Fixed Ops Journal - August 2016 - (Page 29)

FIXED OPS JOURNAL BEING PROACTIVE ■ General Motors innovation could rewrite service business " " I magine a customer arriving at a critical systems in the vehicle," "There are a lot of dealership's service drive with the Holland says, "things that have a similar services, but diagnostic work completed, the lot of electrical content." faulty part identified and the Once a problem is detected that no one offers the warranty repair approved before a service requires service, the driver has depth or breadth writer even greets the driver. about two weeks to schedule a You don't have to imagine it. It's service appointment, Holland of services that happening. adds. This spring, General Motors quietly "That's early enough so that the OnStar offers." introduced a new feature for its OnStar customer has time to deal with it DAVE SULLIVAN, analyst, connected car technology called before they suffer the RICHARD AutoPacific Proactive Alerts. The program's goal, says inconvenience of having a problem Steve Holland, GM's chief technologist while they are driving," he says. Fixed Ops Journal for vehicle health management, is to "We don't know the precise time [the component will stop working], detect and correct a potential vehiclebut we do know that it needs to be taken care of, and if left unserviced, stopping issue before the check-engine light comes on. that it is going to fail." "Let's take the battery," Holland explains. "We collect data every GM doesn't charge for Proactive Alerts. But given the sensitivity of time the car is started and transmit it to the cloud via the car's 4G data collection, customers must opt in to the program. connection, and we run our proprietary algorithms there. Some commercial airlines also use predictive maintenance to "Normally what happens is everything looks OK, a 'green' catch problems before they become serious. For now, though, condition that we ignore. But occasionally we'll notice problems." Proactive Alerts technology is exclusive to GM among automakers, Sometimes, the battery's state of charge could be lower than says AutoPacific analyst Dave Sullivan. normal, because the vehicle has been sitting or the lights have been "There are a lot of similar services," Sullivan says, "but no one left on. Once the car is driven, the alternator charges the battery. offers the depth or breadth of services that OnStar offers." Holland says Proactive Alerts can tell the difference between a Depending on how GM markets the system and how customers discharged battery and a damaged one. accept it, Proactive Alerts can be a game changer - at least for GM "We have a second stage where we watch very closely what's going dealers. ■ on with the battery," he says. "If we make the determination that the battery has a problem and that it is going to fail, we notify the You may email Richard Truett at rtruett@crain.com. customer by sending a message back to the car. We also provide the same information to the dealer, so that they can be ready when the customer shows up." Protective Alerts also monitors the fuel pump. As a pump ages, Holland says, the amount of fuel it sends to the engine degrades. Sensors track the amount of fuel pumped through the system and triggers an alert if fuel pressure or volume drops below an acceptable level. After a decade of preparation, GM launched Proactive Alerts on nine 2016 vehicles: the Cadillac Escalade; the GMC Sierra, Yukon and Terrain; and the Chevrolet Silverado, Tahoe, Suburban, Corvette and Equinox. Holland says GM plans eventually to offer the service on all of its vehicles, and to expand the number of components it covers. Proactive Alerts now monitors just the battery, fuel pump and starter - the three components that most often are responsible for starting problems and checkengine lights. OnStar's new Proactive Alerts technology aims to spot problems before a service visit. "Our plan is to expand Proactive Alerts to other TRUETT AUGUST 2016 PAGE 29

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Fixed Ops Journal - August 2016

Fixed Ops Journal - August 2016
Contents
Editor’s Letter
Service Counter
Legal Lane
Treading confidently
'Tis the season
Profit Builder
Valet service
Richard Truett
OEConnection
Changing oil:
Photo story
Trade-off
Toyota way
Feedback
Lone star
Airbag recall
Forging links
Top 50
5 Minutes With
Shop Talk
Fixed in Time

Fixed Ops Journal - August 2016