diagnosticsupplement1022 - 6

DIAGNOSTIC ROUNDTABLE
granular, insights on the business. The
C-suite requires panoramic vision and
people on the front line want granular
insights. For us in the industry, the idea
is to create dashboards as well as specific
and accurate troubleshooting, analysis,
and analytics that can empower everybody
in the value chain.
The very value of that data is changing
because in the past that data used
to be leveraged to create descriptive
solutions-something has happened
to the vehicle and we are telling the
technician or the business owner what
has happened to the vehicle. We are
moving towards predicting outcomes
even before that. The future will be on
prescriptive analytics where you can
prescribe a certain outcome and then
generate value in doing so. These innovations
are meant to not only power the
people on the front line who are turning
the wrenches, but also people who are
monitoring and managing businesses
and driving more efficiency and effectiveness
of their businesses.
FM: What are you hearing from fleets
on what skills they want future diagnostic
technicians to have?
Beeman: For the fleets, the dealers,
for the OEs, and anyone involved in diagnostics,
there is more and more need
for information. We hear that right out
of the gate every single time. Yes, our
technicians need to have a basic understanding
of vehicle mechanics, but now
the percentage of sensors and computers
is increasing, as is the wireless infrastructure
going back to the company
enterprise system.
Fleet maintenance managers are interested
right away in the technician's
ability to run the diagnostic equipment
and understand what it means, so more
and more of the education is going towards
that. Fortunately,
Photo: John Hitch
An instructor at NVI-Blairsville teaches a student how to diagnose wire harness issues.
FM: What are some ways fleets are
benefiting from putting diagnostics first?
Kar: We see the immediate return on
investment manifests in the form of reduced
dwell time of vehicles in shops.
You can really service a vehicle and get
it out of the door sooner. Accurate and
effective troubleshooting basically triggers
downstream processes. It also helps
to address the technician shortage when
you have these tools available to technicians,
as well as future-proofing shops.
Vehicles are getting more and more
complicated, so if you're not equipped
to effectively diagnose these vehicles
through electronic scan tools, that's a
challenge. Overall, if you add it all together,
it all translates to higher efficiency
and a higher and better bottom line
for the businesses.
Shock: These fleets have better acthe
younger
folks, in particular, are well versed in
electronics-they grew up with it, they
live with it, they can't live without it.
And that's a good thing. That makes it a
lot easier to introduce them to sophisticated
diagnostics.
If they've been involved in gaming,
and most of them have, there's logic, detective
work, and every skill you need.
And you're looking at screens, anticipating
things. And so when we get them in
front of the diagnostic equipment, they
feel right at home, and they love it.
6 Fleet Diagnostics * October 2022
cess to vehicle history. A technician
might ask when the problem first
occurred. They can go back into the
system. We have a lot more data collection
algorithms out to just collect
massive amounts of data, and we're
presenting that data back to the customers
in real time.
FM: How can fleets decide on what
type of diagnostic solutions and training
to invest in?
Shock: They should start by talking
to the shop and service managers. They
know what their weaknesses are, where
their strengths are. And the technician
will know the vehicle better than the
service manager and what triage tools
are needed. They can work it out between
the two of them, whether they
need more technology or more training.
Kar: The shop or the fleet needs to
rely on data and see which classes of
vehicles tend to populate their shops
more, or which duty cycles result in
more frequent service and maintenance
needs, or which key systems and components
and modules fail more in that
shop or come in with those failures.
The goal here should be to reduce unscheduled
maintenance. And that requires
better technician training. There
are also tools to remotely diagnose a
vehicle, which can be used to remotely
regen a DPF or other systems in a vehicle.
Those are some of the questions the
shop needs to answer before it makes a
decision to choose a diagnostic solution
provider or diagnostic tool. Because
if more of those boxes are checked,
more success can be derived from that
investment.
Beeman: It does get to be difficult
to know where to invest your money.
We know that most fleets and vehicle
dealers are short at least 20% manpower
in their shops, and some 50%. Those
are huge numbers. And technicians are
the beginning and the end of what you
do with data. They're going to collect it,
but also have to come to conclusions
that are efficient for the company and
will get the vehicle back on the road.
The C-suite officers have a big challenge
these days, partially because they
do have so much data. And that's the
good news and the bad news-you're
going to have to figure out what to do
with it.
diagnosticsupplement1022

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