August 31, 2018—With connected cars set to hit the mainstream, they will undoubtedly have a significant impact for logistics companies working in the aftersales market. In particular, reports Automotive Logistics, connected cars are paving the way for predictive maintenance, which offers additional challenges and opportunities for spare parts deliveries.
Traditionally, when a car breaks down, the driver takes it to an independent repair shop or dealership, where technicians diagnose the problem, order the spare part, and fix the car when the part arrives.
With connected cars, the process is faster, and driven by the dealership. Through over-the-air connectivity, dealers can remotely monitor the state of the car. They can find out early if there is a potential problem, diagnose it, arrange a day and time for the driver to bring their car in, and then order the faulty part in advance so it is ready and waiting when the customer does so.
If a shop or dealer has already diagnosed a problem in a car, or predicts that a certain part is going to fail, then stock can be ordered in advance so it is ready and waiting. This has a direct impact on stock management, as they can order parts in advance and be sure they will arrive in time, removing the need to maintain a large stock of spare parts themselves.
To successfully execute this strategy of scheduling appointments on a predictive basis, shops and dealerships have to be sure they can rely on their spare parts providers and logistics partners to deliver the parts when they need them, so they are ready for the appointments.
This requires more (and more frequent) deliveries, as dealerships still have to work on other, non-predictive maintenance jobs. These jobs can include planned maintenance, regular problems and urgent jobs.
