Chapter 1: Early Stage Issues

Title: Vehicle Relationship Management for Product Lifecycle Support

Author(s): Tsutomu Tsuyama, Hirotaka Morita, Norito Watanabe, Tsuneo Sobue, Akira Yano, Daisuke Shibata

Address: Hitachi, Ltd. 1-6-6, Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-8280, Japan | Hitachi, Ltd. 1-6-6, Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-8280, Japan | Hitachi, Ltd. 1-6-6, Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-8280, Japan | Hitachi, Ltd. 1-6-6, Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-8280, Japan | Hitachi, Ltd. 1-6-6, Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-8280, Japan |Hitachi, Ltd. 1-6-6, Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-8280, Japan

Reference: International Conference on Product Lifecycle Management 2006 pp. 213 - 221

Abstract/Summary: In the automotive business area, earning profits through the product lifecycle is more important than ever. Therefore, in order to improve customer satisfaction through the product lifecycle, means of supporting the business process are becoming more indispensable. It is becoming more essential to establish applications and solutions for VRM (Vehicle Relationship Management) to appeal to stakeholders associated with the automotive business, such as automotive companies, dealers, leasing companies and transportation companies. In this paper, we clarify the system requirements for CRM/PLM/SCM (Customer Relationship Management/Product Lifecycle Management/Supply Chain Management) to realize profitable VRM, and we develop a prototype system for business process optimization for marketing, product planning, product design, quality assurance, sales, and maintenance. This prototype system has the following merits. (1) Strategic and holistic process management can be realized through marketing, product development, sales and service. (2) "Product sales revenue"–driven business model – can be restructured to "lifecycle support revenue"–driven business model. (3) An agile process can be achieved. For example, quick configurations for sales, quick turnaround time for repair and quick feedback of quality problems can be realized.

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