Vehicle Inspection Process Summary of issues, changes and implementation pitfalls

Issues Low cycle time efficiency considering that customers are present throughout process (23 %) – Excessive time spent at reception – Imbalance between stations causing delays – Second inspections not streamlined – Overload in summer (peak) Waste (rework) due to obvious defects that customer could have detected/fixed before inspection, or due to insurance/tax issues Non-process issue: Difficulties to train and retain inspectors

Advance booking Provide incentive for advance booking vs. on-site arrival Include disincentive for no-shows or late arrivals in case of advance booking, for example via upfront online payment or loss of discount for late arrivals The IT solution should be able to handle customer late arrivals and apply corresponding penalties. Use advance booking as an opportunity to prevent obvious problems during inspection (e.g. worn tires), for example by forcing customer to tick through a checklist Use advance booking as an opportunity to check the insurance and tax requirements, either during booking via automated integration or after booking (but before check-in) via a manual check by clerk Consider option of customers being able to view, edit and cancel their booking online, otherwise this might generate many phone calls to clerks

Second Inspections Segregate between first and second inspection – Data from first inspection should be copied into second inspection – In case of second inspection, preferably assign the same inspector as in first inspection. – In case of second inspection required, customer can be reminded that a second inspection is pending, with option to make a booking for second inspection

Movement across stations Imbalance between stations can be addressed for example by assigning one inspector per case (and one inspector per lane), or else use task merging or flexible work assignment If there is no resistance to the idea, consider possibility of customer giving keys to inspector and inspector moves car rather than customer

Non-process changes Incentivize inspectors to work more in summer; compensate via time-in-lieu or bonus Consider longer business hours during summer Other incentives for employee retention could be considered (e.g. salary incentives), but only if they are accompanied by increased productivity since profit margin is tight…

Executable Model – Recurrent Pitfalls Salami tasks like “move car”, “turn ignition key”, “move a finger”  click-click-click interfaces Lack of tickboxes in advance booking form to ensure obvious issues avoided Customer cannot view, edit, cancel bookings Advanced bookings are not checked, neither manually nor “automatically” (e.g. insurance) Timers missing, e.g. late customer arrival Second inspections not properly handled