Oversee the communications between the parts department and the sales department.

• identify areas to be improved
• decides what goes to the customer (final mediator)
• hiring and evaluating
• talks to the customer in case of problems

Could you describe the current system?

The appointment taker may ask the pickup coordinator to organize the client’s pickup (free for Rahall’s customers) or the loaning of a car. (80% need another car. 50% accept transportation offer)

If there are unexpected difficulties fixing the car, a service advisor may ask another team’s advisor to help them, but most of the time, a teams work independently from each other.

How do technicians get the parts they need?

(Not only the technicians need to get parts, but also independent dealers. Both have to phone or come to the parts department desk.)

They get the part number, fill in the form and give it to the parts department. They may have to ask the customer or the service advisor.

Depending on the part’s availability and the urgency, the part may be received the next day, two days after or several days after (If it has to be shipped by plane from Germany. )

Where do the technicians get the information they need from ?

Paper documentation is available, as well as microfilms and the WIS system, which contains information about parts and car models.

How do you use Reynold’s system?

Reynold’s system may be used to schedule appointments and get information about the clients and they car(s). The day’s schedule is printed every morning, as well as any information regarding a client who is scheduled to come this day (information about the car, what needs to be done, the client…) (Printed on forms. There will be samples available in the lab.)

Detailed information about the repair is stored in the system for 6 months. After this time, only coded information about the repair is available. The forms are stored in a separate room, in the client’s folder.

Computers in general are very useful (makes things easier to manage, forms can be printed and printed again; no loss)

Reynold’s system user interface is outdated. They should have incorporated a modern interface by now.

How do you use the WIS system?

Every technician can use the WIS system. Some do so, but othes prefer the microfilm documentation. (When we came into the room where de documentation is, someone was reading the microfilm, not accessing the computer) When using the WIS system, they can either read it on the screen or print a copy.

(The WIS system, the microfilm reader, the microfilms and the paper documentation are stored in a room adjacent to the garage. No book is actually visible; everything is hidden. I doubt technicians will take books with them in the garage; they have to stop working to come to this room, find the information, memorize it and go back to fix the car, unless they can print what they need from the WIS system)

The WIS system contains detailed information about parts, their number and their specifications. There are specifications about car models and their options, as well as graphics explaining how the car works and troubleshooting material.

The material is sometimes quite useful and well made (troubleshooting), but often hard to understand (translated from German in a very technical language). Some information are stored as images (scanned paper) of a very low quality (sometimes unusable, either in print or displayed on the screen)

(This system runs on NT, but short-circuit the entire system. It uses a custom graphical user interface quite different form Windows’.)

(The system is very slow! It takes quite a while to start. It wasn’t started when we came; the computer only showed a standard NT desktop.)

The microfilms: every 6 months

The CDs (for the WIS system): every month.

They receive updates (corrections) on paper regularly, but have no good way to integrate it into the system. (They are probably stored somewhere in the room and no one uses them.)

It is hard to use and may frighten someone just habituated to Windows’ ways. For example: the slide bars at the border of the windows cannot be moved freely up and down to move the displayed information as the mouse moves. The only available functions are : page up/page down. What’s more: there is no way to search for two words at the same time – the search dialog box only accepts one.

(We have had a demonstration of this search dialog box. It displays everything that is available in a list, which has a small text box under it. The word searched for is entered into this text box. When RETURN is pressed, the list jumps to the first entry containing that word in its title, and that word is highlighted. Then, the user has to press RETURN again to have the list jump to the next entry. This is indicated nowhere and the user interface do not show any hint about how to go to the next result.)

There are some words remaining that have not been translated from German.

Do you ever send technicians to fix cars outside of the dealership?

There is an emergency repair service, even when the dealership is closed or on weekends. An experienced technician is sent to the client in a car containing the most used parts. The technician has access to the garage, the tools and the documentation, but has to call someone to get another part. Hopefully, most of the calls are for very simple problems, like a tire having to be replaced or a car having run out of gas.

(We had a closer look at EPC. It’s actually a suite of applications running on Solaris (two computers running different applications.) It can be used to search a part number (using a crude but clear graphical interface). This part number is then written down and can be used to search a part in the local database of available parts or on the CD describing the parts that can be ordered. Those CDs are updated monthly. To order a part or to check if it is really available, they have to use a phone.