Implementation of dealer Management system in an earth moving and Construction Equipment Manufacturing Company

Modern industrial world has become more competent in terms of making profit and business development. Other than profits, business companies in the modern days have started to concentrate more on the touch points of the Customer's perception in selecting a product. In particular, manufacturing companies pertaining to earth moving and construction equipment have expressed deep interest in providing service for their products. In order to manage all the service operations, efficient and reliable systems are needed. Hence, there is a huge scope to manage customer service operations through new and innovative solutions for a lesser cost. There is also a huge requirement in designing and implementing such systems especially in earth moving and construction equipment manufacturing firms. This research study includes analysis of existing system through secondary data. Secondly, analysis of value added activities and non-value added activities is carried out to plot a Value Stream Mapping to identify wastes in the system. In order to collect the primary data, a questionnaire is designed considering important variables to implement Dealer Management System (DMS) through literature review. The variables that are considered include service operations, service related cost, customer service quality and resource utilization. The data obtained from the questionnaire is analysed using Smart Partial Least Square (PLS) and Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) tools to validate the reliability of the questionnaire and impact of each variables in implementing DMS. From the results attained, an optimal conceptual model is constructed. Further, the model is validated and verified using hypothesis testing. Waste in the conventional service method is more with a total lead-time of 6.8 days minimum. The time in waste activities can be reduced by incorporating the innovative features present in DMS. Secondly, variables related to resource utilization has very less impact and contribute towards the implementation of DMS. It is also validated through the hypothesis testing where, null hypothesis is accepted in resource utilization variable's hypothesis but alternate hypothesis is accepted in other two variables, service related cost and customer service quality that are considered. Therefore, it is found that the resource utilization variable has a less impact in preparing a model for implementation of DMS whereas, variables related to service related cost and customer service quality has a major impact in preparing a validated model for implementation of DMS in earth moving and construction equipment manufacturing companies.