Fine-tuning in the workshop !
«The key factor is to optimise the fill rate.» Alexandre Rodrigues, 3Dsoft CEO.
Extract from the Argus de l’Automobile interview with Alexandre Rodrigues :
What are the factors that motivate a reorganisation of after-sales?
Workshops were already faced with the challenge of managing space and equipment. Now they also have to deal with a shortage of technicians. At the same time, consumer behaviour is changing. Customers now expect an instant response. They buy a service like they buy products online, with the follow-up that goes with it. The challenge is to establish horizontal communication between all the players in the after-sales supply chain. This goes hand-in-hand with vertical transparency with customers, at a time when three quarters of phone calls are never answered. A digital pathway is needed to optimise flows.
In concrete terms, is lead time management becoming a strategic issue?
On average, servicing a vehicle represents two or three billable hours of labour. But the vehicle can be immobilised for up to 11 hours.
What is the thinking that needs to guide this approach?
While productivity depends on the performance of technicians or tools, efficiency comes from the overall effectiveness of the workshop and the way it is organised. To optimise this, the hours billed to customers must be higher than the hours paid to technicians. But the workload depends on the teams and the workshops. The fill rate will be lower on the diagnostic side, but it needs to be optimised for quick-turnaround maintenance services, which are standardised and have fixed completion times. For mechanical work, the slider is somewhere in the middle. Reorganising the workshops alone is not enough. The key factor is to optimise the fill rate.
Author : Jean-François Leray – L’Argus