Topic: Economics and Management

Transcription

1 A STUDY ON MAPPING PROCESSES IN ORGANISATIONS BASED ON ACQUAINTANCES. A CASE STUDY Oprean Constantin 1, Ț îț u Mihail 2, Grecu Daniel 3, Tănăsescu Cristina 4, Oprean Camelia 5, Ț îț u Mariana 6 1 Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu Romania, rector@ulbsibiu.ro 2 Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu Romania, mihail.titu@ulbsibiu.ro 3 Autoklass Sibiu Romania, daniel.grecu@autoklass.ro 4 Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu Romania, cristina.tanasescu@ulbsibiu.ro 5 Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu Romania, camelia.oprean@ulbsibiu.ro 6 Volksbank Sibiu Romania, ancatitu@yahoo.ca Topic: Economics and Management 1

2 A STUDY ON MAPPING PROCESSES IN ORGANISATIONS BASED ON ACQUAINTANCES. A CASE STUDY Oprean Constantin 1, Ț îț u Mihail 2, Grecu Daniel 3, Tănăsescu Cristina 4, Oprean Camelia 5, Ț îț u Mariana 6 1 Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu Romania, rector@ulbsibiu.ro 2 Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu Romania, mihail.titu@ulbsibiu.ro 3 Autoklass Sibiu Romania, daniel.grecu@autoklass.ro 4 Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu Romania, cristina.tanasescu@ulbsibiu.ro 5 Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu Romania, camelia.oprean@ulbsibiu.ro 6 Volksbank Sibiu Romania, ancatitu@yahoo.ca Abstract The acquiring and successful management of the quality of services offered throughout the processes taking place within the organisation is essential to ensuring a long term partnership with the client. The organisation strategy must ensure client satisfaction and should not focus solely on the product or service provided. We cannot control or improve what we do not know in detail. Thus, the service and supply processes must be very well defined and regulated using work procedures and instructions, as an inadequate approach may lead to a negative impact on the image of the organisation. In the analysed organisation an analysis has been conducted on the performances obtained after the service processes were carried on, being carefully monitored, followed by the recommendation of measures needed in order to continually improve the quality of the services provided. The information regarding the clients perception of the way in which the organisation meets his or their demands has been also processed. To ensure the continual improvement of the quality of the services offered by the organisation we must keep measuring the results of the performed activities. Thus we have the opportunity to invest in the development and continual improvement of the processes generating the competitive success of the organisation, turning it into a leader on the present market. Our final aim is attained when the client is satisfied with the quality of the services provided. 1. Introduction This scientific paper aims to present the activity of vehicle maintenance as part of the After-Sale Services department in an organisation where a quality control management system is implemented. This study describes in detail the service processes, with the supply activity to be described in a further paper. The acquiring and successful management of the quality of services offered throughout the processes taking place within the organisation is essential to ensuring a long term partnership with the client. The services of the analyzed organisation are: 2

3 maintenance and repair services for automobiles and commercial vehicles during or outside the warranty period; repair for damaged vehicles, whose cost is supported (fully or partly) by the insurance companies or by the client; sale of spare parts, vehicle accessories and collection items; Periodical Technical Inspections (P.T.I.); towing for vehicles weighing up to the authorised maximum weight of 3500 kg. The quality of the services provided by the organisation must be ensured at all times, starting with scheduling vehicles for repair and ending with interviewing clients with a view to identifying the level of satisfaction obtained. The study aims to identify the areas in which special attention must be paid for a period of time in order to determine the causes that generate the interruption in the information flow. In order to obtain and maintain a high level of client satisfaction regarding the services offered by the organisation, it is necessary for all the processes taking place in the analysed organisation, starting with scheduling the vehicle and ending with the clients picking up their vehicle following the payment of the cost of the services provided, to be optimised adequately in order to eliminate idle time. At the same time, communication with the client, together with internal communication between the different departments of the organisation must be achieved in perfect conditions. 2. General consideration The organisation strategy must ensure client satisfaction and should not focus solely on the product or service provided. We cannot control or improve what we do not know in detail. Thus, the service and supply processes must be very well defined and regulated using work procedures and instructions, as an inadequate approach may lead to a negative impact on the image of the organisation. In the analysed organisation an analysis has been conducted on the performances obtained after the service processes were carried on, being carefully monitored, followed by the recommendation of measures needed in order to continually improve the quality of the services provided. The information regarding the clients perception of the way in which the organisation meets his or their demands has been also processed. Following studies conducted in the USA it has been highlighted that the organisations lose half of their clients every 5 years and 70% of the interviewed clients claim that they have renounced the services of the organisation because it did not manage effectively the concern for the client. An important sum of money must be allotted for keeping current clients and ensuring their loyalty. Philip Kotler points out that replacing lost clients generates a cost 5 times higher than the cost of keeping them. To ensure the continual improvement of the quality of the services offered by the organisation we must keep measuring the results of the performed activities. Thus we have the opportunity to invest in the development and continual improvement of the processes generating the competitive success of the organisation, turning it into a leader on the present market. 3

4 The final aim of defining and continually improving the service processes is to ensure the quality of services offered to the clients by the organisation. The sales, service and supply departments work together, having as a strategic objective the assurance of the client s satisfaction, who perceives the organisation as a whole. Every person from within the organisation is responsible for ensuring the client satisfaction. It is an extremely important aspect that cannot be the responsibility of a single department or of a single person appointed to deal with this issue. Our final aim is attained when the client is satisfied with the quality of the services provided, and with the cost, impressed with the environment where he/she waited for the workover to be completed, with the special treatment he/she benefited from, all of these aspects generating a positive experience which will determine the client to feel confident to return to the service department. 3. A case study In this study we will analyze the service processes that take place in an organization that provides vehicle repair services. In order to keep under control all the specific processes of the vehicle repair activity, we must identify the main stages in their structure and then to break down each process into specific activities. Vehicle scheduling Vehicle reception Vehicle delivery back to the customer SERVICE PROCESS Vehicle diagnosis Process control Vehicle repair Figure 1 The service process stages 4

5 1. Vehicle scheduling. It represents the activity that has as objective the judicious allocation of the necessary resources for the required repairs that make the vehicle function according to the producer s specifications. To this end, the foremen should continuously keep updated the availability of the human resources in the electronic management system whereas the vehicle scheduling should be done by assigning each vehicle to the technician that has the required competence to successfully deploy and complete the service intervention. If, for example, one of the techicians is unavailable, the foreman will delete in realtime the specific data of his availability and will immediately distribute the vehicles assigned to this technician to the other technicians so that the vehicles deadlines are followed through. Where the time alloted to the repair is not well defined, disfunctionalities will occur in the repair process. Taking into account the critical sucess factors mentioned in figure 2, the process can be shaped by implementing the following measures: the service adviser (the receptionist) should be regarded as the key element of a successful customer relationship management. the scheduling should be done electronically, in real-time. it is recommended that the maintenance work and the low complexity degree repairs be scheduled also by the person that works at the Info Desk. Thus, the time that the customer has to wait till one of the advisers becomes available reduces. the management system of the service activity should offer the receptionist the possibility to see at all time the status of each repair so that he can intervene in real-time to fill the blanks that are caused by repairs that are finished before the alloted time. the service adviser should also contact the customer if the time alloted to the finalization of the repairs is extended overpassing the customer s deadline. When he schedules the vehicle, the receptionist should check whether the vehicle needs to undergo an intervention determined by the producer( technical campaigns), so that the required markers for these repairs could be supplied without delay. the customer should be informed during the scheduling of the intervention about the payment arrangements for the provided services. the availability of the markers necessary for the scheduled repairs should be checked, the appointment of these being necessary to avoid the situations in which the necessary markers are used to repair other vehicles. 5

6 Critical success factors of vehicle scheduling Service adviser training Electronic management system of vehicle scheduling The implementation of a visual management system for repair observation Continuous customer contact management Figure 2 Critical success factors for vehicle scheduling management 2. Vehicle reception. This activity consists in taking over the vehicle from the customer according to the service instructions. The visual verification of the vehicle is made in three different stages: at the bottom, with the vehicle lifted up on the elevator at half-height and, with the vehicle completly lifted. This is the moment when the service adviser and the customer communicate at a maximum level of efficiency, and the customer receives all the necessary information in order to decide what repairs will be made. After the take-over of the vehicle a contract between the service and the customer will be drawn up, contract according to which the service intervention will be carried out. The customer should receive in real-time the computed price of the requested work. 6

7 Critical success factors of vehicle reception The washingof the vehicle before the reception The thorough check up of the dashboard indications The correct assessment of the alloted time for the intervention The identification of the vehicle documents availability period Figure 3 Critical success factors for vehicle reception management The process can be shaped by implementing the following measures: it is recommended that the take-over of the vehicle be made only after the vehicle is washed, if anything there is the risk that certain nonconformities (scratches, small damages ) are not identified until after the customer handed over the vehicle. The service adviser should be extremely careful about the exterior and the interior of the vehicle, but what is very important is to check the dashboard indications and to check whether there are any witnesses who can signal certain malfunctions known or unknown by the customer during the vehicle reception. The customer must be informed about the deadline of the work, and whether in the given time only diagnosis operations will be made or the repair will be finished, or if other service interventions are required, except the repairs that the vehicle was scheduled for. It is also recommended to check and to inform the customer about the expiry date of the Periodic Technical Inspection (PTI), the validity of insurance policy and any other information regarding the safety but also the legality of putting into circulation the vehicle on public roads. The concern towards the customer can be proved especially by showing respect for his asset, namely the vehicle, by applying the protection elements (applying a 7

8 protection cover on the fenders, the chairs, the wheel, and using gloves when working). The service advisers should reply to customer demands showing empathy, they will give all the necessary details regarding the period of the intervention, the parts, the accessories, the price of the work, any other technical details, as well as the suggested solutions for eliminating the referred nonconformities. 3. The diagnosis process. The correct diagnosis of malfunctions represents the element that underlies customer satisfaction insurance. The organizations must invest continuously in the training activity whose tactical objective is to increase the qualification level of each of the company s employees. By increasing the professional competence level, the malfunctions are easily identified in a relatively short time, the long-term effect is the increase of the company s competitiveness and attracting the customers. The process must be shaped so as to insure a correct and efficient diagnosis: the history of the service interventions of the vehicle that were performed before must be consulted. The work should be scheduled according to the capability of the technical personnel to deal with the high complexity risk diagnosis cases. Where errors regarding the work distribution complexity have arisen, the foreman must reassign the work to the technicians that have the required training level. It must be checked whether the vehile is involved in technical campaigns made by the producer. The diagnosis stages described in the technical documentation must be read precisely. The last information given by the producer regarding the identification of new repair methods must be consulted. 4. The repair process. The repairs must be made only after cunsulting the technical documentation made available by the producer. The experience of the personnel that works in the technical compartments is extremely important, but regardless of the technicians experience degree, the repairs must be made only after consulting the updated technical documentation. It is necessary that the process be shaped so that it ensures a correct real-time diagnosis: the deadline of the repair should be highlited so that all the delayed repairs could be easily noticed through visual management. The customer must be immediately informed by the sevice adviser regarding each aspect that modifies the repair process status (eg.: certain difficulties can arise when dismantling a marker which will lead to the extension of the deadline). 8

9 In order to be able to contact the customer in real-time, the foreman should continuously manage the status of the ongoing service orders and should inform the service adviser about any modification that occurs. For each additional intervention, other than the interventions agreed upon with the customer when taking the vehicle into service, the customer must approve with it before they start the repair. 5. The interoperational control and final control. The control function ensures the achievement of the required quality level for each intervention. The process can be shaped by implementing certain correct and specific measures as follows: At every repair order the documents that describe the state of the systems in the vehicle structure must be annexed before as well as after the finalization of the repairs. The technicians must write down on the work order the values of the tightening torques so that at any time the foreman should be able to perform the interoperational control and final control operations. For the interventions made on the vehicle s security systems (eg.: breaking system, steering system ) or on the systems that influence environment pollution ( exhaust system, fuel supply system) extra verifications will be made in the periodical technical inspection grid in order to certify the quality of the work. The conformity of the data will be mentioned on the service order in writing. The foreman should write on the final verification chart all the remarks about the unfixed nonconformities before the vehicle has left the service, so that at the reception, the service advisor could bring all these to the customer s attention (confirmation by signing the final verification chart). It is mandatory, at the finalization of the interventions, for the foreman to do a road test, in similar conditions that the customer described as malfunctions, so that the elimination of the nonconformities can be confirmed. 6. The vehicle delivery back to the customer. On the whole, the activity consists in presenting (verbally and visually) the performed repair by the service advisor, the detailed explanation of the repair value, the payement for the interventions made and the actual delivery of the vehicle back to the customer taking into consideration the specific factors described in figure 4. The process can be shaped by implementing the detailed measures as follows: the vehicle must be washed, cleaned, all possible traces of the intervention must be removed. The conformity of the vehicle s exterior and interior status must be checked with the status on the vehicle s reception date. All replaced parts must be returned to the customer in their original packages, protected so to prevent any fluid leaking. 9

10 If any differences from the initial status are observed, the customer must be informed about them. In this case, the service adviser asks for the customer s approval to be able to remediate the nonconformity, telling him at the same time the new deadline of the intervention. If the customer doesn t want to leave the vehicle in service for remediating the nonconformities on the spot, the receptionist will write in the final verification chart that the vehicle will be brought back in service for further repairs, mentioning which are the nonconformities that the service will fix on their own expence. The customer must be contacted in order to receive his vehicle from service only after the receptionist makes sure that the vehicle is ready to be returned to the customer. The service adviser must schedule the exact date and time for handing over the vehicle to the customer by avoiding to overcrowd the end of the work program, thus avoiding also the customer s discontent due to waste of his time resources. Critical success factors of vehicle delivery The washing-cleaning of the vehicle before it is returned to the customer The intergity verification of the vehicle according to the reception chart The receptionist should check if the nonconformities reported by the customer are eliminated The correct schedule of the vehicle delivery back to the customer Figure 4 Critical success factors for vehicle delivery management The relationship with the customer doesn t end once his vehicle is returned. To ensure the continuous improvement of the organization s services it is imperative to measure continuously the results of our actions. It is extremely important to identify the zones where the information flux may be interrupted so that we can prevent the nonconformities. Thereby we have the opportunity to invest in further activities that generate success and to give up those that are inefficient. We can obtain a feedback by using different methods that require: filling out questionnaires, the implementation of a system of suggestions, possibly online, the phone contacting of customers or certain analysis can be made regarding customer demands and priorities. 10

11 4. Conclusion In our opinion, we can make a simple survey based on maximum 3 questions whose answers should be enlightening in order to evaluate the quality of the services provided by the organization. The score is obtained by giving marks from 1 to 10. Some of the questions can be the following: Are you satisfied with the attitude of the personnel that you interracted with? Were the terms agreed upon when the vehicle entered the service respected (time, price)? Was it necessary for you to return to the service various times so that the malfunction could be fixed? The time the customer answers should be very well chosen. Thus the customer should receive the questionnaire after he left the vehicle in service in order to have the necessary time to think and to fill in the correct data mentioned in the questionnaire. In situations where the customers were not satisfied, the organization should have implemented a system to process and manage customer complaints. After doing the research I noticed that in most of the cases, the customers discontent towards the provided services was generated by communication defficiency. The organization must also put at customer disposal loyality programs that can make them feel special, important, systems that can surprise the customers, aiming to please each and every customer about all the aspects of the performed intervention, to be a pleasure for them to come back. The final purpose of defining, improving, reshaping the service processes is the insurance of service quality provided by the organization and the increase in efficiency aiming to maximize the profit. References [1] Imai, M., Kaizen, Public Publishing House, Bucharest, Romania, [2] Ohno, Taiichi, Toyota Production System An Alternative To The Series Production, Finmedia Publishing House, Bucharest, Romania, [3] Oprean, C., Titu, M., Quality Management In Economy And In The Organization Based On Knowledge, AGIR Publishing House, Bucharest, Romania, [4] Oprean, C., Titu, M., Experimental Research And Data Processing. Second Part, University Lucian Blaga Publishing House, Sibiu, Romania, [5] Sevel, C., Brown, P., Customers For Life, Public Publishing House, Bucharest, Romania, [6] Ţîţu, M., Oprean, C., Strategic Management, Publishing House Of The University In Pitesti, ISBN , Piteşti, [7] Ţîţu, M., Oprean, C., Quality Management, Publishing House Of The University In Pitesti, ISBN , Piteşti, [8] Ţîţu, M., Oprean, C., Strategic Management and Abiding Developement Management In The Organization Based On Knowledge, AGIR Publishing House, Bucharest,