How do I deal with unit preparation/PDI?

Summary

This area of the system can be very complex in the terms of the effect it has on each department, from a practical and system point of view. Because of this complexity, we believe that we have designed a system that controls the process for each department in the most efficient and effective way.

The article explains the processes that are involved for each department when a vehicle sales order is created and subsequently invoiced.

More Information

Process Overview

A Vehicle Sales Order is created, printed and accepted.
This creates an internal Job detailing the customer, vehicle, extras, sales notes to the workshop and delivery due date for the vehicle that has been ordered. The Job status is 'SAL' (Vehicle Sales Order Job).
Workshop schedule the 'SAL' jobs into the diary, taking note of any special instructions from the sales department.
Any parts required are picked and/or back ordered onto the job.
When the work is completed, all parts used will have been booked or retrieved and labour booked.
The Job is invoiced to sales department and the total cost of the job is booked against the vehicle. Any items unavailable at this point will be split off to a separate job so that they stay in work in progress.
Sales Department retrieve the vehicle sales order and check everything is correct before the final hand over.
Sales department hand over the vehicle and produce the sales invoice to the customer for the vehicle, which also contains any extras they have had fitted.
This completes the process.

Detailed Overview

Sales Department

When creating the vehicle sales order, there are three features that the sales person must understand and use correctly to ensure that the workshop job gets all the relevant information.

Line Type

Each line of extras has a Line Type. The Line Types are 'S' (Stock); 'W' (Workshop); 'F' (Financial).

S - Stock: This creates a order processing sales order which is intended for the clothing department. The idea is to retrieve the sales order into Point of Sale and invoice the clothing, which books it out of stock internally to the sales department. When you check out, the system will prompt for the vehicle stock number to which to book the costs. Please ensure you have this at hand because it only asks once. In many ways it is easier to bundle everything onto the workshop job, since this has the vehicle stock number already stamped on it and makes it easier to trace items.

W - Workshop: This adds the item to the Estimate side of the job card that is created and adds it to the Detailed Job Description.

F - Financial: This is intended for road fund licences, insurance, warranties or any other non-stock type item.

Sales Notes

In the "Print and summary" tab of the order, the sales department can add special instructions for the workshop that are printed onto the detailed notes of the job card. For example, 'Please Clean, Plate, PDI and fit heated grips'.

Delivery Due Date

The Delivery Date you enter on the vehicle sales order updates the Job Due Date for the day before the delivery. This indicates to the workshop when the vehicle is due to be collected and helps them schedule the job appropriately.

It is far better to enter something here than to leave it blank, since there is then some indication of when the vehicle is required.

Workshop Department

Everyday, the workshop should either run the report 'Sales Jobs To Be Booked' or search the diary, filtering on job status 'SAL'. Identify the jobs that are in progress and waiting to be scheduled into the diary and then schedule them appropriately, and check for any amendments to existing scheduled jobs.

Sales Jobs To Be Booked

This report is found in "Workshop" -> "Workshop Reports" -> "Sales Jobs To Be Booked".

Filter Job Status 'SAL'.
Go into "Workshop" -> "Workshop Diary".
Press <Ctrl+F1> to Search.
Type "SAL" into "Status:".
Press [Search].
This lists all jobs with a status of 'SAL'. These jobs then need scheduling into the diary and changing the job status to 'NP' - Not Picked.
You must then press <F5> for the job Detailed Notes, which details the special instructions and any parts required.

Parts Department

If there are parts required, the parts department should check the estimate side of the job.

Go into the job card and press <F6> or click the [Invoice] button.
Choose [Estimate] from the options shown.
Press <Shift+F3> to check for stock of the items shown. Items in the "Invoice Qty" column are available and items in the "Backorder" column need to be ordered.
Press <Esc> and <Accept> and this will order any parts that need ordering and book out stock of the parts that need to be fitted.
Pick the items in stock from the shelf and put them in a bag or box with the job number easily visible.

Workshop Department - PDI Jobcard completion

When all the available parts have been booked out correctly including any back ordered parts and the labour has been booked appropriately, you must invoice the job and complete it. Pass the invoice back to the sales department. If items are not available at this point, you should proceed with the invoice anyway, but choose [Split] when the system asks you about items still on order. A new job will be created with the unavailable items on, and this will stay in work in progress until it is completed.

Invoicing the job books the cost of the job to the vehicle stock number.

Sales Department Hand Over

Sales department need to retrieve the sales order before the customer arrives for a final check of the deal.
If everything is satisfactory, invoice the order which completes the process. This should be done as late as possible so that any last minute changes can be incorporated. If necessary, simply retrieve the sales order again, add any changes to it and give a copy to the customer before they leave. You can then do the invoice after the customer has left to ensure that everything is correct, and then post a copy to them.