Hennecke Fleet Consulting

FLEET PROCESS OPTIMIZATION

How to optimize processes in fleet management?

Process optimisation is one of the most important tasks in fleet management. It means to analyze at all operational activities (e.g. ordering, maintenance, invoice control,...) and improve them.

Below read more how to optimize those processes by using a standard framework, analyse them regarding different target criteria like cost, efficiency, quality or customer satisfaction, and improve them by operational and strategic activities as well as supporting technologies.

At the bottom of this site you will also read how we can support you with consulting for fleet process optimisation.

Alternatively read here what Hennecke Fleet Consulting offers regarding fleet management consulting in general: Our consulting services.

Framework for process optimisation

Business process optimisation is defined as "the practice of discovering and controlling an organization’s processes to align them with business goals as the business evolves." Process optimisation means "to define the steps required to carry out a business task, map definitions to existing processes, and then streamline or improve the processes to make them more efficient." (CIO)

In the following we describe a systematic approach of business process optimisation for fleet management.

We suggest to apply a standardized framework that collects information about processes on different levels and analyses them with different methodologies. Substantial process optimisation will be ensured a constant cycle of definition, measurement and analysis of results, activities to improve and control (DMAIC).

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Processes to optimize

Regarding fleet management processes to be optimized, we refer to 17 standard processes out of our general framework of fleet management activites. In addition, some specific processes might be relevant, depending on the industry or business model. Relevant processes are:

Standard processes:

Vehicle selection, including car configurator
Vehicle delivery, including registration and vehicle preparation
Service and maintenance
Accidents and breakdowns
Fuel management
Tyre management
Corporate responsibility (e.g. driver license checks or trainings)
Fines management
Pool car handling
Vehicle return, including vehicle assessment and smart repair
Driver changes and re-allocation of vehicles
Changes of driver data
Capturing of mileage data
Changes of leasing contracts and other supplier contracts
Invoice handling, payments and cost control
Communication with drivers
Budgeting and reporting

Company specific processes:

depending on the industry or business model, examples:

Vehicle-booking for a car sharing company
Daily cleaning for pool cars or sharing
Route planning for a logistics company
Vehicle and hoad safety checks for companies transporting dangerous goods

Levels of analysis

Regarding the levels of analysis different aspects should be considered. These aspects should be applied per each fleet management process and in some cases for the fleet management system in total. We suggest to consider the following aspects:

Process steps: For each process analyze which activities in detail are performed in which order. For example in the vehicle ordering process: "After the need for replacing an old vehicle is identified then this happens and then this..."

Internal stakeholders and external partners: Who is involved in the detailed activities and where are the defined inferfaces? Who is involved directly, who needs to be informed, etc. in terms of "RACI"? Internal stakeholders are not only the employees in fleet management, but also colleagues from accounting and HR as well as the drivers and their managers. External stakeholders include car dealers, workshops, fleet software providers etc. Example: "Fleet manager is in the lead for activity X, line manager and supplier A and B need to receive copy of x"

IT, tools or templates: This refers to specific software that needs to be used, or to documents that have to be used and stored in which location, for example regarding reporting of vehicle damages, supplier invoice control, or pool vehicle bookings.

Efficiency: Time effort of employees in the fleet organisation to perform a certain activity, or vice versa: capacity required to handle the amount of work. This can be measured on process level as well as for the total fleet organisation. For example on total fleet level we use the "VSR" (Vehicle Staff Ratio): How many employees are required to manage a fleet size of X?

Costs: Which costs result from specific processes, or from fleet management in total? This can be direct fleet costs, e.g. fuel or damage costs as well as indirect costs, e.g. administrational or opportunity costs from non-utilized vehicles. (For details see our site about fleet TCO)

Impact on other goals: Impact of the process output on other goals - specifically customer (driver) satisfaction, health & safety and environmental goals (CO2 etc)

Methodology of analysis

In order to gather relevant fleet management process data and to interprete it, we suggest the following methods:

Interviews with stakeholders of the processes are the ideal basis for further analysis, as they provide the broadest and deepest insights and enable to initiay detect ineffiencies

Questionaires enable to broaden the available information and to transform information into measurable data, once it is clear what information to look for

Quantitative data derived from system reports or simply counting (e.g. cost data, number of accidents or number of activities per time-period) is ideal for a continuous measurement of processes and to achieve maximum objectivity of measurement.

Benchmarking: Retrieve information about strenghts and weaknesses by comparing process data of different entities (within a company, or with an industry benchmark)

Time series: Retrieve information about the improvement of processes by analysing the development of process data for a specific entity over time

Activities to optimize fleet processes

Once data about processes is available and analyzed, concrete activities for improvement of fleet management processes must be defined and implemented. This comprises activities on operational, strategic and technological level:

Operational improvements: Process changes, exchange of suppliers, training of stakehoders, etc.

Strategic changes: Change of the fleet management organisation, change of supplier strategy, decisions about insourcing/outsouring, decisions about automation of processes, etc.
Change of technology: Implementation of new software and hardware, e.g. fleet management software, pool car handling solution or automated damage detection systems

As a last step, a robust reporting system regarding the relevant KPI is required in order to ensure a constant monitoring of fleet process effiency and to enable activities for further optimisations.

OUR SERVICES: Consulting for process optimisation

Hennecke Fleet Consulting supports you with our services regarding the optimisation of fleet management processes:

360°-Analysis:

Standardized product for a fixed price
2 day workshop to initially analyze all fleet processes to identifies risks and weaknesses

Individual consulting projects:

Process analysis: Analysis of fleet management processes according to the above framework. Scope and depth (processes, level and methodology of analysis) depending on your requirements

Definition of activities to optimize on operational, strategic and technological level, including subsequent projects to change process descriptions/ car policy etc, change suppliers or selecting new hardware and software

Implementation of changes, including the installation of KPI-measurement systems as well as training of stakeholders and change management