Autohuset Vestergaard is a nationwide retailer of 12 car brands. The key to a good customer experience at Autohuset Vestergaard is our spare parts inventory, which has been reduced by 16% over a few months while we have increased our service level by 6%.
Tough competition
The auto industry is undergoing massive change and is characterised by:
- Smaller margins on new cars
- Most turnover comes from the aftermarket (spare parts)
- Tough competition in the aftermarket
- Less loyal customers
Reliability of delivery is crucial
“Our ability to deliver the parts which customers demand is essential,” says Lars Kromann, project manager and spare parts manager in Odense. Without the right parts there can be no quick repair, and that has implications for customer experience and, ultimately, our earnings.
Therefore, Autohuset Vestergaard has developed a key ratio which measures the good customer experience.
“It has made a huge difference that we can see how we perform every month. Now I cannot help but do something about the problems,” says Lars Kromann.
The result
According to Lars Kromann, these good results have been obtained with “minimal changes” to day-to-day operations.
- Reliability of delivery has increased by 6%
- Turnover has increased by 5.4%
- Inventory value has dropped by 8%
- Significant improvement of efficiency in the workshops
See the development of the reliability of delivery in the Odense department below.
1,000 checklists
In six months, Autohuset Vestergaard has distributed more than 1,000 checklists among its employees. This has been the key to achieving quick results.
“We have selected strategically important KPIs which support what we want to achieve as a business, and we have created action reports from scratch to improve them. Every day, my colleague and I review our action reports in ABC Cloud: One of us focuses on backorders for our main products, and the other one focuses on returning “new spares with no sales”. We also have monthly lists and ad-hoc lists.”
Roll-out
So far, the project has been rolled out in the departments in Odense, Vejle, Horsens and Svendborg, and the rest of the departments will be connected on an ongoing basis. “It has been a real test of our patience, holding back the roll-out to other departments,” says Lars K, and continues: “but now that the results speak for themselves, and we are 100% familiar with the day-to-day routines that create value, we have guaranteed a really good start for the other workshops.”