my internship included...
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recognized that they were busy and could use some help on basic stuff, such as CAD modeling and checking dimensions for them
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went and helped guys in the shop with things like inventory and packaging, so that I could understand the work orders engineers give them a little better
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I worked with people who do sales to understand their concept of money and how they thought their purchases were justified
This was actually one of the a lot more organized maintenance vehicles, James told me. In the other, more frustrating vehicles, there was heavy parts being lost and set in random places, smashed filters, broken things from not being in their correct spot, and a lot more. It was apparent in those vehicles that an organizational system should be enforced.