IVECO, one of the most prominent companies in the manufacture of industrial vehicles, has opted for Samsung mobility solutions to increase its profitability, efficiency and competitiveness in the transport sector.
The modernization of IVECO workshops and dealerships has been carried out through a digital transformation process with the collaboration of Samsung in the hardware part and Inforserveis for the software, called CAR.
Thanks to these solutions, mechanics and consultants get their work done faster with real-time access to workshop activity, so they can see first-hand how many repairs are in progress, how many customers are waiting to be served and how many orders are underway About this digital transformation process, we had the opportunity to chat with Ricardo Veganzones, Director of Service of IVECO Spain and Portugal.
[MCPRO] How has the digital transformation process been immersed in IVECO in recent years?
[Ricardo Veganzones] When you want to change an entire service network, in which dealerships and workshops are involved, it is not enough to have the tools. It is necessary to know how to change processes, train the team and assign new roles. It is something that we began to do in 2015, with the aim that in 2019 we could respond to that vehicle that is capable of connecting and predicting its own breakdowns.
The objective was that in a process in which vehicle, workshop and customer are connected, we would not have problems of culture, processes or people. In 2018 we did the change process in the dealerships and in 2019 we did the same in all the official workshops with light and heavy range.
Keep in mind that an industrial vehicle only stops when it has a problem. If not, you have to work practically every day of the year to make a profit: after 20 days of stoppage per year, you start to make losses, so a stop in workshops is detrimental for the customer. In 2019, we were prepared to predict breakdowns in advance, so if for example a sensor indicates a pressure or temperature problem in the system, we are able to determine what is going to happen to the vehicle.
From there we can get in touch with the client and prepare the appointment in advance at the nearest dealership, so that maintenance does not impact their business. Instead of a major breakdown, we ended up fixing a minor problem and ended up offering a shorter lead time and a better time to repair. Thanks to this sensorization, when the vehicle arrives at the workshop, the spare part is ready, the mechanic knows what to do and the repair is immediate.
[MCPRO] How has the entire training process been?
[Ricardo Veganzones] When in 2015 we began to change the culture, we were clear about where we wanted to go but no one had traveled that path. That made it a really fun process.
We have even given non-verbal communication classes to mechanics. In our business, many drivers do not speak your language, so non-verbal communication is very important. We have given courses on sales, on how to convey confidence to customers, verbal communication in order, for example, to be able to better explain breakdowns …
And we have not only given technical courses on how to use the tool, but on how to take advantage of it, how to get a client to get a serious problem at 4 in the morning on a winter day on the highway, that there will be no problem , that you feel in the calmest way and know that everything will go well. This, in addition to helping our clients, has allowed us to improve a lot in all recommendation and satisfaction indicators.
[MCPRO] Later, with CAR and Samsung you take a further step in this total connectivity strategy
[Ricardo Veganzones] Once we started with this system between IVECO vehicle and IVECO network, we still needed to close the circle, which was to involve the customer even more in this communication process.
For this we work with CAR, with which we develop an application that connects
to our servers in the dealerships and puts all the information in the cloud, at the same time
that allows to work that information in an efficient, commercial and simple way, improving the treatment of the data and its availability. Thanks to CAR and Samsung tablets and monitors we have been able to close the circle, with an internal system, Control Room, which connects the client with IVECO and with the network.
28% of dealers are working with this tool and our goal is to have 100% of the primary dealer network closed in October and, in a second moment, extend it to authorized workshops.
[MCPRO] How do you get to Samsung when it comes to incorporating its tools? What makes you choose this brand?
[Ricardo Veganzones] What interests us from the first moment is the quality they offer in the area of digital signature. When a customer authorizes a repair on an industrial vehicle, they can authorize very large invoices.
One of the things that they asked us in this case was to have a tool that was as reliable and legal as paper. And Samsung, both for the quality of its screens and for the precision of the pencil, is the one that most allowed us to reach that point that we needed precision.
In addition, from the beginning Samsung guaranteed us the volume we needed for tablets and monitors and we value their great vertical integration throughout the entire chain. Think that we may be talking about many tablets per point of service and at a time when there is a serious semiconductor crisis, we have not experienced any logistics or stock problems. We have found a really reliable partner.
[MCPRO] One of the calculations you make is that this system allows you to save up to 45 minutes per day per mechanic.
[Ricardo Veganzones] When you work with a tool that allows you to manage the spare part, communication with the customer and internal communication with the workshop,
the efficiency and effectiveness of the mechanic are greatly improved. How much improvement?
If your process is more or less normal, we are improving 45 minutes a day, in efficiency and effectiveness of each mechanic in each workshop.
That represents an important time in which the customer wins. The mechanic no longer has to travel to consult a manual, calling the customer by phone is easy and intuitive… the estimate arrives automatically, etc. At points where the process is not so automated, time savings can even reach an hour and a half per mechanic. That is a long time for a customer. In addition, you can standardize much more repair times between one client and another in different workshops.
[MCPRO] What other advantages has the new application brought you?
[Ricardo Veganzones] Once you have the tool and start working with it, ideas and solutions come up, which before you didn’t even think could exist. Our focus now is to be focused on the extension of the tool and then we are clear that there are many things that we thought were science fiction and that we now know can be done.
In the future, it will allow the client to have a traceability of their vehicles in our dealerships at a level that could not be imagined, such as the repair times of their entire fleet in real time, with important data such as knowing how much time is left for the moment of Delivery. That for a carrier is very important. We really make life easier for our clients.
