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The STEAR Solution

Workshop Trends

One of the benefits of any manufacturers franchised service department, is that the customer can be assured that the service departments workshop will always strive to follow a prescribed & structured process.

Over time the automotive industry has introduced more digital functions to improve the more outdated manual processes of the service department to increase their efficiency, productivity & untilisation.  Yet paper based documentation is still being produced within workshop environments and technicians will write a report of the repair using pen & paper, where the final administration documents are archived & stored in boxes in a building.

 The STEAR system can significantly improve efficiency & performances in the service department whilst securing your administration & protect this from potential data breaches under GDPR regulations.

  • Handwritten Technicians Repair Write ups – (STEAR templates for the most common repairs)

  • Storage of paper based documents – (STEAR securely stores your administration)

  • Manual creation of Statistical data  – (STEAR generates reports immediately)

  • Verbal / paperbased / non performance data  - (STEAR monitors & stores this data)

Most manufacturer’s have increased their administrative requirements yet have not always assisted this with additional training or digital administrative support. Yet many repairs & processes undertaken in the workshop are repetitive& appear to mirror common issues & processes across manufacturers. (e.g how many ways do you diagnose & replace a wheel bearing ?)

STEAR can improve & support your service department to meet the improvements your manufacturers are requesting.

Benefits

The STEAR solution monitors all stored administration documents (job-packs/WIPS) & from this data different reports can be generated & extracted from the application as detailed below.

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  • Open/closed/pending  repairs

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  • Workshop trends, (common repairs & repair types)

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  • Individual technician’s repair history

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  • Claims with workshop repair process /performance related issue

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  • Review technician & workshop efficiencies

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  • Monitor aged debt easily.

What is STEAR

STEAR is a computerised solution assisting the automotive industry to create, process & archive electronic job-packs for all repairs undertaken in the Service Department. Within this solution there is functionality to improve the flow of administration throughout the service departments to support the missing elements of Dealer Management Systems.

Handwritten repair write ups are still used throughout the world to document repairs undertaken in the workshop & other pieces of paper based documents are collected into a pack and filed into archive upon completion for future retrieval. The STEAR solution vastly speeds up the process of documenting a repair using a library of amendable templated write ups compared to the garages using current paper based workshop write up administration & filing processes.

The features of STEAR allow the service department to create a repair template (write up) which allow technician’s to comprehensively & accurately document the repair (electronically) on a PC, Tablet or any other device connected to the internet to improve the consistency of administration & efficient recovery of costs from the manufacturer.

The solution enables the user to collate accurately all information into one ‘job-pack’ & store it electronically.

  • Electronically (amendable) templated repair write up library.

  • Secure electronically stored administration.

  • Statistical performance reports

  • Supports multi site & remote working

  • GDPR Compliant.

 

Cost Savings

STEAR is the idea l system to support your service department to securely store data & speed up the administration process.

It is well suited to facilitate warranty administrators / managers to undertake multisite support functions for centralisation purposes or holiday and sickness cover.

 A significant time saving can be achieved using STEAR on technicians write ups utilising the template library.

Warranty Administrators / Managers use the STEAR “feedback” communications portal for issues of poor performance which reduces the physical progress chasing  of repairs.

  • Potential for increased workshop capacity

  • Immediate retrieval of archived documentation

  • Centralised Warranty HUB or multi site support from one location

  • GDPR compliant.

Easy to use

The solution has been developed for ease of use and is intuitive for the user at all levels following some simple training.

The functionality of the system simplifies the process in the service department and reduces both paperwork use, reporting, progress chasing. & archive storage space.

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  • Remote access

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  • WIP age colour coding

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  • Electronic Document Storage

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  • Photograph, Media file storage

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  • Full GDPR Compliance

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  • Electronically amendable write up

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  • Templates

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  • Structured Process Confirmation

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  • Report Generation

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  • Immediate document retrieval

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  • Complete system security

How is STEAR accessed

The solution is fully hosted end to end

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  • Datacentre hosted Web-Service and Data Warehouse supported 24/7, 365 days a year

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  • The solution is accessed via a Web Portal so the only user requirement is internet access

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  • The location will require a scanner to scan other documents for upload to the WIP record

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  • System integration speeds up the transfer of documents and data

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  • Photos, videos etc can be uploaded directly from a smartphone or tablet without connecting the device to a PC

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  • Unique user login & security access settings.

Unique bespoke client template development

Technicians

Technicians are able to select a template of a repair for the component repaired or replaced for a comprehensive library stored within STEAR. If the template requires additional information or some to be deleted the system allows the technician to amend the template so that it reflects an accurate report on the repair undertaken.

Once their report is completed system allows the user to upload additional documentation to support the repair (e.g Photo’s videos) Technicians can utilise the following functionality

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  • A comprehensive library of amendable template repairs to reduce administration time.

  • Upload documents directly to STEAR via an internet connection to support repair justification.

  • View daily jobs and returned administration for incorrect missing or poor administration.

Warranty Administrators

STEAR benefits the warranty administrator for a number of reasons as the system will track the progress of the repair where the service advisors & technicians have had any input into the customers repair process. Because all repair information is stored on the system the warranty administrator can evaluate the repair to ensure it meets the manufacturer’s repair standards. Should the repair administration fail to meet these standards at any point they will be able to return the repair (wip/jobpack) to the relevant person with specific instruction on shortfalls so the appropriate corrective action can be taken to enable the warranty administrator to accurately recover costs from the manufacturer.  Warranty administrators / managers are able to

  • Reduce time spent chasing administration issues.

  • Identify & record process shortfalls & view reports.

  • Track work in progress and prepare invoices in advance.

  • Reduce lost administration & aged debt issues

Management Teams

STEAR can be used by the management team to identify various reports to review garage performance and debt.

 

KPI’s  can be reviewed for the following:

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  • Aged debt

  • Technicians performance issues

  • Repair trends

  • Work in progress status

  • Full GDPR compliance

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Service Advisors

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Service Advisors priority is their customers and having up to the minute information on their customer’s repair. Using STEAR the service advisor can view the latest information on the progress of their repair and have detailed information from the technician to relay directly to the customer without searching the garage for the technician to explain the customers repair or the paperwork trail which provides the evidence. The benefits of STEAR for the service advisor is that

  • View history of specific customer vehicle repairs immediately (no searching the archived filing in the building)

  • Immediate viewing access to Electronic repair documents stored.

  • Creation & preparation of repair administration.

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