Customer Centric Vehicle Servicing

Ever experienced giving your vehcile for a routine servicing? I have to leave my car at the service station around 6 kms away, hop back home & then go back to collect the car at the scheduled time (which normally is 5-8-10 hrs from the time that i left the car) & that is not as great an anxiety as much as i have about 'did they really work on my car' for all that the service station was supposed to work on!! Staying back at the service station is not an alternative as I really don't know when will they work on the car & also have no time to spare for the whole day at the service station.

On the other hand, the service station offers me the alternative to get my car picked up & dropped back. This eliminates a very minor issue which is blown too much out of proportion in the mind of the customer. A 30 minutes drive in the morning to drop the car is not as much an issue as much as i have about the 'quality of work done' on the car when i am not around. There is no way to know if the service station followed the standard checklist once your car is ready in for delivery. To top it up the delivery department is different than the operations department. So who hands over the car to me post the servicing is an entity totally disconnected with the link of the chain who worked on the car. So for an incomplete job the customer is running pillar to post to get the job completed.

Enough of problem statement. I want to work towards the solution bit.

If one really analyses the touch time (time when the vehicle is actually being worked upon..which also is the ONLY time for which customer wishes to pay), one arrives at not more than an hour per vehicle (in a typical cell). It looks reasonable for me to assume that if your vehicle at the service station for say 6 hours, it basically is idle (not being worked upon) for almost 80% of its time. So 80% is the non value added time.And the customer pays for that too!

If one does a customer order analysis (in this case vehicles to be serviced per day) & work sampling (activities currently done by the operator) along-with the load-balance (per operator), the service stations may actually be able to commit a one hour delivery to the customer. So from the time customer arrives till he leaves should not be more than  say sixty minutes. This allows the customer the flexibility to wait & watch his vehicle being serviced (in my opinion one of the best ways to add more customers to your list). The customer may be asked to wait to see his vehicle being serviced while sipping his hot 'chai' or a 'coffee' (which incidentally can now be offered for free!). The additional cost of picking & dropping the vehicle may also undergo a downward journey. A sequencing for the shop floor will make the floor also be reasonably free of vehicles allowing for better space utilization. I can think of so many of the benefits of this..something as simple as - leave all your documents including the valuables in the car, we will ensure nothing is misplaced.

Most of the customers of a company authorized service stations are the ones who avail the free service which comes along-with the new car purchase. This is a low profit business. Applying Lean which will result in the above, will help them not only to improve margins of the existing line of business but also grab the non-customers.

Comments

  1. Dr. Anand WadadekarJune 20, 2013 at 4:07 PM

    Good one. But according to my fundamentals, even to board a bus, everyone has to board it one by one. Also when the bus conductor gives a ticket to the passenger, it is the charge for the km and not the duration of travel.

    So one-considering the ratio mismatch between the car-mechanic attendant, one hour delivery time is not possible.two-the car owner is paying for the service and not for keeping it idle.

    Views solicited.

    ReplyDelete
  2. KeshavJune 23, 2013 at 9:49 AM

    Hi Pinak,
    Frankly I appreciate the identification of issue & attempting to apply lean. I fully agree, only with an apprehension. The job content for each service,(Other than free service), may vary. And queuing for single piece flow may be an issue due to varying service time.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Pinak KulkarniJune 24, 2013 at 1:48 PM

      Hi Keshav, for every 'standard' servicing (not only Free ones) to be done e.g. at the end of 30,000 kms or 60,000 kms there exists a 'standard set of jobs' to be completed & a checklist exists for the same. A customer may also get a copy of the checklist, if desired. (some times it comes with the Customers Manual along-with the purchase of the new car)

      For a specific (in mfg terminology - ETO) customized servicing the 'job' shop would come into play....

      Delete

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