Technology under control | PetrolPlaza
Keeping track of the repair and maintenance of all the equipment in the stores is not that difficult. At Günther Tank, this task is taken over by omis of Faschang.
The world is changing. Now the Back Journal is featuring gas stations. But don't worry, our publisher has not bought the Tankstellen Journal and integrated it into the Back Journal. However, medium-sized service station operators are facing exactly the same problems as their colleagues in the bakery trade: a lot of equipment has to be maintained and repaired. The temperatures in refrigerators have to be logged. Of course, in the event of damage during the warranty period, you also want to make use of the warranty services. In addition, it is good to know which coffee machines are constantly breaking down and which ones are doing do their job. Besides, the next time you talk to the supplier, it won't hurt to point out to him, that his mechanics work much more slowly and less reliably than those of the competition.
The tasks mentioned above are as necessary as they are unpopular. Recently there have been software systems for the bakery trade that can largely automate the process and also provide the IT-savvy entrepreneur with any number of statistical measures. Faschang is one of these providers with its omis 4.0 system.
omis 4.0 is already well established in other sectors, but in the bakery sector, the first implementations are currently underway. That's why we took a look at the thoroughly interesting concept at Günther Tank, a medium-sized service station operator with 19 locations. The family-owned company has omis in use since 2018, so it can report good experiences and is also involved in the development of new modules such as omis smart analytics. But more on that later.
Same problems
After the long introduction, let's get to the point. In many areas, Günther Tank could be compared to a bakery because many gas stations now look more like bistros with small car accessories on the shelves. Björn Noll, responsible at Günther for technical support at the service stations, says “the bakers are our second most important competitors". But the service stations are number one. The company operates on three distribution channels:
- First, there are the company's own service stations, which are also staffed by the company's own personnel.
- Then there's a tenant model, comparable to the one we are familiar with in the bakery sector, for example from Kamps. For example, Günther sets up the entire site, which is then managed by a tenant.
- Finally, there are partners who have connected their own service station to the network and are supplied with services of all kinds.
This makes managing the technology a bit more complicated than in bakeries. In the past, the service stations reported problems by fax or mail form. Noll then transferred this to an Excel list, informed fixed service partners or first obtained quotations. Finally, he had to keep an eye on whether all orders had been processed properly and on time, again relying on feedback from the service stations.
Now there are service station operator communities of experience and here Noll met colleagues who were already working with an automated management system. Often, however, these were closed systems with which the corporations managed their service stations and which were not available to medium-sized companies. But then, at a trade fair, he came across the Faschang company. The software house had exactly what he was looking for in omis 4.0: "From the very beginning, Faschang was very open to SMEs and was also willing to tailor the program to our requirements. That tipped the scales." In 2018, Günther Tank switched to the system and Noll has not regretted the decision.
Modular design
omis 4.0 offers a wealth of modules. In use at Günther are basic (collection of all relevant assets, devices and user data, also data sources for any additional modules), dispatching (task management of malfunctions) and documents (document management). Also available are legal maintenance (management of inspection and maintenance dates) and reinvest planning (planning of investments based on experience). omis smart analytics, which can record and evaluate temperature fluctuations or energy consumption is currently under development and is expected to be ready for use from mid-2021. Before the reward in the form of a significant reduction in workload, Günther initially had to sweat a little. Noll took advantage of the changeover to record all the equipment with all the documentation for each location and to add photos. The effort involved here was half a day per service station but is likely to be significantly less for bakeries. If the necessary data is already recorded in an Excel list, importing and processing Franz Berneder, Sales Manager at Faschang, says is a matter of "a maximum of two hours". Thanks to good preparation the system at Günther ran practically from the start without any problems. Noll lists the advantages that have made his work much easier since 2018, while at the same time, have increased the satisfaction of the partners at the service stations. After all, they rely on defective equipment being repaired quickly and reliably. For Noll, it is important, for example, that the system can prioritize according to predefined urgency. In addition, they’ve automated whether an order is placed immediately or whether offers should first be obtained from partners. omis also sends a reminder when instructions are needed or deadlines must be met. Finally, there are the extensive reporting tools. In this way, he noticed, for example, that the air pressure testers of one manufacturer failed significantly more often than those of the competitor. omis also helps with decisions such as "Is it worth converting to LED because replacing the lights with lifting platforms in the tank areas is so expensive?"
On-site outreach
We also had the opportunity to speak with a tenant who is on the other side of the chain working with omis 4.0. The program runs stably on a PC in the office. Damage reports are either submitted by him or by his station manager. Problem resolution has improved significantly in his experience. He, too, can see at the touch of a button how things are going with the processing of reported issues. Finally, he has the opportunity to evaluate the work of the supplier in omis. Those who perform their tasks "very well" are naturally considered more often for later service orders. The Günther's partners will soon be able to look forward to another simplification. Günther is a partner company in a pilot project for the omis smart analytics module. After its introduction, temperature monitoring in the refrigerators, for example, will no longer be done manually, but fully automatically. Analytics will then also monitor power consumption and identifies devices that either need to be serviced or replaced.
Adjustments
Incidentally, Günther has not employed its own in-house technician. For one thing, the range of technology used is so broad that one employee could hardly master it. For another, it would be difficult to deploy a colleague in a meaningful way: At times, there would be hardly anything to do, at other times, three important problems need to be dealt with at the same time. That's why the management of contracted maintenance companies is so important to him. There is not a fixed maintenance service for every problem, as is the case with large maintenance service. Sometimes, automated inquiries have to be made to find out where a mechanic is available. And sometimes, competing offers must be obtained first. Otherwise, Noll recommends to be careful about data collection and maintenance. For example, it has paid off that he photographed all the equipment. The pictures are now also stored in the system. Finally, it helps the partners at the service stations that various checklists can be stored in omis. An employee on site can then work through these lists on a tablet. Service stations are also familiar with the problem of staff turnover. As in the bakery trade, new employees must be regularly trained and their training must be documented. A system like omis can help with this, too.
Service station worlds
Our brief excursion into the world of service stations has shown that the two sectors have some things in common not only because they both sell baked goods and coffee. Gas stations were hit a little harder by the Corona crisis. Tank volumes were reduced by up to 50 percent during the lockdown and sales in the bistros fell even more severely and has still not recovered. What was for the baker during this difficult period classic mixed bread, was tobacco for the service station operator. Here, there were supply bottlenecks in some cases, making cigarette consumption obviously a good crisis indicator. "I should have stockpiled tobacco", sighs the tenant at the end of the conversation. Perhaps a suggestion for another module from omis. It could be called Lockdown Management.
By Dirk Waclawek
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