Industry
Automotive dealers aren’t easy going, and it isn’t to get any easier. The number of franchised dealers declined in recent years. With margins on new cars sold less than two percent and declining showroom visit, many dealerships are in a difficult position. The points of sales structure changes, partially as a result of the changing consumer behavior. The influence of large fleet owners (lease companies) increased price pressure. Car Supermarkets evolve and disappear, and even the traditional foods supermarket starts sales of cars, scooters and motorcycles. Franchised dealers unite to form powerful sales - dealer holding companies - which some even belong to the European top. The old brand dealer transformed under the influence of the multi-brand strategy that different brand-groups follow.
Also the after-sales market, always being the core of the dealer profitability, is heavily under pressure. This is both due to the increased product quality, leading to less service requirements per car and time per service activity, and to the growing competition of independent workshops. Universal workshops take an increasingly prominent place and are now a valuable alternative for many consumers when it comes to maintenance and repair of their vehicle.
Issues
The declining margins on both new sales and after sales services forces the dealer to invest in optimizing it business processes. In order to sustain the level of revenue in after sales the number of cars serviced every day has to increase, leading to higher number supporting activities. In addition the availability of skilled and experienced employees increased. Increasing customer satisfaction at the same time decreasing cost of the service activities by efficiency improvements next to quality improvements and employee retention are focal points to sustain profitability.
Solution
ICRON offers a set of flexible planning and scheduling tools to address these unique challenges so that car dealer community can improve their key performances by better utilizing the flexibilities that characterizes their business environment.
By integrating with back-office, governmental and car manufactures systems, ICRON is able to deliver automotive after sales solutions that support:
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Both central and de-central appointment planning
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Integration of PDI of new and used car sales into service activities
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Optimization of the reception desk activities
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Rental car planning and maintenance
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Recall verification and integration into service activities
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Optimization of the workshop service activities
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Incorporation of ad-hoc express and small service activities
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Employee planning and scheduling including skill and experience based job allocation
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Central capacity planning and enabling capacity based inter-site exchange of service activities
Above support results in:
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Increasing RFTOT figures
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Increase flexibility to react on disturbances
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Increasing customer satisfaction and subsequent customer retention
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Decreasing operational costs
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Improved employee job-satisfaction and employee retention