The upfitter industry doesn’t work at mass production scale. Unlike the giant automotive OEMs that manufacture basic chassis — to which upfitters add truck bodies — upfitters’ lot sizes are relatively small.
That leads to another important distinction between the work truck upfitter industry and automotive OEMs: technician skill levels. The average employee working on an OEM’s mass production assembly line is highly trained in one specific task that they perform over and over. In an upfitter’s plant, however, technicians may work on a variety of different truck bodies every day, requiring them to learn a range of different tasks and processes. Those technicians are highly skilled and versatile — and, as a result, very well compensated.
Since labor costs are a major expense, no upfitter plant manager wants to see technicians standing idle with no chassis to work on; or worse, wandering around a yard looking for a chassis. A smooth and continuous workflow is vital to keep employees productive and the plant profitable.
Upfitters’ vehicle location challenge
Unfortunately, disruptions to that smooth and continuous workflow are a common challenge.
Traditionally, upfitters have relied on spreadsheets and manual processes to track vehicle location. Further, upfitters typically store vehicles on satellite yards, which can be miles away from the primary plant location. So, finding a specific chassis doesn’t begin with the question, “Where in the yard is it located?” but with a much more fundamental question: “In which yard is it located?”
If the vehicle can’t be located in the primary yard, then every yard must be searched. And as long as the vehicle can’t be found, the risk of an interrupted workflow rises ever higher.
It’s no wonder, then, that time-consuming yard audits are a regular occurrence for upfitters — because manually logging the VIN and location of every single chassis in every single yard is often their best bet for maintaining location data that’s reasonably clean.
Real time location intelligence
Given these challenges, the answer to improved technician productivity lies not so much with the technicians themselves, but with technology and yard processes that deliver vehicles to the technicians.
This is where upfitters can look to OEMs for process improvement. Many OEMs use real-time location intelligence to provide the exact location of any particular vehicle they want to find. Upfitters that use the same technology find vehicles quicker and more reliably than with their outdated, manual efforts.
And this would provide a more seamless and reliable workflow, keeping well-paid technicians continuously productive, and ensuring that their teams of pick-up drivers spend more time driving and less time fruitlessly looking for vehicles. And, periodic yard audits would also become a thing of the past.
How exactly does that technology work? The Cognosos real-time vehicle location solution delivers location intelligence through the use of low-cost wireless wireless-equipped GPS-enabled tracker tags. Hung from vehicles’ rear-view mirrors, the tags transmit vehicle location via radio frequency. Then, when a vehicle is moved within a yard (or between yards), the tracker tag detects the movement and automatically reports its location when it comes to rest in a new spot.
Upfitter productivity impact
When an upfitter can locate vehicles quickly and reliably — and no vehicles ever go missing — they can keep their technicians consistently busy. The impact on pick-up driver productivity is even more discernible: GPS takes the drivers to within two or three vehicle spaces of the sought-after vehicle. At night, or in inclement weather, the tag can even flash a light, indicating the exact parking space.
Best of all, the Cognosos solution tracks the productivity performance of yard operations and delivers a wealth of analytics data. With every identified improvement opportunity, upfitters can boost efficiencies, reduce costs, and ensure a smooth and continuous workflow into the truck conversion process.
Learn more about Cognosos’ real time vehicle location solution, including its benefits, features, and how it can help keep your skilled technicians fully productive. Get in touch to find out more.
