In early 2022, the companies launched a pilot project using the Yard Management System (YMS) in Hemau, Germany. This allows dispatchers and planners to accurately track where a particular vehicle was at any time and stage of the work schedule. The 35,000 square meter Hemau facility is an in-house center for the refurbishment of used cars.
Due to the success of this pilot project, Auto1 is now expanding the application of Inform's technology to 10 production centers, increasing transparency in parking areas and optimizing workflow within the centers themselves. Auto1 completed the first phase of its expansion, which included 10 centres, in October last year.
The 10 facilities offer refurbishment services for used cars sold through online retail brand Autohero. Inform's Workshop Optimization System (WOS) gives Auto1 full control over cleaning, reconditioning and quality control, including through photo and video capture. Inform says that by using the system, customers can increase workshop and PDI efficiency by an average of 20%.
Auto1 Group currently has the capacity to process 179,900 vehicles per year at full capacity across 10 European centers.
“YMS has helped us improve our processes and has always provided us with transparency of all vehicles on our site,” said Karol Niznik, Vice President of Logistics and Production at Auto1 Group. “So it makes sense to take the next step with Inform. With our factory optimization system, we can expect similar improvements in our production centers.”
Inform said servicing used cars is difficult given the range of different makes and models that providers of these services have to accommodate. This means complex demands on centers handling renovations in terms of resources, spare parts and schedules. The company's WOS is designed to estimate how long it will take to repair a particular vehicle at a particular point in time and adjust the schedule, according to Inform.
Mathematical algorithms based on operations research and artificial intelligence allow the tool to calculate processes in real time, taking into account company-specific planning parameters, and automatically assign tasks to the appropriate resources.
“With our WOS, it is clear who is working on what at which workstation,” explains Hartmut Haubrich, Director of Vehicle Logistics at Inform. “The purpose of this software is to automatically adjust the optimized schedule when changes are required in the renovation process.”
