With its growing rental fleet, management at Motor Loaner, Inc. has identified the need for an integrated and comprehensive vehicle management system that allows employees to quickly and easily perform all of their daily duties. The following is a summary of the tasks typically performed by Motor Loaner employees on a daily basis that need to be captured by the system as well as a list of common errors that any new system should protect against:
- BPR1: Track Employee Information Electronically
Motor Loaner, Inc. intends to track information about employees (known as Associates within the corporate structure) to identify who performed a particular task and to store contact information for Human Resources purposes.
- BPR2: Track Manufacturer Information Electronically
The Service Department maintains a box of business cards for each of the vehicles they work on in case the manufacturer must be called. Having that information available on the new computer system would be much easier to reference and maintain.
- BPR3: Prevent Duplicate Customer Accounts
Under the current paper-based system, many customers have inadvertently opened multiple accounts. A replacement paperless system should aggregate all of a customer's activity under one account and implement safeguards to help prevent a Rental Clerk from creating a second account for the same person.
- BPR4: Enforce Email Address Format
For marketing purposes, Motor Loaner, Inc. intends to move towards an e-mail model to communicates with its customers. To minimize workload for the marketing staff, all email addresses entered by a rental clerk should be in a suitable format. The system should prevent a rental clerk from entering an invalid email address for a customer. Likewise, this feature should be extended to the other areas of the new system where applicable (such as for Associate contact information).
- BPR5: Allow Multiple Addresses and Phone Numbers for Customers
Customers often provide a wide variety of contact information, including numerous addresses and/or phone numbers. The new system should support the ability to add new addresses and phone numbers for customers as needed.
- BPR6: Prevent Duplicate Models
The members of Motor Loaner's procurement department act independently in their efforts to obtain new vehicles at the best price. In some cases, this has led to duplicate paperwork for the same vehicle model. The new system should prevent associates from adding a vehicle model to the system if it already exists.
- BPR7: Prevent Older Model Vehicles from Entering Fleet
Motor Loaner's vehicle procurement department uses a variety of methods to acquire new and used vehicles, and each vehicle is thoroughly inspected before being added to the fleet. However, Motor Loaner's policy is that any new vehicle model entered into the system cannot be more than 10 years old due to support concerns from the manufacturer and parts availability.
- BPR8: Track Vehicle Inventory
At any time, an associate should be able to review all vehicles of a particular model and identify the current status of the vehicles.
- BPR9: Store and View Vehicle Photos with Model Information
The new system should support the ability to add and retrieve photos of a particular vehicle model.
- BPR10: Enforce VIN Number Accuracy
The system should prevent an associate from entering an invalid VIN number when adding a vehicle to the fleet.
- BPR11: Automatically Track Vehicle Status and Mileage
At any point in time, a vehicle can have one of four statuses: Available, Servicing, Rented, or Discarded. The system should automatically update and display a vehicle's current Status as well as its current Mileage, and this information should be prominently displayed on a vehicle's record.
- BPR12: Track Vehicle Disposal
All Vehicles should track the date and method they were obtained. Once a Vehicle has exceeded its usefulness, it is eliminated from the fleet. For audit purposes, Motor Loaner, Inc. is required to track the date and method of disposal for each retired vehicle. However, if vehicle is mistakenly marked as Disposed, a user should be able to clear those fields to return the vehicle to an Available status. Also, a user should not be able to dispose of a vehicle that is currently rented.
- BPR13: Automatically Identify Available Vehicles
There are several different types of vehicles that Motor Loaner, Inc. has available for rent; customers can have a difficult time selecting the best vehicle to suit their particular needs. Rental Clerks are responsible for helping customers find a rental vehicle that is both available for rent and meets the customer's requirements. This is currently a very difficult task since the Rental Clerk only has a printed list of all the vehicles on the lot and whether they are in the Service Department or not. This is not always accurate and it can be difficult to determine which vehicles have what features. Ideally, the system should allow the Rental Clerk to easily identify all vehicles on location that are available for rent.
- BPR14: Simplify Rental Check-Out Procedure
Currently, customers fill out a rental agreement form that a Rental Clerk later enters into a computer spreadsheet. Ideally, the new system will be simple enough to allow a Rental Clerk to enter the customer's information directly to streamline the process.
- BPR15: Track Existing Damage
If a vehicle is rented out with existing damage, it must be recorded in detail to ensure that the customer is not penalized for the damage upon return.
- BPR16: Track Rental Accessories
Customers are also able to rent accessories in addition to a vehicle. The system should allow these items to easily be added to a rental agreement.
- BPR17: Simplify Rental Check-In Procedure
Rental Clerks inspect each vehicle during check-in to determine the return mileage, vehicle condition, and the return of all rented accessories. If a clerk forgets to gather the necessary details, important information is lost. The new system should streamline the process and prevent a clerk from completing a vehicle check-in without first specifying all of the required information.
- BPR18: Ensure Ending Mileage Is Greater Than or Equal to Starting Mileage
During check-in, the system should prevent a rental clerk from specifying an ending mileage that is less than the starting mileage.
- BPR19: Enforce Rental Agreement Consistency
The system should enforce consistency among rental agreements. For example, a clerk should not be able to complete any check-in related fields for a rental that has not been checked out yet. Likewise, once checked out, a clerk should be unable to modify any of the check-out data.
- BPR 20: Automatically Send Damaged Vehicles for Servicing
If a clerk indicates that a vehicle is damaged during check-in, the system should automatically send the vehicle in for servicing.
- BPR21: Automatically Determine If Vehicle Requires Scheduled Maintenance
The current process of handling returned vehicles requires the service department to oversee all returned vehicles to determine if a vehicle needs to be serviced due to a scheduled maintenance or because the vehicle is returned damaged. The Technician checks the vehicle's mileage and references a maintenance chart for the vehicle to determine if any maintenance is required. Ideally, the system should determine if a vehicle requires the Service Department's attention and automatically move the vehicle into a maintenance queue.
- BPR22: Track Vehicle Servicing Information Electronically
When a vehicle is serviced, the Technician fills out a repair form that explains the reasons for the required repair and a detailed description of the repair. These forms are currently tracked on paper, but Motor Loaner, Inc. would really like these included in the system to allow easy reference of a vehicle's history.
- BPR23: Service Ticket Approval
All vehicle repairs must be signed off by management. Most often management is not in the service department and vehicles wait in the service bay for a manager's approval. There is currently no set method of communication to notify management of the vehicles requiring approval. With this system, Motor Loaner, Inc. wants to employ an email notification process to alert management when a vehicle has been serviced and is pending approval.
- BRP24: Automatically Update Vehicle Status Once Servicing Approved
When a manager signs off on a vehicle repair, the system should automatically change the vehicle's status to indicate is available for rent, assuming that there are no other open service tickets for that same vehicle.
- BPR25: Easily Accessible Reports to Determine Vehicle Status
Many hours every day are spent by managers manipulating data to create reports that summarize the vehicle fleet details. The new system should allow the creation of reports to be simple and automatic.
- BPR26: Easily Accessible Report to Forecast Vehicle Returns
It is currently impossible for manager's to anticipate the expected returns on any given day without spending hours going over rental agreements. The new system should track and summarize each day's expected rental returns.