Chris Aiello Data-driven decision making
One of the MHEDA’s 2024 Material Handling Business Trends states, ‘Technology is profoundly impacting the material handling industry including artificial intelligence, digital automation, data-driven decision-making, and the integration of advanced systems that optimize efficiency, productivity, and safety. Members must have a clear understanding of emerging technologies.’
Let’s dissect that statement, in particular explore the topic of ‘data-driven decision making.’ In our ever-evolving industry, the ability to make informed decisions swiftly and accurately can be the difference maker in running a successful dealership and remaining competitive in the market. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the operations of your service department. The service department is tasked with maintaining, repairing, and optimizing the end customer’s equipment to ensure the customer’s warehouses and logistics operations run smoothly. The service manager is responsible for managing the department’s productivity and profitability. Therefore, the importance of data-driven decision-making cannot be overstated.
Gone are the days when service departments relied solely on intuition or past experience to address maintenance issues or plan repairs. Today, the availability of data and advanced analytics tools empowers service managers and technicians to leverage valuable insights in real-time, leading to increased efficiency, reduced downtime, and ultimately, improved customer satisfaction.
However, most dealerships I visit live with silos of data that do not integrate. The cost and difficulty of properly connecting all these data sets becomes a struggle for even the largest dealerships. If you must deal with orderly silos of data, it is important to identify the purpose of each data set. Then inside of those data sets identify what things need to be managed the most. Often service managers are tasked with manually running their own data reports to analyze. In today’s fast-paced environment, waiting for managers to manually run reports can result in missed opportunities and delayed actions, meaning by the time the manager has time to run or review the report, oftentimes it is too late. Also, if the output is long lists of data or actionable items, this can be overwhelming to the service staff that already have a full day of work fielding inbound calls and everyday tasks and projects that get longer by the week.
Let’s look at Work-in-Process (WIP) reports from your business system as an example. Instead of running a report that generates the entire list of current WIP, look to generate a ‘subscription’ type report model that can provide the 10 oldest work orders by open date and have it auto generated each Monday to start the week. Additionally, you could set up another subscription report to show the 10 oldest work orders by the last day of labor date posted to the work order. Essentially, your Service Manager should get this data ‘pushed’ to them automatically in subscription form and then the data-informed decision-making process makes it obvious the next 10 things to address and work on. As my industry colleague, John L. Gelsimino (President, All Lift Service, and MHEDA’s Immediate Past Chairman), says, “Call it actionable data – easy-to-digest information that allows the manager to quickly identify problems to jump in on.” He will tell you that this type of strategy can be used for any type of dealership management data.
Furthermore, data-driven decision-making fosters continuous improvement and innovation within your service department. By regularly monitoring key performance indicators (KPIs) and benchmarking against industry standards, your service manager can identify areas for improvement and implement strategies to enhance efficiency and productivity. For example, if data analysis reveals that the average time taken to complete a repair is higher than industry norms, your managers can investigate the root causes of delays and implement process improvements to streamline workflows. By charting out revenue per technician in a rolling 12 format you can better determine the technician’s performances and how they are trending.
Here are some other tips to optimize data-driven decision-making in your service department:
Dashboard Visualization: Develop user-friendly dashboards that provide at-a-glance insights into critical performance indicators. These dashboards should be accessible to all relevant parties at your dealership, allowing them to quickly assess the status of operations and identify areas requiring attention.
Predictive Analytics: Leverage advanced predictive analytics algorithms to forecast customer equipment failures and maintenance needs. By analyzing historical data and identifying patterns, these algorithms can anticipate potential issues before they arise, empowering your service department to proactively address them. Additionally, this will give you an advantage over your competition and help maintain customer loyalty.
Mobile Applications: Provide service technicians with mobile applications that enable them to access relevant data and documentation on the go. This allows technicians to quickly retrieve information, input data, and communicate with your service department from the field, minimizing delays and improving responsiveness.
In conclusion, data-driven decision-making is paramount in today’s landscape for forklift service departments seeking to remain competitive and efficient. By leveraging data and analytics tools, Service Managers and technicians can proactively address maintenance issues, optimize resource allocation, enhance safety, and drive continuous improvement. Ultimately, embracing a data-driven approach not only ensures the smooth operation of your customer’s equipment but also contributes to the overall success and profitability of your dealership.
About the Author:
Chris Aiello is the Business Development Manager at TVH Parts Co. He has been in the equipment business for 17-plus years as a service manager, quality assurance manager, and business development manager. Chris now manages a national outside sales team selling replacement parts and accessories in various equipment markets such as material handling, equipment rental, and construction/earthmoving dealerships.
