Aftersales solutions

New mobility concepts, advancing digitalization and networking, but also new market players are changing the way we look at vehicles and their future use. This means that the importance and relevance of aftersales services are also changing. At EDAG, these already start during the product development process.

The future of mobility is being determined by paradigm shifts - also in the importance of aftersales. In cooperation with EFS Consulting, we have developed a strategic end-to-end concept that successfully enables today's vehicles to "grow into" tomorrow's tasks. This begins during the conception phase and continues with vehicle development, through to lifetime service. We call this next-level aftersales.

Next-level aftersales – lifetime service in vehicle DNA

MOBILITÄTSWENDE & INNOVATIVE DOKUMENTATION: EINLADUNG ZUM TIM-WERKSTATTGESPRÄCH AM 16.04. IN FULDA

Möchten Sie hinter die Kulissen schauen und sehen, wie Unternehmen in Ihrer Region die aktuellen und zukünftigen Anforderungen an die Technische Redaktion bewältigen? Entdecken Sie die Strategien und den Arbeitsalltag vom EDAG CityBot, einem Vorreiter in der Mobilitätswende, und erfahren Sie, wie digitale Dokumentation dabei eine Rolle spielt. EDAG öffnet seine Redaktionswerkstatt, um exklusiv zu zeigen, wie sie mit dem Redaktionssystem TIM Herausforderungen meistern.

Zur kostenfreien Anmeldung

A new take on mobility and service

Digitalization, telematics, vehicle networking, new sales structures, and the development of cities into smart cities are not only making completely new demands on vehicles and their utilization concepts, they are also redefining aftersales. It is no longer spare parts that define the core business. Instead, the focus is increasingly on digital function validation and extension, but also on software updates and data analysis.

"The essential thing is to tailor aftersales solutions to the customer experience of a technical product. This is how we will help shape the digital future of mobility."

Bernd Waterkamp, Vice President Product Quality & Care at EDAG

 

Managing increasing complexity

The days of thinking of aftersales primarily in terms of spare parts and service checkbooks are definitely over. Digitalization is resulting in increasingly complex vehicles which are being equipped with more and more digitally networked features, in order to be able to respond as individually as possible to the needs of customers and users. As vehicle developers, it is therefore our task to continuously optimize our products, focusing on ensuring that they meet increased demands and are free of defects. We link this process with an all-round perspective and merge it directly with aftersales issues.

    • Our aftersales process is consistently customer-oriented. To achieve this, product functionality and reliability are essential.
    • 100% freedom from defects is our polar star. If, however, the occasional error cannot be avoided, our fault elimination processes guarantee both the greatest possible efficiency and the best possible customer experience.
    • Our service processes create win-win situations for customers and mobility providers. In this way, we avoid expensive recalls and reduce compensation costs.

"By looking at the entire lifecycle of a vehicle concept, aftersales solutions are already becoming part of the DNA of tomorrow's vehicle concepts. The focus here is not so much on product characteristics, but on the idea of mobility."

Wolfgang Buschan, partner at EFS Unternehmensberatung GesmbH

Governance & Regulations

Mobility and its integration into digital ecosystems are governed by legal and regulatory guidelines. This is also reflected in next-level aftersales. In an end-to-end concept, meeting increasingly demanding safety and data protection requirements is not the only thing that matters. In practice, this also has a profound effect on benchmarking, on ensuring the requested process quality, and on analyzing the market entry of new OEMs.

    • When entering a new market
    • During ramp-up support to establish a service network
    • When advising on legal requirements/guidelines

360-degree service

Next-level aftersales is more than repair shop, maintenance and the availability of spare parts. Our aim is basically to link all facets of the vehicle's use with the product's life cycle (therefore ensuring mobility) - for every conceivable use case, and tailored to the particular target group. To this end, not only subsequent warranty services and concepts for continuous parts and process optimization are integrated into the product development process at an early stage. This also results in contents and didactic approaches for appropriate training courses for repair shop and service personnel.

A new end-to-end service adapted to market and customer requirements also calls for the provision of appropriate workshops for redefining the repair shop's business model in terms of location, equipment and service portfolio. Here, too, next-level aftersales opens up new horizons for partners.

IT systems

Our aim is to create an end-to-end aftersales IT setup. One that is perfectly adapted to the particular market and product characteristics. We lay the foundations for this by integrating existing structures. The important thing here is to ensure smooth operation at operative level by providing an optimum network between the partners and comprehensive evaluation of all relevant data. In the process, our IT systems act as central data hubs for all information essential to the smooth running of operative aftersales activities.

    • Requirements management for diverse aftersales IT systems
    • Processes for selecting the necessary system integrators for an end-to-end aftersales IT concept e.g.: technical publications, service platform, learning management system, diagnosis system, 3PL/4PL, etc.
    • System integration, e.g. connection of existing systems to a cloud-based IT infrastructure
    • Process design for comprehensive and end-to-end aftersales master data

Digital ecosystem

For a long time now, it has no longer simply been a matter of developing very good mobility solutions. We also need to integrate them intelligently into new digital living and working environments. To this end, we link vehicles, their manufacture and the infrastructure in the city and countryside. Everything is networked, everything communicates with everything else. Even now, there are already a multitude of different data points in a medium-sized vehicle, permanently transmitting and receiving not just driving data, the state of operating materials and individual components, but also the vehicle's environmental data.

More and more, therefore, smart vehicles are developing into a fully integrated component in the mobility ecosystem. This is the aim of our integrated next-level aftersales development concept. This includes smart mobility, smart infrastructure, smart government, smart people – a real game changer.

    • Customer relationship management, e.g. smart apps, by means of which the customer can keep track of the production of his vehicle
    • Vehicle data management
    • Over the air solutions

Customer centricity

As a basic principle, next-level aftersales is always centered on the customer and customer satisfaction. This way, far from being some kind of "irritating" extra, aftersales makes the product and the associated process a transparent and trouble-free experience. This opens up exciting prospects for OEMs in the form of new business models, value-based loyalty programs and upselling options along the customer journey, for example.

    • The further development of the customer journey, e.g. digital support of the customer for the individual setup of his vehicle
    • Customer service, e.g. sending service interval reminders via a customer app, and chatbots for technical questions
    • Loyalty programs, e.g. customer benefits graded according to frequency of repair shop visits, purchase of equipment, (possibly combined with bonus points that can be collected)
    • Upselling and cross-selling, e.g. by providing bundles aimed at certain target groups

Sustainability and green economy

Digitalization and sustainability: these megatrends are developing the mobility of the future. In increasingly crowded urban environments, holistic perspectives and green economy instruments are called for. These must also be anchored in next-level aftersales.

    • Sustainable business models
    • Sustainable supply chain strategies aimed at decarbonizing supply chains
    • Increased real net output ratio, for instance through remanufacturing
    • New battery utilization concepts when switching to eMobility
    • Sustainable fleet management and remanufacturing in view of the increased use of vehicles in the shared economy, for instance by having an innovative parts portfolio that also includes the reutilization of recycled wear parts.

The future as a joint task – we are prepared

Emission-free eMobility, resource-saving battery concepts, the use of sustainable materials, and connection to a climate-neutral 'green' energy infrastructure have long been obvious fixed points for shaping the mobility of the future. Vehicle concepts in which aftersales and lifetime service form an integral part are clear pointers in the right direction. In this respect, EDAG and EFS Consulting have a broad basis and are competently positioned.

EDAG im Innovation-Hub Zukunftswerkstatt

Schon seit 2021 ist EDAG Technologiepartner der Zukunftswerkstatt 4.0 in Esslingen bei Stuttgart. Dieser Innovation-Hub nimmt die Rolle eines „Innovationsschaufensters“ ein, mit dessen Hilfe neue Technologien und Systeme entlang der Customer Journey im Sales und After Sales erprobt werden können. Vor Ort in Esslingen werden die tatsächlichen Strukturen und Prozesse eines Autohausunternehmens realitätsgetreu und praxistauglich abgebildet.

Innovationswoche im Juni 2020

Neben der dauerhaften Ausstellung organisiert die Zukunftswerkstatt regelmäßige Events. Eines davon war die Innovationswoche vom 20. bis 23. Juni 2022. Hier haben wir im Rahmen von Vorträgen unsere After Sales-Lösungen rund um ADAS (Autonomous Driving and Safety), AR (Augmented Reality) und OTA (Over-The-Air) vorgestellt.

Dauerhafte Sicherheit für das autonome Fahren

Sind automatisierte FAS-Absicherungstools aus der Entwicklung bald auch in der Werkstatt im Einsatz? Das Produkt EDscene, das EDAG in der Entwicklung für die automatisierte Absicherung von Fahrerassistenzsystemen einsetzt, zeigt, wie sich die Systeme zur ADAS-Kalibrierung in der Werkstatt weiterentwickeln können.

Erlebnis Technische Dokumentation

Augmented Reality-Applikationen hauchen Reparaturanweisungen Leben ein. Die Funktionen reichen von der Schritt-für-Schritt-Anleitung, über Explosionszeichnungen bis hin zu animierten Bauteilansichten und wurden durch die Live-Demo im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes „greifbar“.

OVER-THE-AIR (OTA) Der Service von morgen

Durch OTA-Services wird ein direkter Kontakt zwischen Herstellern und Kunden geschaffen. Remote Diagnostics und Remote Repair halten damit Einzug in die Werkstattpraxis. Sie beschreiben die Funktionalität, sich von einem Service-Center aus direkt auf ein Fahrzeug „aufzuschalten” und bei Problemen sofortige Abhilfe zu schaffen. Das Problem löst sich praktisch wie von selbst.

Manuel Vogler

Head of Department

 

 


 

this might interest you

 

Loading