Vehicle Inspection Process

1. Vehicle Inspection Process Summary of issues, changes and implementation pitfalls

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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…

7. 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