The Manufacturer Recall business process requires a recall letter to be sent to the correct contact, (either the fleet manager for contract hire or the driver for Personal Contract Purchase) for the recall of the vehicle. If a vehicle has an outstanding recall against it, then the maintenance controller should be able to bring the item to the notice of the repairer when authorising work. When completed the notification of when the work was carried out and by who, needs to be held against the vehicle.
Note: An ASCII import routine may provide the most effective means of importing the recall records as a spreadsheet is usually provided from the manufacturer concerned. At present this electronic import isn't utilised within the Kestrel system and this process assumes the manual creation and update of information.
In order for this function to operate the following two files need to be set-up and processing must then be carried out within the maintenance approval:
This first file holds the recall reference and description and is described below.
This second file records the details of the action against those registrations that have been highlighted as requiring a maintenance check.
Typically, a manufacturer recall is sent to leasing/hiring company notifying them of the need to ensure that a certain batch of vehicles are checked at the earliest opportunity. Therefore, the final part of the process must ensure that recall letters are generated to that effect (the destination address will depend on the customer and type of contract product, either directly to the driver, the company fleet manager or possibly in-house if the leasing/hiring company are managing a customer's fleet) Controlling this process within Kestrel can be done utilising the format stationery / reporting functionality with the logic determining where the letters are sent can be held as selection rules.
The recall should be flagged as Outstanding until a maintenance controller updates the vehicle and the work is flagged as completed. For any vehicle with a recall outstanding the main maintenance authorisation form will bring the item immediately to the users attention for action.
The Manufacturer Recalls set-up form is accessed via Maintenance Control / Miscellaneous Options / Manufacturer Recalls and is used to create, edit and delete recall records which contain the details relating to the recall itself which includes the recall reference, description of the problem, the recall issue date and the manufacturer concerned. There is an optional link to the Franchise data module for the manufacturer; this is optional because the recall could be issued by a motoring organisation (e.g. the AA or RAC) and this flexibility needs to be catered for by allowing the direct keying of a code and description which may not be present in the Franchise Data file.
The recall item is held as Outstanding until the maintenance controller Completes the vehicle recall record within this tab.
To create a new manufacturer recall code select the Create Command Button.
To view or amend an existing manufacturer recall code the following procedure should be used:
The cursor is located in the Recall Number field prompting selection of a recall number code for the purposes of editing an existing record. A single-left-click of the ellipsis button to the right of this field displays a Recall Numbers List Box that enables selection from the current available recall numbers. Having selected the required code by highlighting with the mouse, the OK command button is used to confirm this selection and return to the Manufacturer Recalls form.
The manufacturer recall number code is alphanumeric and may contain up to 20 characters e.g. ABC1234, etc.
Details Group
Displays a number of details relating to the selected manufacturer recall number, which are as follows:
Recall Description: Displays a free-format meaningful textual description for the selected Manufacturer Recall reference number e.g. FO4219; this is probably going to be obtained from the manufacturer recall document or electronic file.
Recall Issue Date: The manufacturer's (etc) recall date. By clicking-on the ellipsis (...) button to the right of the date field a monthly diary form is displayed in order to assist in entering the correct date criteria; this is probably going to be obtained from the manufacturer recall document or electronic file. Selection of the < button moves to the previous month and the > button moves to the next month. Selection of Exit exits the diary form. A double-click on the appropriate day of the month enters this date into the date field.
Franchise Code: The manufacturer code for which the recall is to take place e.g. FO (to denote Ford). This may be keyed directly if known or the ellipsis button immediately to the right of this field may be selected to display manufacturers currently within the system.
The link to the Franchise data module for the manufacturer is optional because the recall could be issued by a motoring organisation (e.g. the AA or RAC) and this flexibility needs to be catered for; the system therefore allows the direct keying of a code and description which may not be present in the Franchise Data file.
Franchise Name: The manufacturer name for which the recall is to take place e.g. Ford. The Description name is automatically entered following selection of the Franchise Code.
If the Franchise Code has simply been keyed because it does not exist in the Franchise Data file then this description must also be keyed directly.
Buttons:
A number of command buttons are available. Some buttons are context sensitive and are greyed-out and only become available dependent upon the particular process that is being accessed. The full list of command buttons is as follows:
Exit: Exits the Manufacturer Recalls form and returns to the Miscellaneous Options Menu.
Help: Provides online access to a context sensitive Help form.
Create: Enables the creation of an additional Manufacturer Recall number code. Mutually exclusive option buttons allow this to be done in one of the two following ways:
- Blank: Used if a new Manufacturer Recall number code is to be set-up without utilising existing criteria.
- Copy: Copies the values within an existing "nearest match" Manufacturer Recalls number code so that only required values need be edited.
Amend: Provides the facility for editing the set-up options of the current Manufacturer Recalls record. No edits can be made to a record until the Amend button has been selected.
Delete: Deletes the currently selected Manufacturer Recalls record.
Confirm: On first accessing the Manufacturer Recalls form this command button is greyed-out. Following selection of the Amend button the Confirm option then becomes available to enable any edits to be confirmed.
Cancel: On first accessing the Manufacturer Recalls form this command button is greyed-out. Following selection of the Amend button the Cancel option then becomes available to enable any edits to be cancelled.
Message: This is not a command button. This box is a way of displaying messages with regard to the status of the current record e.g. Record Secured OK.
Ad-hoc: Selection of this button displays a further form that provides an Ad-hoc Report Generator for the creation of quick query reports to form.
Setup: Selection of this button displays a further form that provides an itemised display of all the selection criteria for the current Manufacturer Recalls record.