ProductdescriptionWorkshop planningstool Plan!

Planning Software for the Automotive World

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PRODUCTDESCRIPTIONWORKSHOP PLANNINGSTOOL PLAN!

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CONTENTS

1 INTRODUCTION 4

2 BUSINESS PROFILE 7

3 HISTORY OF PLAN! 9

4 PLAN! AUTOMOTIVE 11

5 PRODUCTION DESCRIPTION & SCREEN PRINTS « TRUCKWORLD » 15

5.1 INTRODUCTION 17

5.2 PRESENTATION « TRUCKWORLD » 17

5.3 REQUIREMENTS 21

5.4 PLAN! AUTOMOTIVE 22

5.4.1 Plan! Workshop Planning 22

5.4.1.1 Creation and Organization of Planning Boards 22

5.4.1.2 After Sales Manager 27

5.4.1.3 Sales Manager 27

5.4.1.4 Human Resource Manager 31

5.4.1.5 Fleet Manager 31

5.4.1.6 Service Advisor 31

5.4.1.7 Conclusion 31

5.5 THE USE OF PLAN! 35

5.5.1 Lay-out of a planning board 35

5.5.2 Statuses 37

5.5.3 Making and processing appointments 39

5.5.3.1 Order Heading 39

5.5.3.2 Order Detail 43

5.5.3.3 Replacement Car 43

5.5.3.4 Closing, Status « Planned » 43

5.5.3.5 Processingappointments;finishingordersurvey 49

5.5.3.6 Making appointments with reservation of a Workshop 53

5.5.4 Absences 53

5.6 PLAN! SALES AND DELIVERY 55

5.7 PLAN! RENTAL PLANNING 58

6 SOME REALISTIC FIGURES 59

7 REFERENCES 61

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Are you conscious of the impact of a good planning system, on your business results ?

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Planning Software for alert employees !

Competitive companies don’t waste time or means. That’s why they are competitive. Plan! permits you, by optimal planning of people and resources, to keep your company processes under control. But above all, Plan informs you before pro-blems turn up, so that you can in-terfere on time and avoid mistakes. Mistakes that always cost money, whether it’s a waste of time or means. Or worse, losing clients. Plan! is easy to use, thanks to its lo-gical structure and graphic presen-tation. As well on the Workshop as in the office.

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Each company is different. Therefore you can set up

Plan! according to the needs of your activities. The

program and database don’t need to run in the same

network and you can consult your data over the Inter-

net from all over the world.

Plan!putsalotofspecificmodulesatyourdisposal.

No matter which sector you work in, Plan! always of-

fers you the best solution.

Plan!includesalotofspecificmodules.Takealook

at www.use-plan.com.

Keeping your promisesCompanies that deliver customer-oriented

services strongly depend on the correct ob-

servances of their appointments : respecting

manufacture or restoration terms, reservation

of replacement appliances. Plan! offers some

specificmodulesforthistypeofactivities.

Getting things doneAvailability of people, planning and controlling

projects, optimal use of your own time. Those

whowanttogetthingsdone,needflexibleand

well-organized planning solutions. Even for

this, Plan! has various modules at its disposal.

! Customer Service

! Time & People Management

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Customer Service

BUSINESS PROFILE

Plan! Software, situated in Waasmunster (Belgium) is a fast growing IT-company. We specialize in Software Development for planning.In everything we do, the client is important. We encourage our clients to give constant feedback and to think aboutvaluableimprovements,becausethat’swhatweallcanbenefitfrom.Oursupportlevelisveryhigh,even fanatic if necessary. You can check with our clients and /or business partners. We are critical to impro-vements, because that’s the only way to avoid problems instead of solving challenges. We want you to have an optimal output of your investment. Simply because we consider the Plan! applica-tion a special, important, optimization appliance. With the help of our ever growing group of business partners, we succeed in the implementation of our so-lutionsaccordingtothebestrelationprice/quality.Werealizethatanetworkofexcellentpartnersgivesusaadditional assessment. And moreover we create together a « local presence ».

Market approachTomakeorganizationsanticipateonthecomplexityanddynamicsoftheenvironment,Plan!offersfar-sightedautomatic solutions. This software supports our clients in the development of distinguishing capacity and in the delivery of additional values to their clients.

That’s why Plan! Software chooses for : • anichestrategy • withaviewtoaddadditionalvaluetothemanagementoftheclient •aone-stop-shopmodel(fullservice) •offeringaquickreturnoninvestment(ROI) •provideadditionalvaluewithquickreaction

Thesolutionis«fitforpurpose»andourorganizationismadeinadirectbusinessmodelandthat’sunique.

Target groups •AutomotiveTrucks •AutomotiveCars •Professionalserviceorganizations

Our most important skills •development,serviceandimplementationofplanningsoftware •ourknowledgeandskillsofthemarketcanbeusedforhelpingtheclientswiththeirbusiness •Asalesandprojectorganizationthat’sorganizedaccordingtothedisciplinecustomerintimacy •‘Fitforpurpose’:generaltermforeverythingthatindicatesthatweofferastandardsolutionover3 criteria:

o Intensity: short / predictable implementation o Functionality: aimed at the wishes and requirements of the niche market o Complexity:easytouse

Last but not least, we have great respect for our employees. Reliability, ambition, loyalty and customer-orien-ted service are key values that count for all our colleagues. And together, we can be proud of that.

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HISTORY OF PLAN!

InSeptember2003,westartedacomplexnewdevelopmentofaworkshopplanning,aimedattheautomo-tive sector. The development was done in the “C# .Net” development environment of Microsoft.

During the analysis of this project, we’ve had about ten conversations with people who are daily working on the implementation of tasks. Planning Workshops started this way, later the Plan! user groups.

Adevelopmentteamof6.Netdevelopershavebeenworkingfor2yearsonthefirstversionofthePlan!Ap-plication. The result was an astounding application that gave those planners the very important control and survey that they had missed in the classic solutions.

De development environment .Net offered the necessary appliances by which user-friendliness and graphic user-interface could be entirely provided.

Attheendof2005,thefirstcompaniesstartedwithPlan!Automotive.Afterveryshortimplementations,users got comfort and survey as a direct result. This was for them an immediate encouragement.

Veryfastanenthusiasticusergroupofprofessionalplannersstarted.Theirinputanduserexperiencegaveusvery good advice. We have recorded each suggestion, each advice that was generally valuable.

Till today, that’s still our philosophy. “Plan! Automotive, powered by our users! “

Very fast, we reached the Truck environments, because in this market, the demand for powerful planning appliances is very big given the size of the companies and the tasks.

SpecificTruckfunctionalitywasavailableandbecameevenbetter.

Inthemeantimeabout200Automotivesitesworkwithabout800userswithoursoftwareintheBenelux(Belgium,theNetherlands,Luxemburg)

Since 2006, we cooperate with KAHO Sint-Lieven to integrate their optimization algorithms in our software. The objective of this project is besides planning, also going resolutely for optimization of the available resour-ces. Real time assignment of the ideal job for the available resource. The results of this technology will be visible in the future versions of Plan! Automotive.

At the end of 2007, Plan! Software received an award as innovative software project. As a result we have receivedfinancialsupportoftheFlemishGovernmenttododevelopmentsthatarerelatedtoautomaticplan-ning and simulation.

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PLAN! AUTOMOTIVE

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! Customer Service Keeping your promises

AutomotiveWhen you use Plan! Automotive, you can’t understand how you have been able to do without all these years. You

get complete control of your Workshop. As garage owner, you can strictly keep all appointments with your clients

and that’s what matters. Clients keep or damage your reputation and so they determine the future and develop-

ment of your business. Avoid double appointments, overloading your Workshop, unavailability of replacement cars

and so on. You are informed!

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The main properties.

With Plan! you can, at the same time, con-

sult different companies, Workshops, makes

(for garages), presentations of plans, users

and languages.

The parameters can be set up by user.

You can choose to see the planning of the

available capacity or the planning of the

resources, or a combination of both.

Plan! gives a complete graphic presentation

of :

-the total, available and used

capacity

-the occupation by resource.

-the status of a job or project

(planned, in progress or done)

-the type of job or project

(e.g. maintenance, repairs, …)

-the inactivity by resource

(e.g. holiday, illness, …)

You can quickly adapt the planning by use

ofthe‘draganddrop’technology.

The main technical properties.

Plan! works on the .Net platform and is the-

refore suitable for Window users (2000/XP/

Vista) and uses a standard MSE database. If

needed, you can do the implementation of

a SQL Server database.

The Plan! database can be consulted via a

Web service across the Internet.

Automotive

Workshops, machines, employees, replacement and rental ve-

hicles, but also the performed hours via electronic time clocks,

inactivity by illness, holiday or training. With Plan! Automotive,

you get complete control of your Workshop. Data can be ente-

red via barcode or manually.

AsManageryoutakeoutofPlan!exactlytheinformationthat

allows you to improve the organization, the output and the

reputation of your business.

Plan! Automotive is by her well thought-out structure and

graphic presentation quickly and easy to use for everyone in

your company. You don’t need to be a computer wizard to

start working with Plan!.

Plan!includesalotofspecificmodules.Takealookatwww.

use-plan.com.

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Minimum Systeemvereisten :

SERVER

•Windows2000sp4orhigher(notSmallBusiness)

•minimumXeonDualcore1GbRAM/2Gbfreeonsystemdrive

•antispywareandantivirusprograms

•up-to-dateWindows

•.NETFramework2.0

•workingbackupsystem(toensurePLAN!Data)

•asof11clients:SQLServer2000Standardorhigher

WORKSTATION

•Windows2000sp4orhigher

•minimumPentium4d3GHz/1GbRAM/1Gbfreeonharddrive

•antispywareandantivirusprograms

•up-to-dateWindows

•.NETFramework2.0

•ScreenResolutionoptimal1280*1024on17”LCDorhigher

WORKSTATION THIN CLIENT

•forusewithTerminalserverorCitrix.

TERMINALSERVER / CITRIX

•minimumXeonDualcore/2GbRAM/2GBfreeonharddrive

•1PLAN-Sessionusesabout40Mbinternalmemory.

Don’t forget the 4GB RAM-limitation of Windows 2003 Server Edition.

•Windows2003serverPreferred

•Datatransfer:with16-bitcoloren1024*768resolution:96KbitBandwithormore.

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PLAN! AUTOMOTIVEDESCRIPTION & SCREEN PRINTS

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INTRODUCTION

Withthisbrochure,wewouldlikeyoutoexperiencethepowerofPlan!Automotiveasplanningtoolforyourcom-pany. We are aware of the fact that a brochure can’t answer all your questions. That’s why we are always ready to give you and your people a free of obligations presentation in your company.

PRESENTATION “TRUCKWORLD”

InordertoillustratetheworkingofPlan!,wedothiswithafictitiouscompany;“Truckworld”.

Infigure001,youcanseethestructureofTruckworld.

Truckworld is a holding with three branches; Amsterdam, Brussels and Paris. Each branch has 2 teams of mechanics at its disposal. We call the teams in Brussels “B1-Mechanics” and “B2-Mechanics”. Each team is divided into diffe-rent groups that are composed according to a certain logic. For the branches in Brussels and Amsterdam, the teams are composed according to specialization:

•Maintenance:thisgroupisresponsibleforservicesandsmallrepairs •Repair:thesemechanicsdothebiggerrepairs •Electricity:areresponsibleforeverythingconcerningelectronics •Deliveries:areresponsibleforthedeliveryofnewandsecond-handvehicles.

The branch in Paris has opted for the division of the mechanics according to the shift system:

•EarlyTeam:themorningshift •LateTeam:theeveningshift

About 60 mechanics work at Truckworld. Truckworld has her own car park of replacement and demonstration vehi-cles.

In each branch, there are a few Service Advisors who are responsible for the appointments, the reception of the client, the observance of the intervention and the delivery of the vehicle to the client. Each Workshop has someone who is responsible.

Concerning holding, some managers are responsible for a certain department:

•AnAfterSalesManager •ASalesManager •AFleetManager •AHumanResourceManager.

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REQUIREMENTS

Before the introduction of Plan! Truckworld had an own planning methodology:

•EachWorkshophada“book”inwhicheachappointmentwasentered(figure002) •Then,theseappointmentsweremadevisibleonaplanningboardthatwascentrallyfixedtothewallof thereception.(figure003) •AbsencesofthemechanicswerekeptinExcel. •Fortheholidaysoftheemployees,therewasasecondExcel. •PlanningofreplacementanddemonstrationvehicleswasalsokeptinExcel,therentalcontractswere manually made. •Theplanningofthedivision“DeliveryofNewVehicles”waskeptonaplanningboardwithT-cardscom binedwithanExcelFileinwhichasurveywaskeptofalltheactivitiesthathadtobedonebyothers.

Thiswayofworkingwasuntenable.TheplanningwassplitupintodifferentExcelfiles,differentplanningboardsand planning books. A clear survey was nowhere to be found. There was no understanding about occupation of the various Workshops. Some days, there seemed to be too much work and other days, there was not enough work. To putitbriefly,therewasconstantlyanuncertainfeelingabouttheplanningandtheoccupation.Thepressureontheoutput of the Workshops increased, an optimization of the planning became necessary.

Bychoosingaplanningtool,Truckworldhasputsomeimportantcriteriafirst:

•Theywantedaglobalplanningsystemthatcouldreplaceallbooks,planningboardsandExcelfiles. •TheyhadtobeabletomanagethecomplexstructureofTruckworldwiththedifferentbranchesand divisions. •Theplanninghadtobeaccessibletoeveryone. •Itwasbesidesnecessarythattheplanningcouldbeseenfromdifferentlinesofapproach.Afterall,the Service Advisor looks differently at the planning than the After Sales Manager. •Securityisalsoanimportantaspect.Thatway,theAfterSalesManagercanseetheplanningofallthe branches, whereas the Service Advisor has a limited access. •Surveyandcontrolareextremelyimportant,atanytime,weneedacorrectimageoftheoccupationby division, Workshop and branch. •Itwasobviousthatimplementationanduseoftheapplicationhadtobeeasy.

Inthenextchapter,wewillshowyouhowTruckworld,withthehelpofPlan!Automotive,tookupthischallenge.

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PLAN! AUTOMOTIVE

In order to solve the problems of Truckworld, we provide 4 Plan! modules:

• Plan!Workshopplanning:ThecompleteplanningoftheWorkshop. • Plan!SalesandDelivery:Fortheplanningofthedeliveryofnewvehicles • Plan!Rentalplanning:Therentalplanning,theplanningofreplacementanddemonstrationvehicles. • Plan!Communication:Thecommunicationmoduleisusedintheworkshopplanningtoautomatically inform the clients about the status of their appointment and in the Sales and Delivery module to take care of the communication with the subcontractors, accountants and salesmen. Communication is possible by SMS,mailorfax.

Plan! Workshop Planning

Creation and objective of Planning boards

Planningboardscanbeindividuallyclassified.Thelay-outoftheplanningboardcanbedividedbyuserorusergroup, by company or branch. You can determine which planning board each user has access to. Moreover, you can make various planning boards and look at the data in a different way. We’ll describe you below how planning boards can be composed.

We’lllookathowTruckworldhasusedPlan!foritsspecificsituation.Andthisaccordingtothedifferentdisciplines.

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The After Sales Manager

The After Sales Manager wants, starting from his responsibility, to have a good view on the whole group. Initially he was particularly interested in the occupation of the Workshops. If required, he gets direct access tot the planning of the individual branches, the replacement cars and the planning of the Workshops.

Onthefirstplanningboard“CAPACITYCONTROL(1)”,wecanseeaweeklyplanningwithacapacitysurveyofthedifferent branches and this by branch and by specialization. Here we can see the total capacity by specialization, the number of planned hours and the available capacity over the three branches. So you can see that on Monday 6th June, 182,5 hours were available in the whole group for the mechanics with specialization “Maintenance”; there are 132,5plannedhours;therearestill50hoursavailable.(figure004)

Onthefirstplanningboard“CAPACITYCONTROL(2)”weseeaweeklyplanningwithacapacitysurveyoverthedif-ferentbranchesperteam.(figure005)

These two planning boards offer the After Sales Manager all the information he needs to have perfect control of Truckworld and its branches. He sees the occupation by team and by specialization. Possible problems are detected on time and so you can always intervene if necessary.

Left of each planning board, we see a survey of all the appointments that were made in the week of 6th June and in all the branches. The appointments are grouped by branch and by status. So you can check in which status you findtheappointment.We’llcomebacktothislater.

If required the After Sales Manager can consult at any time the detailed planning of the different branches. (figure006)

The Sales Manager

Although the Sales Manager doesn’t have to do the planning himself, he wants to have a good understanding of his fieldofinterest.Forhim,aplanningboardwascomposedinwhichhecanlookat:

•Theagendaofhissalesman •Theplanningofthedivisions“Deliveries”ofthevariousbranches,sothathecancheckwhichvehicles have to be delivered. •Theplanningofthedemonstrationvehiclesforthetestdrivesofclientsandprospects.

(Figuur 007)

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The Human Resource Manager

One planning board is composed for the HR Manager in which he can consult all the employees of the group. He is mainlyinterestedintheabsences.(figure008)

The Fleet Manager

The Fleet Manager has a planning board in front of him in which he can see all the vehicles of Truckworld. He can check what happens in his car park. (Figuur 009).

The Service Advisor

Figure 010 shows the planning board of the Service Advisor in Brussels. He has got access to the planning board of the Workshop in Brussels. Moreover he is allowed to read the planning boards of his colleagues; the Service Advi-sors of Amsterdam and Paris. He can’t do planning, he can only consult these boards. This can be useful to quickly check if there is available capacity in the nearby branches of Truckworld. As Service Advisor, he has to be able to plan replacement vehicles, so he also has access to the planning board “REPLACEMENT VEHICLES”.

Conclusion

OneoftherequirementsofTruckworldwasthatthecomplexstructure,typicalforitscompany,hadtobetranslatedin Plan!. As we have seen before, with Plan! you can give each user a personalized planning board.

Inthenextchapter,wegomoredeeplyintotheuseofPlan!

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The Use of Plan!

WedidtheconfigurationofPlan!fitforTruckworld,wehavegivenallusersaccesstothecorrectplanningboards.Nowwecanstart.Beforetheactualplanningofappointments,we’llexaminetheplanningboardoftheServiceAdvisor .

Lay Out of a planning board

Let’shavealookatfigure011.Herewefindsomeelements:

• [1]Centrallyonthescreenwealwaysseetheactualplanningboard.Herewecanseethemechanicsand thecapacityoftheWorkshopanddivisions.Onthecolouredstripesnexttothemechanicswecanseethe tasks of the respective mechanic. The colour of the task is related to the kind of work that’s planned. You canmaketasktypesunlimitedly,eachwithaspecificcolourandaspecificduration.Figure012givesa surveyofthetasktypesthatareusedbyTruckworld.Infigure011,thecoloursofthestripeshowthekind oftaskthathasbeenplanned.Byclickingonthebutton“Taskstatus”(figure013),weseethestatusof eachtaskinaspecificcolour:

o Purple: task has to be started o Green: task is in process o Ochre:taskisfinished o Red: task is on hold

Each user can choose the colour pallet he wants to use, so the Service Advisor will be particularly inte rested in the status of each task, whereas the person responsible for the Workshop will be probably more interestedinthekindofworkthathecanexpect.

• [2]Leftweseethesurveyscreenwhereyoucanseealltheappointmentsthatweremadefortheres pectivebranchandfortheselectedperiod,intheexampleweseealltheappointmentofthebranchin BrusselsforMonday16thJune.Allappointmentscanbeseeninthestatusinwhichwefindtheappoint ment. We’ll see later that these statuses will be very important.

• [3]Whenweselectanappointmentinthesurveyscreen,wefindattherightsideofthescreenallthe details of this appointment. Here we see who we’ve made an appointment for, when and why the vehicle is brought in. In case a replacement car is reserved, we can also see this here. In the frame “Remarks” we can enter all the remarks that the client informed us about.

• [4]Atthebottomofthescreen,youfindthecalendarbywhichwecangoveryfasttoacertaindate.

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Statuses

Aswesaidbefore,thesurveyscreenandthestatuses(figure011-[2])arequiteimportant.Thestatusesinthesur-veyscreenfollowtherealityoftheWorkshop.Infigure014wecanseethegraphicsurveyofallthestatuses.

This survey screen gives a lot of information and is an important working tool. The statuses give the reception and the Workshop a perfect understanding of the actual situation; what clients have to come in, what vehicles are already brought in, what tasks are in process. These statuses are an important working tool for reception and working place and also a communication tool:

•Theappointmentsinthestatus“Planned”areimportantforthereception,theseareclientswhowemade an appointment with but who haven’t brought in their vehicle yet.

•Theappointmentsinthestatus“Planned,VehicleIN”aretheappointmentsthatareplannedandofwhich the client has brought in the vehicle. These are the tasks that the person responsible for the Workshop has to give to the mechanic.

•Theappointmentsinthestatus“Assigned,VehicleIN”aretheappointmentsthatthepersonresponsible for the Workshop has given to an employee.

•Thetasksinthestatus“InProcess”arecurrentlyinprocess.

•Thetasksinthestatus“Finished”aredone.

•Thetasksinthestatus“VehicleOUT”arecompletelyfinished,thevehiclehasbeencollectedbytheclient.

•Thesmallkeybehindcertainappointmentsindicatesthatareplacementcarisreservedforthisclient.

•Asmallclockmeansthattheclientkeepswaitingforhisvehicle.

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Making and processing appointments

In Plan! we can enter an appointment in two ways:

1 Directly in the name of the mechanic. 2 On group level (e.g. B1 – Maintenance) so that capacity is reserved for the intervention before assigning the task to a mechanic.

Inthenextexample,weenterenappointmentoncapacityandwewillshowyouhowtheordersurveyiscompleted.

OrderHeading(figure015)

Bydouble-clickingonacertaingroupandonthecorrectdate,weseeanemptyscreenwherewefirstenterthegeneral data of the appointment. The most important data that can be entered are:

➢ “Company”:isautomaticallydonewiththehelpoftheusersprofile ➢ “Type”:Istheordertype.It’spossibletomakevariouskindsofordersinPlan!.Theordertypedetermines the way of communication with the client (see Communication module). It’s also possible, dependent on the order type, to employ another order cycle. So it can be that appointments for the collection of new vehicles are processed differently than the normal Workshop appointments. ➢“Number”:Hereyoucanentertheworkingordernumber. ➢ “Customer”:Byclickingonthethreedots,weseetheclientsurvey.Inthisscreen,wecan,onevery availablecell,lookfortherightclient.Whentheclientischosen,thecell“Vehicle”isautomaticallyfilled in. When the client has got more vehicles, we can select the right vehicle via pop-up menu. ➢“Contact”:Thisisthecontactwiththeclient,isusedtooperatetheCommunicationmodule. ➢“Vehicle”:Tolookforavehicle,whenthevehicleisfound,theclientisautomaticallyfilledin. ➢“Waits”:Indicatortoindicateiftheclientiswaitingforhisvehicle. ➢“Arrival/Departure”:Theplannedhoursofarrivalanddepartureoftheclient.Isnecessarytoknowwhen the vehicle is at the disposal of the Workshop. The “Alert” module automatically controls if no tasks are assigned when the vehicle is not available. ➢“Actual”:Herewekeeptherealhoursofarrivalanddeparture.Thesehoursareautomaticallyfilledin. ➢ “Remarks”:Herewecanenteralltheremarksoftheclient.

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Order Detail (Figuur 016)

Byclickingon“Tasks”or“Next”,wecomeintothedetailedscreen.Hereweenterthefollowing:

➢“Type”:Tasktype ➢“Duration”:Isautomaticallyfilledinbutcanbeadapted ➢“Status”:Isautomaticallyfilledin,givesthestatusoftheorder ➢“Group”:Isautomaticallyfilledin,showsthegroupwhotheorderisassignedto ➢“Executor”:Showswhichemployeethetaskisassignedto,isautomaticallyfilledinwhenthetaskisas signed to a mechanic. ➢“Description”:Herewecanenterremarksontasklevel.Theseareprintedondailyreports.

Replacementcar(figure017)

➢Byclicking“Next”,wecomeintothescreenforthereplacementcar.Therentalperiodisautomatically filledinonthebasisofthehoursofarrivalanddepartureintheorderheading.Weonlyhavetoselecta replacement vehicle. A double booking is not possible. Remarks can be entered if needed. ➢Therealhoursofarrivalanddepartureareautomaticallyfilledinlater. ➢ReplacementanddemonstrationvehiclescanbeplannedwithoutmakingaWorkshopappointment.

Closing,Status“Planned”(figure018)

➢Byclicking“Save&Close”,weleavetheorderscreenandcomebacktotheplanningboard.Herewesee our appointment in the survey screen in the status “Planned” ➢Wehavemadeanappointmentforwhichweprovidetwotasksandwhereareplacementcarisreserved for the client. By assigning tasks to the group “B2 – Mechanics”, the capacity of this group is adapted. Now there are only two hours available for this group. Before the planning of this appointment, there were8workinghoursavailable.(figure011)

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Processingappointments;finishingordersurvey

•Status“Planned”(Figure018)

➢Whenweclickontheappointmentthatwehavejustmade,weseeallthedetailsattherightsideofthe screen.

•Status“Planned,VehicleIN”and“Assigned,VehicleIN”(Figure019)

➢Whentheclientarrives,wehavetorecordthearrival,theWorkshopneedstoknowthatavehiclehas arrived. ➢Byclickingwiththerightbuttonofthemouseontheappointment,wecandirectlyrecordthearrival. ➢Theappointmentcannowbeseeninthestatus“Planned,VehicleAvailable”.Thepersonresponsible for the Workshop sees at once that a vehicle has been brought in and assigns the task to a mechanic “Boonen Tom”. This can be easily done by taking the task in the screen “Order Detail” and dragging it tothewantedemployee.Theresultcanbeseeninfigure019.Afterassigningthetask,thetasksisinthe Status: “Assigned, Vehicle IN”.

•Startingandfinishingtasks,Statuses“InProcess”and“Finished”(figure020)

➢Byclickingthetask,thetaskstatuscanbeadapted.WhenPlan!isrelatedtoatimeregistrationsystem, then this act is not necessary and the change of status is automatically done. By starting the task, the statusisalsochangedin“Executing”,thecolourofthetaskhaschangedingreen.Thisway,thereception can see online what is happening in the Workshop. ➢Thefinishingoftasksisdoneinthesamewayasthestarting.ThisactisnotnecessarywhenPlan!is related to a time registration system. Meanwhile, the colour of the taskbar has changed.

•Collectingthevehiclebytheclient,Status:“VehicleOUT”(figure021) ➢Theindicationofthefactthattheclienthascollectedhisvehicleisdoneinthesameeasywayasa minute ago; with one click on the right button of the mouse. The appointment can now be seen in the status: “Vehicle OUT”. ➢Theappointmentiscompletelyfinished.Meanwhile,therealhoursofarrivalanddeparturearefilledin. (figure022)

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Making appointments with reservation of a Workshop

➢ Forcompaniesthatwanttoprogress,Plan!alsogivesthepossibilitytoplanWorkshops.

➢ Figure023showsaplanningboardwithasurveyoftheavailableWorkshops.TherearethreeWorkshops, each with 2 zones. While we make an appointment, a Workshop can be reserved, 1 or, if necessary, 2 zones can be reserved.

➢Thesamemechanismcanalsobeusedforthereservationofspecialequipment.

Absences

It’s of the utmost importance that the Service Advisors always have a correct image of the available capacity. That’s why we have to enter all the absences correctly.

Absences can be entered individually, for a group, a branch or for the whole group. An unlimited number of types of absences can be made. This makes it possible to generate reports. You can easily determine the lay-out of these reports.Infigure024youseeascreenwithsomeholidays.

Figure 025 shows a report with all the trainings that the mechanics attended to 2008. The report is sorted out in alphabetical order according to mechanic. Like all reports of this type, this report can also be printed with one mouse clickorcanbeconvertedtoExcel,textorHTML.

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Plan! Sales and Delivery

For the planning of the division “Delivery of New Vehicles”, Truckland has chosen to use the modules Sales and De-livery.

TheplanningofvehiclesforsalesanddeliverygoesdifferentlythantheWorkshopplanningandismoredifficultbecausethisofteninvolvestasksthatarefulfilledoutoftheowncompany.It’simportanttohaveunderstandingandcontrol of the activities that are contracted to subcontractors. Truckland mainly works with two subcontractors: Paint it Black for all the paintwork and Cool Trans for all the construction activities. Truckland also does some of the activities.

With the use of this module, Truckland has track and control of:

•Thestatusofeachreservedvehicle: ➢Notarrived: Vehiclesonorder,notdeliveredtoTruckworldyet ➢ToDo: VehiclesdeliveredtoTruckworldandinProcess ➢Finished: Vehiclesdeliveredtotheclient

•Theplanning,thismeanstheexpecteddateofdeliverytoTrucklandandtheplanneddataofdeliveryto and from the subcontractors.

•Thecashflow,thankstothisfunction,Trucklandhasapowerfulinstrumentthatoffersperfectcontrolover thecashflow.

Figure 026 shows some sales orders with their planning. On the left of the survey screen, we see three tabs related tothestatusofeachvehicle.Theordersthatweseeintheexampleareinthestatus“NotArrived”,sothesearethevehicles that have not been delivered to Truckland yet. On the central planning board, we see the planning of the sold vehicles. We see three task types:

•ThegreenstripesshowwhenwecanexpectthevehicletoarriveatTruckworld. •ThebleustripsshowwhenthevehicleiswithsubcontractorCoolTrans •ThepurplestripesshowwhenthevehicleiswithsubcontractorPaintItBlack

The sales order of client “Roose Joel” is visible. The planning can be easily adapted to by dragging the stripes over the timeaxis.Asthetasksarelinked,theothertasksareautomaticallyshiftedup.

It’s important that in case the planning changes, a mail can be sent to the relevant subcontractor and to the salesman of Truckworld so that he can inform his client of the change.

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fig027

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fig028

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Viatheselectionscreen(figure027),allsalesorderscanbeselectedaccordingtoimportantcriteria:

➢Customer: tolookatalltheordersofaparticularclient ➢Contractor: tolookatalltheordersofaparticularsubcontractor ➢Salesman: tolookatalltheordersofaparticularsalesman ➢Model: tolookatalltheordersofaparticularmodel Intheexample,wemadeaselectionofallthevehiclesthathavetobebroughttosubcontractor“CoolTrans”forconstruction work. You can perfectly see when they have to be delivered to Cool Trans and when the vehicles are expectedtoarriveatTruckworld.CoolTranshasbeeninformedbyamailthatwasmadeandsentfromPlan!Theorder form for Cool Trans was automatically generated in Plan!

Thefinancialaspectisveryimportantduringthewholeprocessthatavehiclepassesthrough.Atalltimes,wemustbeabletoseewhatthefinancialbalanceisonagiventime.

The costs related to the subcontractors, can be entered at the creation of a sales order. This is done for each task that islinkedtoanorder.Theamountthathastobepaidischargedonthe(expected)deliverydate,addedupwiththepayment term of the subcontractor.

Besides,it’spossibletoenterplannedandrealprofitsoncertaindates.Thisisdoneonsaleslevel(severalpaymentsper sales order)

Withthehelpofabardiagramwegetunderstandingofthefinancialsituation.Theplanningaswellasthefinancialsurveycanbeshowedbyday,weekormonth.Infigure028,weseethefinancialsurveybyweek.

Plan! Rental planning

The general functioning of the rental module is as easy as the one of the replacement cars.

Rental cars can be put on a separate planning board and can be divided in groups. Big difference with the replace-ment cars is the way of calculating the price. With rental cars, this is limited to a current prize. Concerning renting, we can go a little bit further. You can make an unlimited number of prize categories. Per prize category, you can determine the prize for renting, dependant on the rental term. Here you can also enter the number of kilometres that are included in the rental prize. Then you can link these prize categories to un unlimited number of prize schemes. In a prize scheme, you deter-minewhattypeofvehiclebelongstowhatprizecategory.Youcanalsoentertheprizeperextrakilometreandtheguarantee charged to the client. In fact, you can enter a calculation of prize for each kind of vehicle per day/week/month,takinginaccounttheincludingnumberofkilometresandtheprizeperextrakilometre.

AninvoicecanbeprintedfromalltheselettingsAstandardexportisprovidedandcanbesenttoafinancialapplica-tion.

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SOME REALISTIC FIGURES

Truckland invested about € 30.000 for the purchase and implementation of Plan! This means about € 10.000 per site.

The question that presents itself is of course; how and when can we recover the costs on this investment?

Concerning Truckworld, the average hourly wage is € 60/hour. The relation between the sales of parts and working hours is 1 to 1.We start from an average gross margin of 30 %. Truckland is open 250 days a year and a mechanic works there about 1500 hours a year.

With an hourly wage of € 60/hour, each hour a day that is not charged means a real loss in sales of € 30.000 on a yearly basis.

Lossofworkinghours=60*250days =€15.000 Loss of Spare Parts (idem) = € 15.000 Total loss = € 30.000

•Thefactisthatwithagoodplanningsystem,theproductivityintheWorkshopcanbeimprovedfrom5 to10%withoutanyproblems.Ifwetaketheworstscenario(5%),thismeansasalesprofitinworking hours and changeable items and calculated on the basis of 1.500 working hours a year, an hourly wage of € 60 of:

➢ 9.000euro/yearpermechanic ➢ 90.000euro/yearforaWorkshopwith10mechanics ➢ 225.000euro/yearforaWorkshopwith25mechanics ➢ 450.000euro/yearforaWorkshopwith50mechanics

• Trucklandemploys60mechanics.ThismeansforTrucklandapossibleincreaseofsalesof€540.000/year or an increase of the gross margin of € 162.000/year. Or a Return On Investement of less than 3 months! Of course we have to take the trail period into account. Although the implementation of Plan! only takes 15 days, we mustn’t forget that the organization has to be adjusted to the use of Plan! This organization cost Truckland about 6 months. Taking this data into account, the ROI is only 9 months.

•Anotheraspectistheincreaseofcustomer-satisfaction.Theoutputthatwegainisdifficulttodetermine infiguresbutisthereforenotlessimportant.

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PLAN! AUTOMOTIVE REfERENCES

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! Automotive

With Plan! our productivity has increased with at least 5% and this after 6 months.

Ludo Persoons is After Sales Manager at Mercedes-Benz Truck Centre in Sint-Pieters-Leeuw.

“As in many Workshops we have worked with a planning book for almost 15 years. A big agenda, in which everyone

couldfillintheappointments.Suchalotofcomingandgoing.Duringthisperiod,somepeopleintroducedaplanning

software, but I was never really convinced that my employees could work with this software. Many of these programs

are so complicated that you can’t see the wood for the trees.

OuremployeesatthereceptionandintheWorkshoparequiteintelligentguysbuttheydon’thavethetimetofindout

howthefeaturesoftheprogramwork.Andsowestucktoourplanningbook.UntilIsawPlan!Myfirstreactionwas:

This is what I need!

Plan! is so easy to use and graphically attractive that I knew immediately that everyone could get to work with it. And

I was right. One afternoon, Plan! was installed and the morning after, our employees got some more information.

That very same evening, we didn’t use our version on paper anymore and the day after we were all working with

Plan!. I have never seen such a quick and uncomplicated implementation of a software program.

Now we work with Plan! for almost seven months and the differences in our organisation our remarkable. We plan

more accurately and this way we are more productive. We don’t loose time anymore with all that coming and going

because we get all the information on the screen right away. Appointments can be observed in a correct way.

We investigated the satisfaction of our clients and noticed that the maintenance process for our clients is shorter. Cli-

ents don’t need to be long without their vehicle and meanwhile our productivity increased with 5%. That is quite an

achievement.”

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! Automotive

I have seen many so-called planning systems but Plan! is different.

Tom Pieters is Service Manager at Mercedes Vriesdonk.

“SinceSeptember2004,weworkwithPlan!andIcansaythatPlan!hasentirelyfulfilledhispromise.Before,the

employees at the Workshop reception worked with a planning book. In this book, we wrote down the tasks that had

to be planned. We have been working this way for years. We were aware of the disadvantages and that’s why we

startedworkingwithExcel.Weonlydidthisforafewmonths,becausewesawthatthiswasn’tthemostefficient

way to do. During that whole period, I have seen many so-called planning systems, but none of them could really

convince me. Until I saw Plan! That was different. Everyone involved in the planning could consult and change the

planning from a distance. Everyone can see the presences and absences of the employees, the availability of the

replacementvehicles,theworkloadintheWorkshopandtheexactappointmentsthatweremadewiththeclients.

Plan!tookcareofaneasierworkflow,withoutunnecessarycommunicationsandwithoutmanymistakes.What’seven

more striking is, that at the starting up, we decided to let our old system run parallel to Plan!, but all our employees

were very enthusiastic about Plan! and immediately got to work with it. So we already stopped working with our old

planning method after one week.”

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!

In the past, it was not easy to evaluate the available time in the Workshop.

Thomas filliers is Sales Manager at Carrera Motors Porsche Centre’s Public Limited Company in Sint-Martens-Latem.

Since 1988, Carrera Motors Porsche Centre in Sint-Martens-Latem is distributor of Porsche sports cars. A make full of

fascination,emotionandinnovation.Porscheclientsdemand,rightly,individualadviceandexpectfullserviceoftheir

garage owner. At Carrera Motors, they have already been working with Plan! for 5 months, so we went to Mr Filliers,

SalesManagertogettoknowhisexperiences.WeaskedhimhowacompanywithacriticalaudiencesuchasPorsche

driversorganisedhisWorkshoptobeabletogiveanexactcustomer-relatedservice.Asinsomanycarbusinesses,

they used an agenda to do the planning. So writing and deleting. A system that works but which is not really ef-

ficient.TheywereawareofthisatCarreraMotorsandsotheychangedovertoPlan!fivemonthslater.

“ We particularly wanted an easier and faster planning system”, according to Mr Filliers. “Plan! allows us to consult

the planning on several computer. That’s much easier to use than our old planning book. The most important result

of Plan! is a much better occupation of the Workshop. Time and people management are easier. All this increased

the pressure of work but we also gain time. We do more work with the same people in the same time span. In the

future,wewanttoconnectPlan!tothestockmanagement,becausethiswaymoreefficiencycanbeobtained.”

Toconclude,weaskedifPlan!hascomeuptotheexpectations.MrFillierssaid:“Ofcourse.Inthepast,itwasnot

easytoevaluatetheavailabletimeintheWorkshop.Todaywecantellexactlywhat’spossibleandwhat’snot.”

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!

Now the planning is right and we know the exact capa-city.

Carine Lippens, business manager at Honda de Smedt in Waarschoot.

Garage De Smedt is a Honda story of three generations. And recently, when the garage moved from Lembeke to

Waarschoot,anewstepwastaken.Withamagnificentshowroomofnolessthan550squaremetres,weworkon

themotto:“EverybodyaHonda”.ThenewofficewasthebeginningofaprofessionalorganisationoftheWorkshop.

Four mechanics are continuously working to keep the Honda of each client in top form. The planning was, as in many

garages, until the beginning of this year, done with the help of an agenda. But Mrs Carine Lippens, business manager

ofHondadeSmedt,toldusthatthiswasnotsufficientanymore.“Weneededabettersurveyoftheavailablecapacity.

Occasionally the mechanics had to do two jobs at the same time. This caused unwanted problems of course.”

Honda de Smedt works with Plan! since 2006, we wondered if the problems were solved.

“Absolutely”, assured us Mrs Lippens. “Our organisation is much better now. When we worked with the agenda, you

could easily add things. This is not just possible with Plan!. A mechanic is available or not. A point of time is free

or not. The planning is done on basis of the reality and is, as a result, precise and correct. Plan! is entirely what we

needed and a good survey of the occupation of the Workshop is a fact today.”

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PL N!Planningssoftware voor wakkere ondernemers!

UPSyNC NVPATOTTERIJSTRAAT 11 B-9250 WAASMUNSTERBELGIUM T. +32 3 766 34 34 F. +32 3 766 35 86 INFO@USE-PLAN.COM WWW.USE-PLAN.COM