Meaning improvement, is the process of gradual, unending, incremental improvement that involves everyone.

Plan, Do, Check, Act – concept of a revolving wheel of activity to continuously improve

Standardise, Do, Check, Act – a refinement of PDCA where standard established before performing the regular PDCA function.

Producing products and services that satisfy customer needs. A vital tool in managing performance.

A technique where information is provided in a clearly visible manner.

A precise description of each work activity specifying cycle time, work sequence and minimum inventory required to complete the activity.

Optimum combination of workers, machinery and materials.

A set of rules, procedures and agreed processes, established by management, serving as a guideline to enable all employees to perform their roles successfully.

The practice of asking ‘Why’ five times whenever a problem has occurred in order to identify the root cause of that problem (and implement countermeasures).

Five terms beginning with ‘S’ to create a workplace suited for lean production and visual control (Sort, Set, Shine, Standardise, Sustain).

The addition of ‘Safety’ to the 5S’s.

A series of individual operations required to complete an order or product.

A capability provided to a customer at the right time and at an appropriate price.

7 Wastes (‘Muda’ = ‘Waste’) commonly found in engineering – Overproduction, Waiting, Unnecessary transport of materials, Unnecessary transport of People, Over processing, Inventories higher than the minimum and production of defective parts.   

Society of Motor Manufacturers & Traders (SMMT) exists to support and promote the interests of the UK automotive industry at home and abroad.

The International Aftersales Customer Satisfaction (‘IACS’) survey is a syndicated survey across most automotive brands represented in the UK and internationally is a key benchmark of aftersales performance.

New Car Buyer Studies (‘NCBS’) provide the automotive industry with an understanding of customer behaviour and attitudes towards  brands after purchase of a new car. It also reveals the impact of the customer’s experience with different brands on their purchasing decision, and repurchase and recommendation intent.

The action of assessing someone or something.

To be engaged in the business of giving expert advice to people working in a professional or technical field.

To conduct an official inspection of a company or its processes.

A methodology that focuses on minimising waste within manufacturing systems while simultaneously maximising productivity. Waste is anything that customers do not believe adds value and are not willing to pay for.

Used to define areas with a potential for improvement by giving feedback on how the company is perceived from a customer’s perspective.

Data or information is in raw format. The increase in size of the data has led to a rise in need for carrying out inspection, data cleaning, transformation as well as data modelling to gain insights from the data in order to derive conclusions for better decision making process. This process is known as data analysis.

Assessing the processes set by the OEM in a Dealer environment for compliance.Training Teaching a person or animal a particular skill or type of behaviour.

Assessing the standards set by the OEM in a Dealer environment for compliance.

Process Improvement is the proactive task of identifying, analysing and improving upon existing business processes within an organisation for optimisation and to meet new targets or standards of quality.

Total customer experience is used to describe the relationship a customer has with a business. It is made up of all of the interaction the customer has had with a business, from the time the customer first made contact with the company up to the present day.