OPEX for Shared Mobility

Cartec: Fulfilles customer wishes through optimized processes

November 02 2021| Reading time: 3 min

For more than 20 years, Cartec has been equipping vehicle fleets across Europe with telematics systems. In addition to good logistics, a high degree of operational excellence is required to process orders promptly and efficiently. Find out in this article what role the management plays in this and why customer orientation and time management are so important for the company.

Learn From Experts of the Shared Mobility Industry

Are you interested in how Operational Excellence is understood and experienced lived elsewhere? As part of the MOQO Summit 2021, we surveyed speakers and workshop leaders about Operational Excellence in their companies. You can find the results here.

OPEX Best Practice

Cartec specializes in the installation of telematics systems in vehicles throughout Europe. The company equips single vehicles as well as entire fleets throughout Europe with car sharing systems, electronic logbooks, telematics units, mobile time recording and GPS location systems. The Darmstadt located company also assembles taximeters, cab alarm systems, switching systems and radios.

Process standardization and the optimization of work and process sequences play a major role for Cartec so that assembly work can be carried out on time and to high quality standards for all types of vehicles and also for orders with large quantities. We took a look behind the scenes to see what approach to operational excellence the company is taking.

What Operational Excellence means at Cartec

For Cartec, the path to operational excellence has three stages:

As part of the development and continuous adaptation of the corporate strategy, the focus is on defining benchmarks and targets for individual processes or process performance.
Subsequently, after the start of the process recording, this is regularly evaluated to check whether it is in line with the strategy and process requirement.
In the process optimization phase, prioritization is carried out on the basis of costs, risks and performance as well as optimization of products and services.

Planning and optimization cycle at Cartec

For Cartec itself, operational excellence is important in various business areas. These include fleet support, installation, assembly and commissioning of measuring devices, conformity assessments of cabs and rental cars, international assembly of car sharing systems and other telematics in all vehicle types, as well as know-how transfer and training.

By optimizing workflows and processes in these areas, the telematics installer aims to increase customer and employee satisfaction on the one hand. Cooperation with external service providers is also to be improved and simplified.

On the other hand, Cartec is pursuing economic and ecological goals by striving for operational excellence. The latter relate to environmental protection and sustainability, for example through increased recycling in vehicle equipment. From an economic perspective, earnings targets, market targets, and performance targets (in terms of sales, profit, and capital) are motivators and drivers for process optimization.

Optimize Internal Processes as a Sharing Provider

To achieve these goals, Cartec defines four key success factors:

flexibility
time management
short reaction times
customer orientation

The customer requirements are always in the center of the company. Through daily and personal customer contact for more than two decades, there is extensive knowledge about the requirements and needs of the customer groups. This is constantly supplemented by feedback from the fitters based on on-site experience and knowledge. This know-how about the customers is also used in the further development of the hardware, for which Cartec works closely with the hardware suppliers.

How Cartec strives for operational excellence

With the success factors in mind, Cartec pursues a holistic approach to continuous process optimization. This combines change management with other improvement systems such as lean management and Six Sigma. Cartec deliberately combines strategic approaches with operational methods in order to increase the company's success.

Methods for Process Optimization in Practice

Based on this link, management is also regularly involved in day-to-day operations. These insights into the current situation enable them to monitor quality and, if necessary, develop ideas for improving processes.

To optimize the value chain for order processing, Cartec also uses a cloud-based application. The goal here is to reduce time in order to provide demand-driven services more reliably and quickly.

Another important tool is in-house training, which serves to transfer know-how within the company and is held in particular on new vehicles or new technology.

Cartec is also certified according to ISO 9001, a standard for quality management systems, and follows requirements of this for continuous quality and process improvement. The internal team structure is also based on the standard.

DIN EN ISO 9001

DIN EN ISO 9001 is a standard for the certification of a quality management system. The standard defines quality management as meeting customer expectations. Organizations of all types and sizes can obtain a certificate, provided they meet the requirements of the standard.

An important basic principle of ISO 9001 is process orientation: tasks and processes relevant to performance quality and their interactions must be presented, responsibilities defined, process performance monitored and its success evaluated.

Other fundamental principles are orientation to the context of the organization, continuous improvement and risk management.

Cartec's approach to process monitoring and controlling

To ensure that the efficiency of the work processes can not only be estimated but also realistically evaluated, the management regularly seeks personal contact with customers and clients - by telephone, e-mail or on site. A comprehensive customer satisfaction survey is conducted twice a year.

Feedback received within a defined period of time is evaluated and assessed so that the results can be used as a basis for process optimization.

In addition, staff appraisals are held at fixed intervals to keep an eye on employee satisfaction and also to identify potential for further improvements and optimization through the experience of all employees.

At present, Cartec sees room for optimization and reduction of workload above all in the documentation of assemblers in day-to-day business, as well as in the procurement and provision of customer-owned hardware at the assembly sites.

Question to Andreas Piegsa, Technical Director and CEO at Cartec

What are the biggest key drivers of operational excellence as a sharing provider?

In our view, there must be a clear management mandate to introduce and implement operational excellence as a strategy system. Secondly, management must play a leading role here.

In addition, there must be an awareness of the urgent need for improvements and changes throughout the entire value chain. Employees as well as assemblers must be and become comprehensively qualified. Regular feedback meetings with employees are also advisable. Financial aspects should not be neglected on the way to operational excellence. Both financial and human resources must be realistically budgeted for coordination and project work. In order to be able to actually determine the success of the realization of a project, a financial evaluation of the project goals and an analysis of what has been achieved at the end of the project are essential.

Go to Cartec's Website