Chevin Announces Development of New Workshop Management Tool
Chevin Fleet Solutions has announced that it is developing a new tool for technicians to manage their jobs from an easy-to-use-touch screen device, the ‘Workshop Hub’, which is set to fully launch in early 2019. An early alpha build will be made available in the next few months to a selection of existing clients.
The new ‘Hub’ will primarily act as a central location for technicians to complete daily administration tasks such as time sheets, service documents, inspection sheets and workshop audits from the workshop floor, but will also drive management information by producing real-time, actionable data relating to employee utilization and efficiency.
From FleetWave, managers will be able to allocate work orders to each individual technician and monitor their day-to-day activities, while the new tool will empower technicians by providing a more user-friendly guided touch-screen system with intuitive prompts and more visual job-specific information to ensure timely completion of work. It also provides management teams with greater visibility of staff and resource allocations, across multiple locations if necessary.
The ‘Hub’ will play a pivotal role in fleet compliance and risk management regimes thanks to its ability to produce targeted, manufacturer-specific inspection sheets for specified vehicles complete with mandatory fields that prevent any paperwork from being digitally filed before any given job is both complete and compliant.
It also adds great value from a cost-cutting perspective as mandatory forms can be quickly updated, in a digital format, to match current and ever-changing legislation. When discussed with one of Chevin’s large-scale, long-standing clients, it was estimated that savings of up to £20,000 could be made per year on processing service and inspection sheets, when considering the typical costs that are associated with printing and paper processes.
Overall, the new system simplifies and consolidates all admin functions for workshop technicians, providing easy access to a wealth of fleet data. It also promotes improved user engagement; maximized compliance; increased workshop efficiency and completion of vehicle-specific documentation.
Other benefits include:
- Easy implementation – once purchased, the Hub can be ‘turned on’ for immediate use
- Proactive work ethic – options available to workers match that of the jobs they have been assigned, eliminating time spent unproductively searching for additional and unnecessary tools
- In-depth history reports – technicians can upload images for more detailed reporting when it comes to workshop repairs, warranty claims and the like
- Electronic signature capture – triggering PDFs to be automatically sent to assigned team members, to ensure that each job is complete and compliant
- Targeted cost reduction – the ‘Hub’ significantly reduces printing costs and forms can be immediately updated to match changing legislation
- Informed decisions – provides greater visibility of fleet data to drive informed decisions, for example when contract hire is dues to end, when mileage caps are reached, etc. to determine whether it’s worth completing the scheduled work
Accessible on all mobile, tablet and desktop devices, the ‘Workshop Hub’ is being developed in line with client feedback and extensive market research and will be available as a stand-alone module outside of Chevin’s FleetWave software, integrating via an API.
Speaking on the new product development, Ashley Sowerby, Chevin’s managing director, said: “The ‘Hub’ has been developed using the experience of a number of ex-fleet and maintenance professionals employed at Chevin and in close partnership with existing clients. This has allowed us to ensure it not only uses the very latest technology stacks available, but also perfectly meets the needs of technicians and managers alike.”
