Peugeot dealers in and around Gauteng now enjoy an unprecedented four parts deliveries a day, ensuring that cars can be repaired or serviced with minimal delay, resulting in reduced turnaround time and happier customers.
This situation has been made possible by a strong relationship between Peugeot South Africa and its delivery partner, UTI Distribution, but is also as a result of the improved efficiencies in the company’s Linbro Park parts warehouse, home to about R35-million worth of parts. On one hand there’s a totally integrated storage, identification and picking system based on best-practices from France which allows for rapid retrieval of parts, and on the other a ‘satellite’ UTI office enables the handover to be executed with minimal red tape and associated delays.
“When we set out to improve the Peugeot ownership experience one thing became very clear,” explains Peugeot South Africa’s GM Parts and Service/After Sales, Eric Moll. “Not only were some of our parts expensive but we were also not getting them to our dealers quickly enough. Today, neither of these criticisms are valid.”
Buy-in from dealers is an integral of ensuring the systems works and they are required to adhere to strict cut-off times. For example, if their order is fired through to the parts warehouse by 4 pm, they will receive their parts in the course of the night, delivered to a locked ‘drop-box’ at the dealership and guaranteed to be ready and waiting when the workshop opens. If the order is placed after 4 pm, it will be processed first thing in the morning (the warehouse is staffed from 6 am to 6 pm) and the dealer will receive his parts in the first day-time delivery; which means by 10 am.
Says Peugeot Citroen SA’ Parts Manager, Peter Devereux: “If a part isn’t in stock locally, we can have it at the dealership between five and seven working days after ordering it from France. We can also track it day by day from the moment our order is placed - this is especially relevant when it comes to the less common maintenance items and also body repair parts destined for our network of approved panel shops.”
While Gauteng dealers enjoy an advantage in parts delivery, Peugeot outlets around the country – and neighbouring territories – also benefit from speedier processing.
Marius Viljoen, Key Account Manager at UTI Distribution, says that there are three co-branded vehicles dedicated to the Gauteng Peugeot dealers’ ‘milk-run’, resulted in an unprecedented delivery frequency – no other brand delivers parts to their dealerships four time in a 24 hour period as a matter of course. The economies of scale the company enjoys also enables UTI to undertake overnight delivery to anywhere in South Africa, with a guaranteed turnaround time of no more than 24 hours from when the order was placed.
For John Wagenaar, Parts Manager at Peugeot Woodmead, the parts supply situation has never been better and he has been involved with the brand since 2002: “This is the best it has ever been, and knowing that we’ll get parts during the night, having only ordered late the previous afternoon, is a real advantage. It is now very seldom that repairs are extended to more than an additional day, and I don’t think anyone in the industry can match us for turnaround time. It has had a very positive effect on the level of service we offer our customers.”
“These initiatives pertaining to parts pricing and availability have also made it possible to offer added-value offerings like fixed-price servicing, and the Mobility programme, which will provide owners of models still under warranty with the use of a loan car should their repairs be delayed due to the non-availability of parts. All in all, it makes Peugeot a more attractive ownership proposition than ever before.”
STORY BY PEUGEOT
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