CASE STUDY 2

Case Study on Information Systems: Premier Automotive Services

Limited

The Premier Automotive Services Limited (PAS) provides services to various companies in
Pune for maintaining the transport fleet run by the companies, for their use. Beside this, it
runs petrol pumps and spare parts shop too. The vehicle maintained by the Premier
Automotive Services are buses, trucks, and jeeps. The total strength of the Premier
Automotive Services is around 300 vehicles. The services charged are of two types- fixed
monthly for the routine maintenance and variable maintenance for other services like
breakdown repairs, replacements, petrol or diesel consumed, etc. The company seeking the
services from the PAS are satisfied if the vehicles are kept in good condition and down time
is 2% of 25 days in a month.

The Premier Automotive Services finds difficulty in maintaining this service level even
though a large staff and sufficient inventory of spare parts are available. The probability of
the company is going down due to the low quality of service rendered to the customers. The
revenue earning departments of the Premier Automotive Services are the petrol pumps, the
spare parts shop, the garages and the paint shops.

The Premier automotive services are supposed to keep the schedule of the various services,
which are required for the vehicle to be in good condition. This calls upon the replacements
of the critical spares, testing of various systems, and regular servicing, etc. It is observed that
the vehicles are not called regularly and are not scheduled for such services properly. It is the
customer who complains or initiates a job and then the same is carried out.
The companies for moving their employees use the buses. The buses are, therefore, to be kept
in the good shapes so that no complaint is received. The trucks are used for a long-distance
delivery of finished goods. The jeeps are used for the local transport requirements. Since, all
the vehicles are used for critical transport needs their availability become very important. The
turnaround cycle time of the vehicles, once received in the Premier Automotive Services, is
very important.

Each vehicle needs to be treated as one servicing unit, for its maintenance and planning. The
planning caters for the general up-keep, the periodical replacements, based on some
parameters, either the period or kilometre run, and the expected breakdown. In each of the
vehicles the items like tyres, batteries, dynamo and fan belt, etc. are required to be replaced
on such a predetermined parameter. In order to service a vehicle, the PAS maintains a card
for each of the vehicle, where the logic information is maintained. The information is like a
model, the type, the owner and his residential or official address and so on. In addition to this,
there is a general list of the tasks such as the base servicing, cleaning topping, etc., which are
given for each of the vehicles within the stipulated period. It also maintains the history of the
services carried out on the vehicle for future planning.

The owner of the vehicle requires yearly report on the task carried out, the expenses incurred
and the forecast of the planned expenses based on the service required in the following year.
The general procedure followed by the PAS, for offering various services, is as follows:
Each vehicle is scheduled for a show up every month for planning of the service tasks. When
the vehicle arrives in the PAS, the service manager takes the card of the vehicle, checks the
kilometres run and decide the replacement of the various spare parts, the activities like
tuning, overhauling, painting and the basic servicing. The time for the service is estimated
and the driver is given a service order card, with the date for leaving the vehicle in the garage.
The service order card also scheduled the activities in the garage in its order, so that each
Service centre knows where the vehicle is to go next for its servicing.

At each of the service centre, a delivery note is written with the service order number
mentioning the tasks carried out in terms of the skilled hours and replacement made. If the
recommended replacements are not made for non-availability of spare parts it is recorded for
the making up of the next scheduled turn. If the replacement is critical, the vehicle is kept
under a hold till the item is made available. Based on the delivery notes collected from each
service centre, a consolidated bill is made for the vehicle, which is handed over to driver for
payment.

If the time spend by each vehicle is analyzed, it is observed that 30% of the time is spend on
waiting. Besides, each vehicle is required to visit the service centre twice for completing the
task-once for getting the service order and again for actual maintenance work.

The management of the PAS wants a system, which will provide all the information so that
the arrival of the vehicle can be planned to ensure the availability of all the garage facilities,
spare parts and other services. The PAS would like to maintain vehicle log book on the
computer which will provide such information instantaneously for planning and control of
vehicle servicing.

Questions

Q.1 State the objective of the system and mention the subsystems in the case study.

The objective of the system in the case study of Premier Automotive Services Limited (PAS)
is to provide efficient and effective services to its clients for maintaining the transport fleet,
by providing scheduled maintenance and replacements of spare parts, breakdown repairs, fuel
consumption tracking and other services to ensure that the vehicles are kept in good condition
with minimal downtime, and to meet the service level agreement of 2% of 25 days in a
month.
The subsystems within this system include:

Maintenance Scheduling and Planning: This subsystem is responsible for scheduling

regular maintenance and replacement of spare parts for each vehicle, as well as forecasting
future expenses and creating service reports for customers.

Fleet Management: This subsystem is responsible for maintaining a record of each vehicle,
containing information such as the model, type, owner, and address, as well as a history of
services performed on the vehicle.

Service Delivery: This subsystem is responsible for carrying out the scheduled maintenance
and repairs on each vehicle, including tasks such as tuning, overhauling, and painting. It also
manages the delivery notes and service order numbers.

Customer Relationship Management: This subsystem is responsible for managing the

customer relationship, including providing a high level of service, handling customer
complaints and managing the revenue earning departments like petrol pumps, spare parts
shop, garages, and paint shops.

Inventory Management: This subsystem is responsible for maintaining an inventory of

spare parts, and ensuring that the necessary parts are available when needed.

Data Management: This subsystem is responsible for collecting and storing data on the
vehicles and their maintenance, including kilometers run, spare parts used, and costs incurred,
to help with forecasting and decision-making.

Q.2 What kind of information is necessary to improve the service level to the customer?

To improve the service level to customers, the following types of information would be
necessary:
Vehicle information: Detailed information about each vehicle, including make, model, type,
owner, and address, as well as a history of services performed on the vehicle, would be
necessary to ensure that the right services are provided at the right time.

Maintenance and service history: Information about the maintenance and service history of
each vehicle would be necessary to identify patterns of problems, and to help plan and
schedule future maintenance.

Customer information: Information about the customers and their specific needs and
requirements, such as their service level agreement and the type of fleet they have would be
necessary to ensure that the services provided meet their expectations.

Inventory information: Information about the inventory of spare parts, including what parts
are available, how much they cost and their lead time would be necessary to ensure that the
necessary parts are available when needed.

Financial information: Information about the financial aspect of the service provided, such
as cost of the service, billing, invoicing and accounting for the services provided by the PAS,
would be necessary to ensure that the service is provided in a cost-effective way.

Feedback: Feedback from customers on the services provided, including any complaints or
issues, would be necessary to identify areas for improvement and to make necessary changes
to improve service levels.

Data on equipment and operational statistics: The data on the equipment and operational
statistics such as the usage of the vehicles, their run time, fuel consumption, downtime, etc
would be necessary to identify the areas of improvement and to plan the maintenance
schedule accordingly.

Employee performance data: information on the performance of the employees in the

maintenance, repair and service delivery would also be important to identify any bottlenecks
in the service delivery process and to improve the service level.

Q.3 Suggest a network system for data and information processing for the PAS for
improving the service quality and reduce turnaround time?
A network system for data and information processing for the Premier Automotive Services
(PAS) could include the following components:

Centralized Database: A centralized database could be implemented to store all the data
related to the vehicles, customers, inventory, financials, and employee performance. This
would ensure that all the data is in one place and can be easily accessed and processed by
different subsystems.

Data Warehouse: A data warehouse could be implemented to provide a single point of

access to the data stored in the centralized database. This would allow the different
subsystems to access the data they need quickly and efficiently.

Data Backup and Disaster Recovery: The system should include a robust data backup and
disaster recovery solution to ensure that the data is protected and can be quickly recovered in
case of a system failure.

Network Infrastructure: The system should include a fast and reliable network
infrastructure to ensure that the data can be transferred quickly and efficiently between the
different subsystems and the centralized database.

Data Mining and Business Intelligence: Data mining and business intelligence tools can be
integrated into the system to provide advanced analytics and reporting capabilities. This
would help PAS to analyze the data and gain insights into the performance of the system, and
identify areas for improvement.

Automated Data Processing: Automated data processing techniques can be implemented to

reduce the turnaround time for the services. This can be done by automating the scheduling
and planning of maintenance, inventory management, tracking the vehicle's information and
generating reports for the customers.

Mobile App: A mobile app could be developed for the customers and the employees to
provide them with real-time information about the status of the vehicles and the services
provided, and to make it easy for them to schedule maintenance and repairs.
Cloud-Based System: The system could be built on a cloud-based platform to ensure
scalability, security, and easy access to the data from any location.

By implementing this network system, PAS would be able to improve the service quality,
reduce turnaround time and increase efficiency.