USE* Online RTS (Repair Times Searcher)
RTS is an example of one area where USE* IT is very effective: in project terms a relatively small project building upon an existing product, delivering a big benefit to our customer’s business.
Marcus Jansson, Operations Manager, USE* IT
For our team in USE* IT, a software tool adds value only when it integrates into a process and empowers the established team to maximise its performance. Consequently, developing a tool to support a project, and to support the team working on a project, demands insight into how our customers are working, and how new users of the solution currently experience their business processes. Online RTS, like SRTD Portal before it, represents another example of this approach.
The Challenge
Traditionally, warranty times were communicated to dealerships via a CD. Data on the CDs was then used to calculate the correct time to charge for repairs. However, due to the production and distribution time, warranty times can often be out-of-date by the time the CD reaches the dealers, as warranty repair time information are constantly reviewed and updated to ensure that it is as accurate as possible. There is also a significant cost associated with the process.
Recently USE* IT joined together with one of our automotive OEM clients to provide a better solution.
The Solution
For this customer, USE* IT have already deployed their workshop manual and warranty time authoring tool which is being used to great success. Service Repair Times Database (SRTD) Portal has been used to produce the workshop manuals for a range of our customer’s vehicles, and also holds legacy information for earlier models.
All of this data is now used by the Online Repair Time Searcher (Online RTS), which provides online access to all of the warranty times for our customer’s dealerships around the world.
Its Benefits
There are several significant benefits of the new system.
There is now no need for our customer to produce and distribute CDs to dealerships worldwide, providing a huge cost saving to the business.
And dealers are always presented with the most up-to-date warranty times as Online RTS is directly linked to SRTD Portal. With the previous system, times may have been amended even before the first CD was put in the post. This will not only speed up warranty claims, but also provide cost and time efficiencies for the warranty clerks as they won’t have to spend time explaining discrepancies between the live times and the published times.
Another reason to expect efficiencies in claims is the fact that all of the new workshop manuals are authored in Simplified Technical English. This should help dealers in countries where English isn’t the first language, as the use of the aerospace-adopted authoring standard means that part descriptions will be easier to understand.
Our Achievements
Making Online RTS an intuitive and usable tool was a key goal. Each search result not only contains the relevant warranty time and code, it also provides the user with additional information, such as where the procedure is used in the workshop manual, and what other procedures are included within it.
The user can also click on the search result, and Online RTS will instantly take them to the workshop manual procedure. This is not a only a benefit for the dealerships, but also for our customer’s warranty clerks, who can make sure that the correct parts claims are being made by using the CAD-generated illustrations in the manual as a reference.
Case Studies
Case Studies
SRTD Portal
Create and publish workshop procedures and lab...
Rich Portal Foundation
Scaleable modular software development
USE* IT
What’s it all about?
Online RTS
Workshop-manual cued warranty times