The Major Challenges To Automotive Aftersales Profitability And How To Overcome Them

Speakers:

Stefan Zeppetzauer, Global Business Leader Diagnostics, KPIT
Amit Shah, Head Platform Development, KPIT
Bhavik Shah, Product Champion, KPIT

Even as evolving vehicle architectures, complex vehicle features, changing customer demands and business models underpin the need for new aftersales service solutions, it’s imperative to accelerate profitability, reduce vehicle down-time and maximize customer loyalty throughout the dealer network.

This webinar showcases KPIT’s rich expertise in aftersales diagnostic and repair solutions and introduces a next-generation aftersales platform.

Evolution of the automotive industry and increased complexity in vehicle systems

The auto industry has witnessed an exponential evolution over the recent years, and the bulk of this advancement is being driven by electronics and software. As the modern day automotive becomes more advanced, vehicle complexity will continue outgrowing existing servicing capabilities, in equal proportions.

What’s driving these complexities:

• Sustained drive for electrification and autonomy of vehicles
• Evolving vehicle architectures
• Increasingly advanced vehicle features
• Customer demands

Given the complex state of vehicle systems and sub-systems, questions are being raised around the ability and effectiveness of service technicians and traditional diagnostic tools to accurately diagnose and detect the underlying cause of a given problem or defect.

Factors impacting aftersales profitability

Increasing diagnostics complexities are clearly impacting the aftersales business. Some of the key challenges experienced by service dealerships across the globe, underscore those impacts.

Sub-par diagnostic tools lead to inaccurate diagnosis, which results in a low Fixed-First-Visit (FFV) rate, translating into repeat repair visits and costs thereof

The inability of existing diagnostics tools to pin-point the exact root cause of a problem or a defect leads to excessive diagnosis time, resulting in increased vehicle downtime & reduced servicing throughput.

Use of multiple disparate tools used across the aftersales value chain (service diagnostics, warranty systems, parts etc.) creates redundancies and adversely impacts aftersales productivity

Owing to complex diagnostics tools and systems, technicians face a steep learning curve. The technician’s inability to accurately diagnose and identify faulty parts lead to wrong part replacements, which adversely affects inventory management and negatively impacts customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Scarcity of Skilled technicians | A compounding factor

In addition to the above stated challenges, an acute shortage of skilled and certified service technicians is complicating matters, across the globe. For instance, the estimated demand for service technicians in the US is pegged at over 600,000 between 2020-2024, however, as per the projections based on ‘post-secondary set-up’ the completions stand at 55K technicians per year- creating a yawning gap between demand and supply- The only potential remedy being advanced, assisted & intuitive tools that enable lesser skilled resources to bridge this gap, whilst upholding service levels

Modern challenges and methods to resolve them

The service technician is at the centre of the aftersales universe and is pivotal to the resolution of challenges faced by the industry. The challenges impacting aftersales business dynamics, as stated above, can be addressed by adopting a technician-centric approach, and by enabling and empowering them with modern diagnostics tools and technologies.

Re-imagining a technicians’ workday:

Equip them with advanced, assistive, integrated, and intuitive tools, which provide them with:

• Assimilated information available in a single window
• Automated workflows and processes
• An accurate and a first-time right path to resolution

Leverage modern diagnostics tools and technologies

• Use vehicle data models to drive accurate diagnostics
• Test automation practices to reduce diagnosis time
• An integrated tooling set-up that drives unified processes and workflows to optimize productivity
• Intelligent diagnostics methods to identify correct root cause of failure
• Assisted diagnostics to reduce technician learning curve

KPIT’s solution

KPIT with its proven expertise in aftersales diagnostic and repair solutions, has developed its After Sales Suite – a platform to match demands today, and into the future.

Trace2Fix, part of KPIT’s aftersales suite is an advanced aftersales diagnostics solution which diagnoses with pin-point accuracy based on self-learning and root cause analysis principles. Trace2Fix presents prioritized test steps, that guide a service technician to the most probable root cause, of an underlying fault.

At its core, Trace2Fix has been conceptualized to deliver on the following key objectives:

• Improving technician productivity
• Lowering vehicle downtime

Trace2Fix | State-of-the-art technology at work

• Digitizes vehicle information through use of parsers and NLP (Natural Language Processing) for accurate diagnosis
• Statistical modeling and Machine Learning principles to present prioritized test steps, leading to most probable root cause- enabling replacement of ‘required’ parts
• Augmentation and visualization of parts under test for assisted troubleshooting
• Field data analytics that feed the learning loop and drive predictive rigor

Benefits

Trace2Fix maximizes the returns for all the stakeholders across the automotive value chain

• Technicians benefit from reduced diagnosis time, locating the root cause and enhanced job satisfaction
• Dealerships benefit from improved throughput, enhanced technician retention and improved fixed first visit (FFV) rates
• OEMs benefit from increased sale of parts to every dealership, reduced warranty, and manpower training costs
• Owners benefit from reduced overall downtime and decreased alternate transport costs

Conclusion

KPIT’s advanced and intelligent diagnostics solution, Trace2Fix, has been operational for over 1.5 years now, and has been designed to improve technicians’ productivity levels by up to 30% and enhance the fixed first visit (FFV) rate by 3-5%.