Additional services in the area of commercial vehicle cleaning or at petrol stations are referred to as forecourt business in industry jargon. This involves, for example, additional services at vacuum cleaner stations at car washes, tire pressure devices or other automated services. The current interim manager implemented the development of a forecourt platform for a globally operating brand company in the vehicle cleaning sector. The project objectives: Bundling quantities, lower development, manufacturing and data maintenance costs.
High development costs for forecourt products with manageable quantities
On the one hand, forecourt products are very lucrative for manufacturers and operators alike. However, they also have a major disadvantage. Very often, especially in the case of new developments, a high level of development effort is required - with manageable quantities. In this company, the annual quantities per product for the predecessor models were only in the two and three-digit range. Due to the large number of variants, a high manual processing effort was also required in order processing and maintenance.
The Forecourt products had previously been developed and produced individually. This was to be changed for the future. The current interim manager first of all surveyed the current product scenario. This included the devices or modules from the existing forecourt portfolio and related product families. He also evaluated which products or devices are to be expected in the next 5 years.
Definition of modules enables synergy effects from purchasing to production
After he had determined the framework conditions for a platform solution in this way, the implementation took place. Together with the product development and sales experts, he defined the technical dimensions. He created modules (control unit, frame, design, etc.) that were used in different devices. This enabled synergy effects to be achieved in purchasing (higher quantities, alternative materials), data maintenance, quality inspection and production.
Order-to-cash process implemented with reduced processing costs
With the introduction of the platform, sales increased and margins doubled. The company was able to win a large tender for forecourt products. With the help of a configurator, an order-to-cash process was also implemented, which reduced the manual processing effort to a few special solutions and thus significantly increased margins.
Forecourt platform increases turnover and margins and ensures great flexibility
The development times and costs for platform-based devices were reduced by around 30 percent compared to conventional developments. This was made possible in part because the new platform used components that had already been tested. This made it possible to avoid repeated expensive testing procedures. Thanks to the high quality, the market launches of new platform devices proceeded without any quality problems. Ultimately, shorter lead times and lower storage costs also had a positive effect on the result.
The company was very satisfied with the implementation of the platform solution. Expectations were even exceeded. The unique selling points of the forecourt platform made it possible to push through higher prices. At the same time, it provides the flexibility to react to future trends in the market.
