U sing management aids
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0 .N SPEEKS, who was inolved in the UK establishment .f the Mercedes-Benz (UK) Ltd 'rartsport Consultancy Service, escribed how management an best use management aids.
In Europe alone 350 million ■ eople rely on 9m commercial ehicles for their quality of life, le said. As living standards iipoved, the vehicle populaonl increased.
s an economic indicator the Do ement of goods by road in :Eq countries in 1975 aggreiat d 100m tons. This had es Red from a 10 to 15 per ent increase in world trade anlually in the 1960s. The precast for the period up to 985 is a modest 2.5 per cent )y ornparison, which, accordng1to Mr Speeks, clearly indiatels that there will be reduction the demand for road haulage r eh cles.
Lower growth rates will lead o Ileener competition accomianied by rising costs. The uture will mean a battle for urvival.in transport: a battle uhi h will be won by those who sensibly use management aids to reduce administrative costs.
The speaker said that M-B does not believe that a manufacturer's responsibility ended with producing quality vehicles. Back-up services, sup port services, and pre-sales service, as well as after-sales .services, were very much its responsibility.
But management aids must not be taken as the soft way out of problems; instead they should be regarded as the accurate way to solve problems.
The sophistication of vehicles must be matched by sophistication in support services.
Adequate service and spare parts depots were essential. The more complex the vehicle the more important it was that spares were readily available.
These support services, although of paramount import ance to the operator, Should not be seen by the manufacturer as the end of his responsibility.
The Mercedes-Benz Transport Consultancy Service had realised in the early 1970s, that operators required assistance to specify the correct chassis, engine and body. Beyond that, operators sought guidance on the effects of a seemingly never-,ending flow of legislation..
Practical operational prob-!' lems of distribution, warehouse, routeing and packaging, made increasing demands on operators. This was the area where the vehicle manufacturer could supply a service.
Operators did not escape' criticism. "During the period of the transport industry's most rapid growth, management information services were not given top priority," was how he put it. He quickly credited the top few companies who had developed sophisticated control systems with heavy capital investment: -These are the top handful with more than 100 vehicles. There are 69,000 operators with one vehicle and no control systems."
In general operators found it di,fficult enough to finance the hardware of operation — their vehicles—without the additional burden of financing control systems. This was why he saw the role of the manufacturer as providing the service.
One of Mercedes management aids, Fleet Information System, is in use throughout Europe and monitors the pro
ductivity and profitability of 8,600 vehicles. FIS did not claim to be the optimum solution for each transport problem, rather it provided the information on which accurate control methods can be exercised.
FIS monitors individual contracts to produce fleet and vehicle performance. Discre pancies are identified quickly and increasing costs, out of live performances and uneconomic rates, are highlighted before they become really serious prob lems. Regular weekly standing charges are recorded and allocated in an orderly fashion with overheads to produce operating cost. The system is tailored to meet individual needs.
Mr Speeks said that FIS recognises that each vehicle is a cost centre and must be separately analysed, and that the same psychology is applied to each operation and contract.
The Fleet Information System is offered as a manual or computer system and is avail able to operators of all fleet sizes types and makes: the informa tion is treated as confidential to the client. The manual system is self contained and controlled by the operator with documents, instructions and formulae supplied by Mercedes.
The computer system requires the operator to supply the recorded material to M-B at regular intervals. The operators receive a data print-out from the input they supply. FIS supplies individual costs for all the factors involved in an operating cost, and differentiates between "brought in" labour and direct labour in the workshop.
While Mr Speeks acknowledged that all transport managers "worthy of the title" would record all the FIS information in one form or another, he argued that its analysis was best handled by the consultant.
Mr Speeks returned to his theme of sophistication in the competitive eighties to point out that immediate and accurate calculation would be an important weapon in the battle for survival.
The system is a pre-purchase operation which informs the, operator which is the most effective vehicle to operate any contract economically and profitably. Part of the input to this programme is supplied from the M-B memory-bank of experience. Delegates at FMC then learned of another management aid imported to Britain from • Germany: Traffic Simulation Programme by Computer (TRASCO). This system should be of use to TIR operators on mainland Europe.
Business results in haulage, he argued, depend largely on two factors: fuel consumption and average road speed. Establishing these points in retrospect may be easy but it is dangerous since the vehicle is already in service and the contract has been signed.
TRASCO identifies the discrepancies in vehicle performance figures between the manufacturers' ideal circumstances and actual operation, and it supplies the missing elements. It also takes account of known traffic situations which alter average and constant speed and affect mileage per gallon. Moreover, TRASCO considered the geography and contour of the route and variable factors which influence driving behaviour, and caters for legislative constrints on speed and time.
The programme is principally used for trunk haul operators using vehicles over 16 tons gvw; but it will be extended to collection and delivery operations with lighter vehicles.
TRASCO helps the operators to select the correct components to produce the ideal vehicle for his operation and avoid mismatching. It is, in fact, a prepurchase support aid.
Finally Mr Speeks emphasised that these services were not meant to replace management but to improve its efficiency.