Carglass

Due to current market conditions, Carglass experienced a downturn in business in windscreen repair and replacement so it decided to extend its successful marketing formula to bodywork. But two years after acquiring bodywork specialist CARE, the desired results had not fully materialized.

More with the same

How can we handle more jobs in our current network?

B2B

How should we approach the bodywork market of brokers and insurers?

Two cultures

How can we get the best out of two distinctive company cultures?

The approach

“Through the Belron Group, we got in touch with Eljakim Caus, one of the partners at Nova Reperta,” Caroline recalls. “His knowledge of the market was instrumental in this project.”

Step 1

Towards a Value Creation Plan

In three months, a holistic approach was developed for Carglass to grow in the bodywork market in Belgium. By visualizing and discussing the dynamics in the industry, we were able to identify Carglass’s positioning with respect to end customers, brokers and insurance companies. This resulted in a value creation plan for Carglass, consisting of several workstreams that form the basis of their go-to-market approach.

Step 2

Assess operations and financials

In an in-depth assessment, we pinpointed the financial and operational implications of the plan. The QuickScan at Carglass reveals, for example, that an untapped capacity of 37% can be realized without significant investment. The business case highlighted the financial implications, providing a detailed view of both top line and bottom line (EBITDA margin). The necessary investment was taken into account to calculate the ROI of the project.

Step 3

Rollout of Eurekar

Belron gives the go-ahead. A new hands-on plan is born: Eurekar. Together, we redesign operational flows, develop a sales plan for brokers, and see how we can convert customers better. In regular “war room sessions”, the progress and results of each individual stream are tracked and mitigated where needed. Every month, we evaluate the impact of the collective programme.

“We don’t need to be 120% certain any more”

Caroline Ameloot, Director of Marketing & Sales: “Thanks to the QuickScan and Nova Reperta’s market knowledge, we quickly obtained the required figures and the building blocks for our Eurekar plan. Their weekly war room sessions have made us more willing to take a leap. We don’t need to be 120% certain any more (laughs). Besides the fact that working procedures have speeded up, there’s now also a more project-based approach with a clear focus. In this first phase, it’s not about us generating as many leads as possible, but about dealing with the current leads in the best possible way, for example by targeting the fleet of brokers actively and more carefully and then ensuring follow-through by our call centres.”

“Immediately part of the teams”

“In practical terms, this project involved 60 people from two bodywork subsidiaries, as well as 10 people from our call centre and 8 from Head Office. We were struck by how quickly the Nova Reperta people became part of the teams and started talking to everyone on the shop floor. This meant we could focus more on the strengths of Carglass and CARE: Carglass’s strong brand and well-oiled marketing machine, and CARE’s technical bodywork expertise. Within the Belron Group, this is also a pilot project for the integration of glass and bodywork, and an important step towards achieving our goal by 2022. All eyes are on us in the 35 countries where Carglass operates.”

“Kaizen Sprints”

Herman Eerdekens, Operations Development Manager Auto Damage Repair & Replacement: “We’ve started working with Kaizen Sprints in the workshops: over a span of four weeks, a solution is found to one specific problem. For instance, we maximized the number of cars that are repaired at one workstation only instead of being moved between all four floors for various activities. That requires more versatile workers and close collaboration with key figures in the workshops. It’s also important to explain everything in advance and listen to everyone’s suggestions. If you simply say: ‘We’re going to make you go 10% faster’, it just won’t work, will it?”

“In-house training from glass to bodywork”

Karin Brosens, Operations Development Manager Express Repair: “In addition to the transformation in our ‘regular’ body shops, we’re incorporating seven bodywork modules into our glass workshops. Customers have been able to go there for minor repairs since July 2017, and for more extensive work since January 2019. In collaboration with paint manufacturer Akzo Nobel, we trained 17 ‘glass people’ to do bodywork repairs in 16 weeks. The response was unanimously enthusiastic, because it means they have a more varied job.”

Facts & figures

Project duration: 1 year
Number of collaborators involved: 78

Results

A value proposition has been developed for brokers
Accreditation: 7 bodywork express units have been accredited with insurers
Kaizen: a specific problem is tackled during a 4-week Kaizen sprint
First time right: By applying the four-eyes technique earlier in the process, the first-time right rate has increased by 22 %
Operational excellence: efficiency gains of 6%
Visibility: the planning gives all managers a more accurate view of the number of jobs one station can handle.