Customized system solutions for Volvo Trucks

• Better control over revenue streams and costs.
• Fewer errors and greater control of cost distribution and inventory.
• Simplified inventorying and better search functionality.
• Extensive functional improvement of statistical reporting.

The Challenge

Volvo Trucks was in need of a simpler system to enable automated work tasks, adapted to their operations, and which they could grow in, and with, over time.

Volvo Truck Center in Södertälje, Sweden, has about 25 employees, where six of these work with used parts. Seven staff members work with used parts at the Kungälv branch. They buy trucks for deconstruction and sell any spare parts.

Customers can order their spare parts from the Volvo Truck Center in Södertälje, or the Kungälv branch for their trucks. To meet customer demand for used parts, Volvo needs to buy used vehicles from resellers or insurance companies. These vehicles are then deconstructed by Volvo Truck Center staff. Gustav Törnqvist is service manager running the Södertälje facility.

“At Södertälje,” he says, “we take apart about 40 trucks a year. Kungälv does about the same. In all, this creates volumes of spare parts that must be traceable, which places tough demands on IT support.”

The entire vehicle and each spare part taken from it are assigned an object ID before being stocked. Some parts are improved before they are placed for sale at a reseller's portal. The reseller then sells the parts to the end customers.

”This has completely changed the way our sales department works”

- Gustav Törnqvist, Service manager at Volvo Trucks department in Södertälje.

This lets staff see all the main components of the truck. When it is deconstructed, each part taken from the vehicle is registered using the vehicle's object ID. So, you can always tell which truck any individual part came from.

The system categorizes the spare parts according to Volvo’s function groups. Softadmin® therefore shows the same item number and function group as Volvo has. The purchase cost of the truck is also allocated to all the spare parts taken from it.

“When the stock manager sets a price and clicks OK, this part can be searched in our customers’ portal. This brought a complete change to the way our sales department functions. Now, our customers do much of the work themselves,” Mr. Törnqvist comments.

Continuing, he says, “We get significantly fewer phone calls about stock balances or products, and the ones that do call want to place an order. The guys keep saying 'the phones are so quiet,' but we’re still selling all the time, letting them do more qualified tasks. The system bought us time and now our sellers can work on other things.”

The result

The system creates several benefits, and Mr. Törnqvist is especially pleased with the search-and-find function as well as the statistics module that Multisoft developed in close cooperation with the Volvo Truck Center.

The system shows everything from purchases, sales, inventory, stock value, and inventory turnover rate, down to single products, as well as, customer and supplier registers, and much more.

“We can even find scrapped parts and see their history. The find function is exceptional where we can essentially search for anything. Which customers buy what parts, what they paid, how many gearboxes were sold during any specific period, and the types of tool boxes – that's just a few examples!” Mr. Törnqvist, notes, continuing,

“This is important since we can use it in our work connected to purchasing. Using this data, we know which trucks to buy without relying on pure gut feeling – the decision is data-driven."

Moreover, not all staff need to, or should, access all data or functions. The system allows you to create different user types and enables assigning different types of access to various employees.

“The statistics module is fantastic and we keep developing it. We can see differences from year to year, why things went well, and why not, and the kinds of discounts we’ve offered. We have now increase turnover and can keep follow up more easily,” says Mr. Törnqvist.

He concludes: “The basics of the system are easy to learn. It takes only a day. I like being able to assign various permissions to different people and then add functions over time. For example, perhaps a new seller shouldn't be able to issue credit invoices from their first day, only regular invoices. Volvo Truck’s reseller portal is directly linked to Softadmin® – where they can sign into the system."