Service Department

Automatic Dispatching Enhancements

This release focuses heavily on changes to the automatic dispatching functionality of the Service Department Application.  Listed below are several enhancements to dispatching.

Sort Shop Status screen by estimated start time –This functionality allows you to see the order in which the jobs are queued to be dispatched.  Remember that which repair order is actually dispatched next depends on the skill level of the next technician to request a job.  When you sort the Shop Status screen by start time, the Promised Time column is replaced with the Start Time.  To sort the Shop Status screen by Start Time, take the following steps:

• Take option 5=Dispatching Management from the Service Department menu to display the Shop Status screen.
• Use function F6=Selection to display the Sort and Select window.
• Put a 1 by Start Time and press [ENTER].

Note that you can also sort by start time within a technician sort if multiple lines are pre-assigned to technicians.

Limits for holds moved to the technician level –The limits for holds and returns to dispatching has been moved from the shop level to the technician level.  This means each tech must have his own settings for the number of returns to dispatch and holds allowed for approval, parts, other, and comments.  To set these limits for a technician, an authorized user can take option 50=Application Environment from the Service Department menu and take option 1=Select by Technicians.  Take option 2=Change by the technician ID and set the limits.

Option to end jobs on hold –A technician can now end time on a job on hold without starting the time.  Use the same En function to end a job on hold.

Preferred customer priority –A new preference has been added to the Service Dispatching Values to give a preferred customer a higher priority in the dispatching queue.  Key in a number of minutes to subtract from the recommended start time in the Preferred Customer Buffer field.

For example, if a job has a promised time of 4:00 p.m. and 1 hour of estimated time to complete, the estimated start time will be 3:00 p.m.  If the preferred customer value is set at 30 minutes, that will move the estimated start time to 2:30 p.m. 

A preferred customer is defined as a customer who purchased the vehicle from the dealership.  The preferred customer status will only apply to customers who purchased their vehicle from the dealership after the dealership went live on the ARKONA software.

Scheduled appointment priority –A new preference has been added to the Service Dispatching Values to give a customer with a service appointment a higher priority in the dispatching queue.  Key in a number of minutes to subtract from the recommended start time on the Scheduled Appointment Buffer field.  See the example for preferred customer priority.

Fleet customer priority –A new preference has been added to the Service Dispatching Values to give a fleet customer a higher priority in the dispatching queue.  Key in a number of minutes to subtract from the recommended start time on the Fleet Customer Buffer field.  See the example for preferred customer priority.

The system determines that the customer is a fleet customer if the vehicle being serviced was sold with a sale type of fleet.

Option to put all lines on hold at same time –A new function has been added for the technician to put all lines on a repair order on hold at the same time.  To do this, use function HALL.  Note that the jobs go on hold with a status of “Hold-Other” so the number of lines being placed on hold cannot exceed the “Hold Other” limit for that technician.

Turn status red for disabled repair orders on Dispatching Management screen –  When a technician logs on to a repair order and places lines on hold and disables the repair order, the Hold status on the dispatching management screen turns red to indicate that the repair order has been disabled.

Option for technicians to see pre-assigned repair orders –  A new preference has been added to the Technician record that lets a technician see repair orders that have been pre-assigned to the technician by overriding the automatic dispatching system.  When the technician enters the Technician Time Log, repair orders assigned to him will appear beneath the “Select Next Repair Order” line.  To authorize a technician to see the pre-assigned repair orders, the dealership ARKONA security officer can take option 50=Application Environment from the Service Department menu and take option 1=Select by Technicians.  Take option 2=Change by the technician ID and set Show Assigned ROs = Y.

Option for technicians to display a repair order in inquiry mode – A new option 5=Display has been added to the Technician Time Log screen to let a tech review a repair order in inquiry mode.  The option lets the tech see the repair order, but none of the functions are active.

Indicate which jobs are waiters on Shop Status screen – When the service advisor blanks out the time promised to indicate that the repair order is for a waiter, that job will show in the Shop Status screen with “Waitr” in the Promised Time column.  To see the Shop Status screen, take option 5=Dispatching Management from the Service Department menu.

Option for more than one tech to be assigned to a job – A new option has been added to Dispatching Management that lets you assign a second tech to a line where a first tech has already been assigned.  Both techs can start and end time separately on the line.  There is only one place for the correction/cause text so the techs can combine their comments into one story.  To do this, an authorized user can take option 5=Dispatching Management from the Service Department menu and take option 6=Add Tech by the job you want to add the second tech to.

Enhancements to Labor Profit Analysis – Three new features have been added to Labor Profit Analysis.

• Select by Technician – An option to run Labor Profit Analysis by technician has been added to the report selection screen.  When you take option 21=Labor Profit Analysis from the Service Department menu, you can run the report for service writers or technicians.
• Totals by Payment Method – A new prompt has been added to the Labor Profit Analysis report selection screen to get totals by line payment method.  When this preference is selected, the results display a line for each payment method for each service writer or tech.  A total for the service writer or tech is also displayed, with a grand total for each payment method at the bottom.
• Alternate view to see gross dollars – A new function F11=Alternate Views has been added.  When you use this function, the labor gross amount is replaced with the labor cost amount.

Preload technician ID in flagging screen – When a technician has logged actual time on a job, his tech ID will be automatically loaded into the Technician* field when adding flag time to the job in the repair order.

Restrict certain labor operations from being on a repair order for a “waiter” – A new prompt has been added to the Labor Operation Codes screen that will restrict the labor operation from being placed on a waiter ticket.  If the advisor tires to make a repair order a “waiter” and it has a restricted labor op code on it, a warning message will display that says: “Labor operation OPCODENAME not allowed for waiting customer”.  The advisor must return to the repair order screen.  To set this preference on a labor operation code, an authorized user can take the following steps:

• Take option 50=Application Environment from the Service Department menu and take option 1=Select by Labor Operation Codes.
• Position to the labor op code and take option 2=Change by the code.
• Set the field Allow Waiter = N.

Maximum time allowed for waiters – A new Service Dispatching Value has been added to put a limit on the number of minutes a customer is allowed to wait for a job.  If the advisor tries to make a repair order a “waiter” and the total number of estimate minutes on the repair order exceeds the limit, a warning will display that says: “Maximum time allowed for waiting customer is exceeded.  Time cannot exceed nnn minutes.”  The advisor must return to the repair order screen.  To set the maximum wait time for waiters, an authorized user can take the following steps:

• Take option 50=Application Environment from the Service Department menu and take option 1=Select by Initial Values.
• Press [ENTER] twice to display the Service Dispatching Values and key in the number of minutes in the Maximum Wait Time field.

Maximum number of waiters allowed – A new Service Dispatching Value has been added to limit the number of customers that are allowed to be designated as waiters.  If the advisor tries to make a repair order a “waiter” and the total number waiters in the shop exceeds the limit, a warning will display that says: “Maximum number of waiters allowed has been reached”.  The advisor must return to the repair order screen.  To set the maximum number of waiters allowed, an authorized user can take the following steps:

• Take option 50=Application Environment from the Service Department menu and take option 1=Select by Initial Values.
• Press [ENTER] twice to display the Service Dispatching Values and key in the number of waiters allowed in the Maximum Number of Waiting Customers field.

Display hold comments for technician – The comments entered by the technician when a line is placed on hold for any reason will display on the technician’s Repair Orders screen.

Estimated time exceeded indicator – When the actual time on a job exceeds the estimated time on the labor operation code, the estimated hours turn red on the Dispatching Management screen and on the Repair Order entry screen.

Returns to dispatch indicator – A new red indicator has been added to the Dispatching Management views that turns on when a line has been returned to the dispatcher.  Look for the work “Returns” in red on the upper right area of the screen.

Enhanced messaging – Several changes have been made to the internal messaging system.

• Automatic messaging – Three new automatic messages have been added to the internal messaging system:
• Message when line placed on hold – The system automatically generates a message from the technician to the service advisor when the technician places a line on hold for any reason.  The message displays the hold comments entered by the technician as the reason the line was placed on hold and is stamped with the date and time the line was placed on hold.
• Message when last line on repair order is finished – The system automatically generates a message from the technician to the service advisor when the last incomplete line on the repair order is finished by the technician.  The message is stamped with the date and time the last line was finished.
• Message when line is returned to dispatcher – The system automatically generates a message from the technician to the service advisor when the technician returns a line to dispatcher for any reason.  The message displays the comments entered by the technician as the reason the line was returned to dispatch and is stamped with the date and time the line was returned.
• Broadcast messaging – You can now send a message to more than one individual at a time.  For example, a service advisor can send a message to all technicians or a list of technicians.
• Simultaneous messaging – You can now send the same message to more than one type of user at the same time.  For example, a tech can send the same message to a service advisor and a counterperson.
• Intra-group messaging – You can now send a message to other people in your same group.  For example, service advisors can send messages to other service advisors, techs to other techs, etc.
• Messaging for dispatch manager – The messaging system is now available to the dispatcher from the Dispatching Management screen with function F10=Messages.
• Option to view sent messages – Function F11=Sent appears at the bottom of the Message Selection window so you can view messages you have sent.  Use function F11=Received to return to your inbox.
• Automatic message clearing – Undeleted messages will be automatically cleaned out after 30 days.

Tighter security for closing warranty repair orders –A user may no longer close any repair order with a warranty line unless the security option Authorize Cashier to Close Warranty = Y.  To see this security option, the dealership ARKONA security officer can take option 7=User Security from the System Environment menu, position to the user ID, and take option 2=Change by the user.  Take option 1=Authorize by Service Department and the option is on the first screen of security options.  Prior to this release, this security option would only prohibit a user from closing a repair order if all of the lines were warranty.

Adding feedback to an appointment –You can now use function 75=Feedback to add comments to an appointment.

Hard card for parts can be printed with customer hard card –The option to print a hard card to parts has been added to function 50=Customer Hard Card from the Repair Order entry screen.  This allows the service advisor to send a hard card to parts even when the shop is not using a technician hard card.

New method of computing labor cost on repair orders –You can now compute labor cost as a percent of the retail amount of the labor.  To accomplish this, key the percent in the technician’s labor rate field.  Any amount in the tech’s labor rate field less than $1.00 the system will view as a percent.  The labor cost will compute as a percent of the labor sale amount whether it is an actual retail amount or the product of the hours and the retail labor rate.

Security change to the actual labor amount override –A new security option has been added to service writer security that restricts their ability to override the actual retail amount on a labor op code.  To authorize a user to override the actual labor amount on a labor op code, an authorized user can take option 50=Application Environment from the Service Department menu and take option 1=Select by Service Writers.  Take option 2=Change by a service writer ID and set Change Actual Retail Amount = Y.

Add retail amount to Technician Time Report –A new column has been added to the Technician Time Reports for labor retail amount.  This column only appears if you set Print Cost = Y when requesting the report.

Actual retail labor amount tied to technician(s) –You can now change the actual retail labor amount for each tech on a job.  This feature allows you to split the retail labor amount between the technicians.  This only applies to labor op codes that do not have a preset actual retail labor amount.

Option to automatically allocate the labor retail amount – A new preference has been added to the Initial Values area of the Service Department Application Environment that lets the system automatically allocate the retail labor amount between multiple technicians for a labor op with a preset labor amount.  The allocation is based on the ratio between the individual techs’ flagged hours and the total hours flagged on the job.  To set this preference an authorized user can take option 50=Application Environment from the Service Department menu and take option 1=Select by Initial Values.  Set the prompt Distribute Actual Labor = Y.

New labor op code distinction –You can now store two different kinds of labor op codes in the Labor Operation Codes area of the Service Department Application Environment: 1) labor operation codes, and 2) correction codes.  This lets you segregate all of your warranty correction codes from the labor operation codes used on the repair orders.  To change the type on a labor op code, an authorized user can take the following steps:

1. Take option 50=Application Environment from the Service Department menu and take option 1=Select by Labor Operation Codes.
2. Position to the labor operation code you want to change and take option 2=Change to display the labor op information.
3. Use the Correction field to identify the type:
1. Y = Warranty correction code
2. N = Labor operation code

In the Service Department Application Environment, when you are in the labor operation codes, the default view excludes the warranty correction codes.  Use function F11=Correction to see the correction codes.  Use function F11=Inactive to see the inactive labor operations and correction codes.  Use function F11=Op Codes to see the labor operation codes.

To print a list of a specific type, use function F18=Print on the screen showing the codes you want.  For example, if you want a list of inactive codes, use function F11=Inactive to display the inactive codes and hit F18=Print.

The same functionality exists from inside a repair order when you use function 40=Select Labor Operation.  The system defaults to the labor operation codes and you can use function F11 to see the warranty correction codes.

In the tech time flagging window, F4 on the Labor Op Code* field defaults to a list of the warranty correction codes and you can use function F11 to see the labor operation codes.