PlanENDoc

Productdescription
Workshop planningstool Plan!
Planning Software for the Automotive World

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PRODUCTDESCRIPTION
WORKSHOP PLANNINGSTOOL PLAN!

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CONTENTS
1 INTRODUCTION 4
2 BUSINESS PROFILE 7
3 HISTORY OF PLAN! 9
4 PLAN! AUTOMOTIVE 11
5 PRODUCTION DESCRIPTION & SCREEN PRINTS « TRUCKWORLD » 15
5.1 INTRODUCTION 17
5.2 PRESENTATION « TRUCKWORLD » 17
5.3 REQUIREMENTS 21
5.4 PLAN! AUTOMOTIVE 22
5.4.1 Plan! Workshop Planning 22
5.4.1.1 Creation and Organization of Planning Boards 22
5.4.1.2 After Sales Manager 27
5.4.1.3 Sales Manager 27
5.4.1.4 Human Resource Manager 31
5.4.1.5 Fleet Manager 31
5.4.1.6 Service Advisor 31
5.4.1.7 Conclusion 31
5.5 THE USE OF PLAN! 35
5.5.1 Lay-out of a planning board 35
5.5.2 Statuses 37
5.5.3 Making and processing appointments 39
5.5.3.1 Order Heading 39
5.5.3.2 Order Detail 43
5.5.3.3 Replacement Car 43
5.5.3.4 Closing, Status « Planned » 43
5.5.3.5 Processing appointments ; finishing order survey 49
5.5.3.6 Making appointments with reservation of a Workshop 53
5.5.4 Absences 53
5.6 PLAN! SALES AND DELIVERY 55
5.7 PLAN! RENTAL PLANNING 58
6 SOME REALISTIC FIGURES 59
7 REFERENCES 61

6
Are you conscious of the
impact of a good planning
system, on your business
results ?

7
Planning Software for alert
employees !
Competitive companies don’t waste
time or means. That’s why they
are competitive. Plan! permits you,
by optimal planning of people and
resources, to keep your company
processes under control. But above
all, Plan informs you before pro-
blems turn up, so that you can in-
terfere on time and avoid mistakes.
Mistakes that always cost money,
whether it’s a waste of time or
means. Or worse, losing clients.
Plan! is easy to use, thanks to its lo-
gical structure and graphic presen-
tation. As well on the Workshop as
in the office.

8
Each company is different. Therefore you can set up
Plan! according to the needs of your activities. The
program and database don’t need to run in the same
network and you can consult your data over the Inter-
net from all over the world.
Plan! puts a lot of specific modules at your disposal.
No matter which sector you work in, Plan! always of-
fers you the best solution.
Plan! includes a lot of specific modules. Take a look
at www.use-plan.com.
Keeping your promises
Companies that deliver customer-oriented
services strongly depend on the correct ob-
servances of their appointments : respecting
manufacture or restoration terms, reservation
of replacement appliances. Plan! offers some
specific modules for this type of activities.
Getting things done
Availability of people, planning and controlling
projects, optimal use of your own time. Those
who want to get things done, need flexible and
well-organized planning solutions. Even for
this, Plan! has various modules at its disposal.
! Customer Service
! Time & People Management

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BUSINESS PROFILE
Plan! Software, situated in Waasmunster (Belgium) is a fast growing IT-company. We specialize in Software
Development for planning.
In everything we do, the client is important. We encourage our clients to give constant feedback and to think
about valuable improvements, because that’s what we all can benefit from. Our support level is very high,
even fanatic if necessary. You can check with our clients and /or business partners. We are critical to impro-
vements, because that’s the only way to avoid problems instead of solving challenges.
We want you to have an optimal output of your investment. Simply because we consider the Plan! applica-
tion a special, important, optimization appliance.
With the help of our ever growing group of business partners, we succeed in the implementation of our so-
lutions according to the best relation price/quality. We realize that a network of excellent partners gives us a
additional assessment. And moreover we create together a « local presence ».
Market approach
To make organizations anticipate on the complexity and dynamics of the environment, Plan! offers far-sighted
automatic solutions. This software supports our clients in the development of distinguishing capacity and in
the delivery of additional values to their clients.
That’s why Plan! Software chooses for :
• a niche strategy
• with a view to add additional value to the management of the client
• a one-stop-shopmodel (full service)
• offering a quick return on investment (ROI)
• provide additional value with quick reaction
The solution is « fit for purpose » and our organization is made in a direct business model and that’s unique.
Target groups
• Automotive Trucks
• Automotive Cars
• Professional service organizations
Our most important skills
• development, service and implementation of planning software
• our knowledge and skills of the market can be used for helping the clients with their business
• A sales and project organization that’s organized according to the discipline customer intimacy
• ‘Fit for purpose’: general term for everything that indicates that we offer a standard solution over 3
criteria:
o Intensity: short / predictable implementation
o Functionality: aimed at the wishes and requirements of the niche market
o Complexity: easy to use
Last but not least, we have great respect for our employees. Reliability, ambition, loyalty and customer-orien-
ted service are key values that count for all our colleagues. And together, we can be proud of that.

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HISTORY OF PLAN!
In September 2003, we started a complex new development of a workshop planning, aimed at the automo-
tive sector. The development was done in the “C# .Net” development environment of Microsoft.
During the analysis of this project, we’ve had about ten conversations with people who are daily working on
the implementation of tasks. Planning Workshops started this way, later the Plan! user groups.
A development team of 6 .Net developers have been working for 2 years on the first version of the Plan! Ap-
plication. The result was an astounding application that gave those planners the very important control and
survey that they had missed in the classic solutions.
De development environment .Net offered the necessary appliances by which user-friendliness and graphic
user-interface could be entirely provided.
At the end of 2005, the first companies started with Plan! Automotive. After very short implementations,
users got comfort and survey as a direct result. This was for them an immediate encouragement.
Very fast an enthusiastic user group of professional planners started. Their input and user experience gave us
very good advice. We have recorded each suggestion, each advice that was generally valuable.
Till today, that’s still our philosophy. “Plan! Automotive, powered by our users! “
Very fast, we reached the Truck environments, because in this market, the demand for powerful planning
appliances is very big given the size of the companies and the tasks.
Specific Truck functionality was available and became even better.
In the meantime about 200 Automotive sites work with about 800 users with our software in the Benelux
(Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxemburg)
Since 2006, we cooperate with KAHO Sint-Lieven to integrate their optimization algorithms in our software.
The objective of this project is besides planning, also going resolutely for optimization of the available resour-
ces. Real time assignment of the ideal job for the available resource. The results of this technology will be
visible in the future versions of Plan! Automotive.
At the end of 2007, Plan! Software received an award as innovative software project. As a result we have
received financial support of the Flemish Government to do developments that are related to automatic plan-
ning and simulation.

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! Customer Service Keeping your promises
Automotive
When you use Plan! Automotive, you can’t understand how you have been able to do without all these years. You
get complete control of your Workshop. As garage owner, you can strictly keep all appointments with your clients
and that’s what matters. Clients keep or damage your reputation and so they determine the future and develop-
ment of your business. Avoid double appointments, overloading your Workshop, unavailability of replacement cars
and so on. You are informed!
14

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The main properties.
With Plan! you can, at the same time, con-
sult different companies, Workshops, makes
(for garages), presentations of plans, users
and languages.
The parameters can be set up by user.
You can choose to see the planning of the
available capacity or the planning of the
resources, or a combination of both.
Plan! gives a complete graphic presentation
of :
-the total, available and used
capacity
-the occupation by resource.
-the status of a job or project
(planned, in progress or done)
-the type of job or project
(e.g. maintenance, repairs, …)
-the inactivity by resource
(e.g. holiday, illness, …)
You can quickly adapt the planning by use
of the ‘drag and drop’ technology.
The main technical properties.
Plan! works on the .Net platform and is the-
refore suitable for Window users (2000/XP/
Vista) and uses a standard MSE database. If
needed, you can do the implementation of
a SQL Server database.
The Plan! database can be consulted via a
Web service across the Internet.
Automotive
Workshops, machines, employees, replacement and rental ve-
hicles, but also the performed hours via electronic time clocks,
inactivity by illness, holiday or training. With Plan! Automotive,
you get complete control of your Workshop. Data can be ente-
red via barcode or manually.
As Manager you take out of Plan! exactly the information that
allows you to improve the organization, the output and the
reputation of your business.
Plan! Automotive is by her well thought-out structure and
graphic presentation quickly and easy to use for everyone in
your company. You don’t need to be a computer wizard to
start working with Plan!.
Plan! includes a lot of specific modules. Take a look at www.
use-plan.com.

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Minimum Systeemvereisten :
SERVER
• Windows 2000 sp4 or higher (not Small Business)
• minimum Xeon Dualcore 1Gb RAM / 2 Gb free on systemdrive
• anti spy ware and anti virus programs
• up-to-date Windows
• .NET Framework 2.0
• working backup system (to ensure PLAN! Data)
• as of 11 clients: SQL Server 2000 Standard or higher
WORKSTATION
• Windows 2000 sp4 or higher
• minimum Pentium 4d 3GHz / 1Gb RAM / 1Gb free on hard drive
• anti spy ware and anti virus programs
• up-to-date Windows
• .NET Framework 2.0
• Screen Resolution optimal 1280*1024 on 17” LCD or higher
WORKSTATION THIN CLIENT
• for use with Terminalserver or Citrix.
TERMINALSERVER / CITRIX
• minimum Xeon Dualcore / 2Gb RAM / 2 GB free on hard drive
• 1 PLAN-Session uses about 40 Mb internal memory.
Don’t forget the 4GB RAM-limitation of Windows 2003 Server Edition.
• Windows 2003 server Preferred
• Datatransfer: with 16-bit color en 1024*768 resolution : 96 Kbit Bandwith or more.

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PLAN! AUTOMOTIVE
DESCRIPTION & SCREEN PRINTS

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INTRODUCTION
With this brochure, we would like you to experience the power of Plan! Automotive as planning tool for your com-
pany.
We are aware of the fact that a brochure can’t answer all your questions. That’s why we are always ready to give
you and your people a free of obligations presentation in your company.
PRESENTATION “TRUCKWORLD”
In order to illustrate the working of Plan!, we do this with a fictitious company; “Truckworld”.
In figure 001, you can see the structure of Truckworld.
Truckworld is a holding with three branches; Amsterdam, Brussels and Paris. Each branch has 2 teams of mechanics
at its disposal. We call the teams in Brussels “B1-Mechanics” and “B2-Mechanics”. Each team is divided into diffe-
rent groups that are composed according to a certain logic. For the branches in Brussels and Amsterdam, the teams
are composed according to specialization:
• Maintenance: this group is responsible for services and small repairs
• Repair: these mechanics do the bigger repairs
• Electricity: are responsible for everything concerning electronics
• Deliveries: are responsible for the delivery of new and second-hand vehicles.
The branch in Paris has opted for the division of the mechanics according to the shift system:
• Early Team: the morning shift
• Late Team: the evening shift
About 60 mechanics work at Truckworld. Truckworld has her own car park of replacement and demonstration vehi-
cles.
In each branch, there are a few Service Advisors who are responsible for the appointments, the reception of the
client, the observance of the intervention and the delivery of the vehicle to the client. Each Workshop has someone
who is responsible.
Concerning holding, some managers are responsible for a certain department:
• An After Sales Manager
• A Sales Manager
• A Fleet Manager
• A Human Resource Manager.

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REQUIREMENTS
Before the introduction of Plan! Truckworld had an own planning methodology:
• Each Workshop had a “book” in which each appointment was entered (figure 002)
• Then, these appointments were made visible on a planning board that was centrally fixed to the wall of
the reception. (figure 003)
• Absences of the mechanics were kept in Excel.
• For the holidays of the employees, there was a second Excel.
• Planning of replacement and demonstration vehicles was also kept in Excel, the rental contracts were
manually made.
• The planning of the division “Delivery of New Vehicles” was kept on a planning board with T-cards com
bined with an Excel File in which a survey was kept of all the activities that had to be done by others.
This way of working was untenable. The planning was split up into different Excel files, different planning boards
and planning books. A clear survey was nowhere to be found. There was no understanding about occupation of the
various Workshops. Some days, there seemed to be too much work and other days, there was not enough work. To
put it briefly, there was constantly an uncertain feeling about the planning and the occupation. The pressure on the
output of the Workshops increased, an optimization of the planning became necessary.
By choosing a planning tool, Truckworld has put some important criteria first:
• They wanted a global planning system that could replace all books, planning boards and Excel files.
• They had to be able to manage the complex structure of Truckworld with the different branches and
divisions.
• The planning had to be accessible to everyone.
• It was besides necessary that the planning could be seen from different lines of approach. After all, the
Service Advisor looks differently at the planning than the After Sales Manager.
• Security is also an important aspect. That way, the After Sales Manager can see the planning of all the
branches, whereas the Service Advisor has a limited access.
• Survey and control are extremely important, at any time, we need a correct image of the occupation by
division, Workshop and branch.
• It was obvious that implementation and use of the application had to be easy.
In the next chapter, we will show you how Truckworld, with the help of Plan! Automotive, took up this challenge.

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PLAN! AUTOMOTIVE
In order to solve the problems of Truckworld, we provide 4 Plan! modules:
• Plan! Workshop planning: The complete planning of the Workshop.
• Plan! Sales and Delivery: For the planning of the delivery of new vehicles
• Plan! Rental planning: The rental planning, the planning of replacement and demonstration vehicles.
• Plan! Communication: The communication module is used in the workshop planning to automatically
inform the clients about the status of their appointment and in the Sales and Delivery module to take care
of the communication with the subcontractors, accountants and salesmen. Communication is possible by
SMS, mail or fax.
Plan! Workshop Planning
Creation and objective of Planning boards
Planning boards can be individually classified. The lay-out of the planning board can be divided by user or user
group, by company or branch. You can determine which planning board each user has access to. Moreover, you
can make various planning boards and look at the data in a different way. We’ll describe you below how planning
boards can be composed.
We’ll look at how Truckworld has used Plan! for its specific situation. And this according to the different disciplines.

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The After Sales Manager
The After Sales Manager wants, starting from his responsibility, to have a good view on the whole group. Initially he
was particularly interested in the occupation of the Workshops. If required, he gets direct access tot the planning of
the individual branches, the replacement cars and the planning of the Workshops.
On the first planning board “CAPACITY CONTROL (1) ”, we can see a weekly planning with a capacity survey of the
different branches and this by branch and by specialization. Here we can see the total capacity by specialization, the
number of planned hours and the available capacity over the three branches. So you can see that on Monday 6th
June, 182,5 hours were available in the whole group for the mechanics with specialization “Maintenance”; there are
132,5 planned hours; there are still 50 hours available. (figure 004)
On the first planning board “CAPACITY CONTROL (2)” we see a weekly planning with a capacity survey over the dif-
ferent branches per team. (figure 005)
These two planning boards offer the After Sales Manager all the information he needs to have perfect control of
Truckworld and its branches. He sees the occupation by team and by specialization. Possible problems are detected
on time and so you can always intervene if necessary.
Left of each planning board, we see a survey of all the appointments that were made in the week of 6th June and
in all the branches. The appointments are grouped by branch and by status. So you can check in which status you
find the appointment. We’ll come back to this later.
If required the After Sales Manager can consult at any time the detailed planning of the different branches.
(figure 006)
The Sales Manager
Although the Sales Manager doesn’t have to do the planning himself, he wants to have a good understanding of his
field of interest. For him, a planning board was composed in which he can look at:
• The agenda of his salesman
• The planning of the divisions “Deliveries” of the various branches, so that he can check which vehicles
have to be delivered.
• The planning of the demonstration vehicles for the test drives of clients and prospects.
(Figuur 007)

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The Human Resource Manager
One planning board is composed for the HR Manager in which he can consult all the employees of the group. He is
mainly interested in the absences. (figure 008)
The Fleet Manager
The Fleet Manager has a planning board in front of him in which he can see all the vehicles of Truckworld. He can
check what happens in his car park. (Figuur 009).
The Service Advisor
Figure 010 shows the planning board of the Service Advisor in Brussels. He has got access to the planning board of
the Workshop in Brussels. Moreover he is allowed to read the planning boards of his colleagues; the Service Advi-
sors of Amsterdam and Paris. He can’t do planning, he can only consult these boards. This can be useful to quickly
check if there is available capacity in the nearby branches of Truckworld. As Service Advisor, he has to be able to
plan replacement vehicles, so he also has access to the planning board “REPLACEMENT VEHICLES”.
Conclusion
One of the requirements of Truckworld was that the complex structure, typical for its company, had to be translated
in Plan!. As we have seen before, with Plan! you can give each user a personalized planning board.
In the next chapter, we go more deeply into the use of Plan!

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The Use of Plan!
We did the configuration of Plan! fit for Truckworld, we have given all users access to the correct planning boards.
Now we can start. Before the actual planning of appointments, we’ll examine the planning board of the Service
Advisor .
Lay Out of a planning board
Let’s have a look at figure 011. Here we find some elements:
• [1] Centrally on the screen we always see the actual planning board. Here we can see the mechanics and
the capacity of the Workshop and divisions. On the coloured stripes next to the mechanics we can see the
tasks of the respective mechanic. The colour of the task is related to the kind of work that’s planned. You
can make task types unlimitedly, each with a specific colour and a specific duration. Figure 012 gives a
survey of the task types that are used by Truckworld. In figure 011, the colours of the stripe show the kind
of task that has been planned. By clicking on the button “Task status” (figure 013), we see the status of
each task in a specific colour:
o Purple: task has to be started
o Green: task is in process
o Ochre: task is finished
o Red: task is on hold
Each user can choose the colour pallet he wants to use, so the Service Advisor will be particularly inte
rested in the status of each task, whereas the person responsible for the Workshop will be probably more
interested in the kind of work that he can expect.
• [2] Left we see the survey screen where you can see all the appointments that were made for the res
pective branch and for the selected period, in the example we see all the appointment of the branch in
Brussels for Monday 16th June. All appointments can be seen in the status in which we find the appoint
ment. We’ll see later that these statuses will be very important.
• [3] When we select an appointment in the survey screen, we find at the right side of the screen all the
details of this appointment. Here we see who we’ve made an appointment for, when and why the
vehicle is brought in. In case a replacement car is reserved, we can also see this here. In the frame
“Remarks” we can enter all the remarks that the client informed us about.
• [4] At the bottom of the screen, you find the calendar by which we can go very fast to a certain date.

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Statuses
As we said before, the survey screen and the statuses (figure 011 - [2]) are quite important. The statuses in the sur-
vey screen follow the reality of the Workshop. In figure 014 we can see the graphic survey of all the statuses.
This survey screen gives a lot of information and is an important working tool. The statuses give the reception and
the Workshop a perfect understanding of the actual situation; what clients have to come in, what vehicles are already
brought in, what tasks are in process. These statuses are an important working tool for reception and working place
and also a communication tool:
• The appointments in the status “Planned” are important for the reception, these are clients who we made
an appointment with but who haven’t brought in their vehicle yet.
• The appointments in the status “Planned, Vehicle IN” are the appointments that are planned and of which
the client has brought in the vehicle. These are the tasks that the person responsible for the Workshop
has to give to the mechanic.
• The appointments in the status “Assigned, Vehicle IN” are the appointments that the person responsible
for the Workshop has given to an employee.
• The tasks in the status “In Process” are currently in process.
• The tasks in the status “Finished” are done.
• The tasks in the status “Vehicle OUT” are completely finished, the vehicle has been collected by the client.
• The small key behind certain appointments indicates that a replacement car is reserved for this client.
• A small clock means that the client keeps waiting for his vehicle.

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Making and processing appointments
In Plan! we can enter an appointment in two ways:
1 Directly in the name of the mechanic.
2 On group level (e.g. B1 – Maintenance) so that capacity is reserved for the intervention before assigning
the task to a mechanic.
In the next example, we enter en appointment on capacity and we will show you how the order survey is completed.
Order Heading (figure 015)
By double-clicking on a certain group and on the correct date, we see an empty screen where we first enter the
general data of the appointment. The most important data that can be entered are:
➢ “Company”: is automatically done with the help of the users profile

➢ “Type”: Is the order type. It’s possible to make various kinds of orders in Plan!. The order type determines
the way of communication with the client (see Communication module). It’s also possible, dependent on
the order type, to employ another order cycle. So it can be that appointments for the collection of new
vehicles are processed differently than the normal Workshop appointments.

➢ “Number”: Here you can enter the working order number.

➢ “Customer”: By clicking on the three dots, we see the client survey. In this screen, we can, on every
available cell, look for the right client. When the client is chosen, the cell “Vehicle” is automatically filled
in. When the client has got more vehicles, we can select the right vehicle via pop-up menu.

➢ “Contact”: This is the contact with the client, is used to operate the Communication module.

➢ “Vehicle”: To look for a vehicle, when the vehicle is found, the client is automatically filled in.

➢ “Waits”: Indicator to indicate if the client is waiting for his vehicle.

➢ “Arrival/Departure”: The planned hours of arrival and departure of the client. Is necessary to know when
the vehicle is at the disposal of the Workshop. The “Alert” module automatically controls if no tasks are
assigned when the vehicle is not available.

➢ “Actual”: Here we keep the real hours of arrival and departure. These hours are automatically filled in.

➢ “Remarks”: Here we can enter all the remarks of the client.

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Order Detail (Figuur 016)
By clicking on “Tasks” or “Next”, we come into the detailed screen. Here we enter the following:
➢ “Type”: Tasktype
➢ “Duration”: Is automatically filled in but can be adapted
➢ “Status”: Is automatically filled in, gives the status of the order
➢ “Group”: Is automatically filled in, shows the group who the order is assigned to
➢ “Executor”: Shows which employee the task is assigned to, is automatically filled in when the task is as
signed to a mechanic.
➢ “Description”: Here we can enter remarks on task level. These are printed on daily reports.

Replacement car (figure 017)
➢ By clicking “Next”, we come into the screen for the replacement car. The rental period is automatically
filled in on the basis of the hours of arrival and departure in the order heading. We only have to select a
replacement vehicle. A double booking is not possible. Remarks can be entered if needed.
➢ The real hours of arrival and departure are automatically filled in later.
➢ Replacement and demonstration vehicles can be planned without making a Workshop appointment.
Closing, Status “Planned” (figure 018)
➢ By clicking “Save & Close”, we leave the order screen and come back to the planning board. Here we see
our appointment in the survey screen in the status “Planned”
➢ We have made an appointment for which we provide two tasks and where a replacement car is reserved
for the client. By assigning tasks to the group “B2 – Mechanics”, the capacity of this group is adapted.
Now there are only two hours available for this group. Before the planning of this appointment, there
were 8 working hours available. (figure 011)

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Processing appointments ; finishing order survey
• Status “Planned” (Figure 018)
➢ When we click on the appointment that we have just made, we see all the details at the right side of the
screen.
• Status “Planned, Vehicle IN” and “Assigned, Vehicle IN” (Figure 019)
➢ When the client arrives, we have to record the arrival, the Workshop needs to know that a vehicle has
arrived.
➢ By clicking with the right button of the mouse on the appointment, we can directly record the arrival.
➢ The appointment can now be seen in the status “Planned, Vehicle Available”. The person responsible
for the Workshop sees at once that a vehicle has been brought in and assigns the task to a mechanic
“Boonen Tom”. This can be easily done by taking the task in the screen “Order Detail” and dragging it
to the wanted employee. The result can be seen in figure 019. After assigning the task, the tasks is in the
Status: “Assigned, Vehicle IN”.
• Starting and finishing tasks, Statuses “ In Process” and “Finished” (figure 020)
➢ By clicking the task, the task status can be adapted. When Plan! is related to a time registration system,
then this act is not necessary and the change of status is automatically done. By starting the task, the
status is also changed in “Executing”, the colour of the task has changed in green. This way, the reception
can see online what is happening in the Workshop.
➢ The finishing of tasks is done in the same way as the starting. This act is not necessary when Plan! is
related to a time registration system. Meanwhile, the colour of the taskbar has changed.
• Collecting the vehicle by the client, Status: “Vehicle OUT” (figure 021)
➢ The indication of the fact that the client has collected his vehicle is done in the same easy way as a
minute ago; with one click on the right button of the mouse. The appointment can now be seen in the
status: “Vehicle OUT”.
➢ The appointment is completely finished. Meanwhile, the real hours of arrival and departure are filled in.
(figure 022)

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Making appointments with reservation of a Workshop
➢ For companies that want to progress, Plan! also gives the possibility to plan Workshops.
➢ Figure 023 shows a planning board with a survey of the available Workshops. There are three Workshops,
each with 2 zones. While we make an appointment, a Workshop can be reserved, 1 or, if necessary, 2
zones can be reserved.
➢ The same mechanism can also be used for the reservation of special equipment.
Absences
It’s of the utmost importance that the Service Advisors always have a correct image of the available capacity. That’s
why we have to enter all the absences correctly.
Absences can be entered individually, for a group, a branch or for the whole group. An unlimited number of types
of absences can be made. This makes it possible to generate reports. You can easily determine the lay-out of these
reports. In figure 024 you see a screen with some holidays.
Figure 025 shows a report with all the trainings that the mechanics attended to 2008. The report is sorted out in
alphabetical order according to mechanic. Like all reports of this type, this report can also be printed with one mouse
click or can be converted to Excel, text or HTML.

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Plan! Sales and Delivery
For the planning of the division “Delivery of New Vehicles”, Truckland has chosen to use the modules Sales and De-
livery.
The planning of vehicles for sales and delivery goes differently than the Workshop planning and is more difficult
because this often involves tasks that are fulfilled out of the own company. It’s important to have understanding and
control of the activities that are contracted to subcontractors. Truckland mainly works with two subcontractors: Paint it
Black for all the paintwork and Cool Trans for all the construction activities. Truckland also does some of the activities.
With the use of this module, Truckland has track and control of:
• The status of each reserved vehicle:
➢ Not arrived: Vehicles on order, not delivered to Truckworld yet
➢ To Do: Vehicles delivered to Truckworld and in Process
➢ Finished: Vehicles delivered to the client
• The planning, this means the expected date of delivery to Truckland and the planned data of delivery to
and from the subcontractors.
• The cash flow, thanks to this function, Truckland has a powerful instrument that offers perfect control over
the cash flow.
Figure 026 shows some sales orders with their planning. On the left of the survey screen, we see three tabs related
to the status of each vehicle. The orders that we see in the example are in the status “Not Arrived”, so these are the
vehicles that have not been delivered to Truckland yet. On the central planning board, we see the planning of the
sold vehicles. We see three task types:
• The green stripes show when we can expect the vehicle to arrive at Truckworld.
• The bleu strips show when the vehicle is with subcontractor Cool Trans
• The purple stripes show when the vehicle is with subcontractor Paint It Black
The sales order of client “Roose Joel” is visible. The planning can be easily adapted to by dragging the stripes over the
time axis. As the tasks are linked, the other tasks are automatically shifted up.
It’s important that in case the planning changes, a mail can be sent to the relevant subcontractor and to the salesman
of Truckworld so that he can inform his client of the change.

6060
Via the selection screen (figure 027), all sales orders can be selected according to important criteria:
➢ Customer: to look at all the orders of a particular client
➢ Contractor: to look at all the orders of a particular subcontractor
➢ Salesman: to look at all the orders of a particular salesman
➢ Model: to look at all the orders of a particular model
In the example, we made a selection of all the vehicles that have to be brought to subcontractor “Cool Trans” for
construction work. You can perfectly see when they have to be delivered to Cool Trans and when the vehicles are
expected to arrive at Truckworld. Cool Trans has been informed by a mail that was made and sent from Plan! The
order form for Cool Trans was automatically generated in Plan!
The financial aspect is very important during the whole process that a vehicle passes through. At all times, we must
be able to see what the financial balance is on a given time.
The costs related to the subcontractors, can be entered at the creation of a sales order. This is done for each task that
is linked to an order. The amount that has to be paid is charged on the (expected) delivery date, added up with the
payment term of the subcontractor.
Besides, it’s possible to enter planned and real profits on certain dates. This is done on sales level (several payments
per sales order)
With the help of a bar diagram we get understanding of the financial situation. The planning as well as the financial
survey can be showed by day, week or month. In figure 028, we see the financial survey by week.
Plan! Rental planning
The general functioning of the rental module is as easy as the one of the replacement cars.
Rental cars can be put on a separate planning board and can be divided in groups. Big difference with the replace-
ment cars is the way of calculating the price. With rental cars, this is limited to a current prize. Concerning renting,
we can go a little bit further. You can make an unlimited number of prize categories. Per prize category, you can
determine the prize for renting, dependant on the rental term. Here you can also enter the number of kilometres that
are included in the rental prize.

Then you can link these prize categories to un unlimited number of prize schemes. In a prize scheme, you deter-
mine what type of vehicle belongs to what prize category. You can also enter the prize per extra kilometre and the
guarantee charged to the client. In fact, you can enter a calculation of prize for each kind of vehicle per day/week/
month, taking in account the including number of kilometres and the prize per extra kilometre.
An invoice can be printed from all these lettings A standard export is provided and can be sent to a financial applica-
tion.

6161
SOME REALISTIC FIGURES
Truckland invested about € 30.000 for the purchase and implementation of Plan! This means about € 10.000 per site.
The question that presents itself is of course; how and when can we recover the costs on this investment?
Concerning Truckworld, the average hourly wage is € 60/hour.
The relation between the sales of parts and working hours is 1 to 1.
We start from an average gross margin of 30 %.
Truckland is open 250 days a year and a mechanic works there about 1500 hours a year.
With an hourly wage of € 60/hour, each hour a day that is not charged means a real loss in sales of € 30.000 on a
yearly basis.
Loss of working hours = 60 * 250 days = € 15.000
Loss of Spare Parts (idem) = € 15.000
Total loss = € 30.000
• The fact is that with a good planning system, the productivity in the Workshop can be improved from 5
to 10 % without any problems. If we take the worst scenario (5 %), this means a sales profit in working
hours and changeable items and calculated on the basis of 1.500 working hours a year, an hourly wage of
€ 60 of:
➢ 9.000 euro/year per mechanic
➢ 90.000 euro/year for a Workshop with 10 mechanics
• Truckland employs 60 mechanics. This means for Truckland a possible increase of sales of € 540.000/year
or an increase of the gross margin of € 162.000/year. Or a Return On Investement of less than 3 months!
Of course we have to take the trail period into account. Although the implementation of Plan! only takes
15 days, we mustn’t forget that the organization has to be adjusted to the use of Plan!
This organization cost Truckland about 6 months. Taking this data into account, the ROI is only 9 months.
• An other aspect is the increase of customer-satisfaction. The output that we gain is difficult to determine
in figures but is therefore not less important.

6363
Plan! Automotive ReferenCES

64
! Automotive
With Plan! our productivity has increased with at least
5% and this after 6 months.
Ludo Persoons is After Sales Manager at Mercedes-Benz Truck Centre in Sint-Pieters-Leeuw.
“As in many Workshops we have worked with a planning book for almost 15 years. A big agenda, in which everyone
could fill in the appointments. Such a lot of coming and going. During this period, some people introduced a planning
software, but I was never really convinced that my employees could work with this software. Many of these programs
are so complicated that you can’t see the wood for the trees.
Our employees at the reception and in the Workshop are quite intelligent guys but they don’t have the time to find out
how the features of the program work. And so we stuck to our planning book. Until I saw Plan! My first reaction was:
This is what I need!
Plan! is so easy to use and graphically attractive that I knew immediately that everyone could get to work with it. And
I was right. One afternoon, Plan! was installed and the morning after, our employees got some more information.
That very same evening, we didn’t use our version on paper anymore and the day after we were all working with
Plan!. I have never seen such a quick and uncomplicated implementation of a software program.
Now we work with Plan! for almost seven months and the differences in our organisation our remarkable. We plan
more accurately and this way we are more productive. We don’t loose time anymore with all that coming and going
because we get all the information on the screen right away. Appointments can be observed in a correct way.
We investigated the satisfaction of our clients and noticed that the maintenance process for our clients is shorter. Cli-
ents don’t need to be long without their vehicle and meanwhile our productivity increased with 5%. That is quite an
achievement.”

65
! Automotive
I have seen many so-called planning systems but Plan! is
different.
Tom Pieters is Service Manager at Mercedes Vriesdonk.
“ Since September 2004, we work with Plan! and I can say that Plan! has entirely fulfilled his promise. Before, the
employees at the Workshop reception worked with a planning book. In this book, we wrote down the tasks that had
to be planned. We have been working this way for years. We were aware of the disadvantages and that’s why we
started working with Excel. We only did this for a few months, because we saw that this wasn’t the most efficient
way to do. During that whole period, I have seen many so-called planning systems, but none of them could really
convince me. Until I saw Plan! That was different. Everyone involved in the planning could consult and change the
planning from a distance. Everyone can see the presences and absences of the employees, the availability of the
replacement vehicles, the workload in the Workshop and the exact appointments that were made with the clients.
Plan! took care of an easier workflow, without unnecessary communications and without many mistakes. What’s even
more striking is, that at the starting up, we decided to let our old system run parallel to Plan!, but all our employees
were very enthusiastic about Plan! and immediately got to work with it. So we already stopped working with our old
planning method after one week.”

66
!
In the past, it was not easy to evaluate the available
time in the Workshop.
Thomas Filliers is Sales Manager at Carrera Motors Porsche Centre’s Public Limited Company in Sint-Martens-Latem.
Since 1988, Carrera Motors Porsche Centre in Sint-Martens-Latem is distributor of Porsche sports cars. A make full of
fascination, emotion and innovation. Porsche clients demand, rightly, individual advice and expect full service of their
garage owner. At Carrera Motors, they have already been working with Plan! for 5 months, so we went to Mr Filliers,
Sales Manager to get to know his experiences. We asked him how a company with a critical audience such as Porsche
drivers organised his Workshop to be able to give an exact customer-related service. As in so many car businesses,
they used an agenda to do the planning. So writing and deleting. A system that works but which is not really ef-
ficient. They were aware of this at Carrera Motors and so they changed over to Plan! five months later.
“ We particularly wanted an easier and faster planning system”, according to Mr Filliers. “Plan! allows us to consult
the planning on several computer. That’s much easier to use than our old planning book. The most important result
of Plan! is a much better occupation of the Workshop. Time and people management are easier. All this increased
the pressure of work but we also gain time. We do more work with the same people in the same time span. In the
future, we want to connect Plan! to the stock management, because this way more efficiency can be obtained.”
To conclude, we asked if Plan! has come up to the expectations. Mr Filliers said: “Of course. In the past, it was not
easy to evaluate the available time in the Workshop. Today we can tell exactly what’s possible and what’s not.”
Automotive

67
!
Now the planning is right and we know the exact capa-
city.
Carine Lippens, business manager at Honda de Smedt in Waarschoot.
Garage De Smedt is a Honda story of three generations. And recently, when the garage moved from Lembeke to
Waarschoot, a new step was taken. With a magnificent showroom of no less than 550 square metres, we work on
the motto: “Everybody a Honda”. The new office was the beginning of a professional organisation of the Workshop.
Four mechanics are continuously working to keep the Honda of each client in top form. The planning was, as in many
garages, until the beginning of this year, done with the help of an agenda. But Mrs Carine Lippens, business manager
of Honda de Smedt, told us that this was not sufficient anymore. “We needed a better survey of the available capacity.
Occasionally the mechanics had to do two jobs at the same time. This caused unwanted problems of course.”
Honda de Smedt works with Plan! since 2006, we wondered if the problems were solved.
“Absolutely”, assured us Mrs Lippens. “Our organisation is much better now. When we worked with the agenda, you
could easily add things. This is not just possible with Plan!. A mechanic is available or not. A point of time is free
or not. The planning is done on basis of the reality and is, as a result, precise and correct. Plan! is entirely what we
needed and a good survey of the occupation of the Workshop is a fact today.”
Automotive

PL N!Planningssoftware voor wakkere ondernemers!
UPsync nv
PATOTTERIJSTRAAT 11
B-9250 WAAsMUNSTER
BELGIUM
T. +32 3 766 34 34
F. +32 3 766 35 86
info@use-plan.COM
www.use-plan.COM

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