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1 – 10 of 937Ahmad Ebrahimi and Sara Mojtahedi
Warranty-based big data analysis has attracted a great deal of attention because of its key capabilities and role in improving product quality while minimizing costs. Information…
Abstract
Purpose
Warranty-based big data analysis has attracted a great deal of attention because of its key capabilities and role in improving product quality while minimizing costs. Information and details about particular parts (components) repair and replacement during the warranty term, usually stored in the after-sales service database, can be used to solve problems in a variety of sectors. Due to the small number of studies related to the complete analysis of parts failure patterns in the automotive industry in the literature, this paper focuses on discovering and assessing the impact of lesser-studied factors on the failure of auto parts in the warranty period from the after-sales data of an automotive manufacturer.
Design/methodology/approach
The interconnected method used in this study for analyzing failure patterns is formed by combining association rules (AR) mining and Bayesian networks (BNs).
Findings
This research utilized AR analysis to extract valuable information from warranty data, exploring the relationship between component failure, time and location. Additionally, BNs were employed to investigate other potential factors influencing component failure, which could not be identified using Association Rules alone. This approach provided a more comprehensive evaluation of the data and valuable insights for decision-making in relevant industries.
Originality/value
This study's findings are believed to be practical in achieving a better dissection and providing a comprehensive package that can be utilized to increase component quality and overcome cross-sectional solutions. The integration of these methods allowed for a wider exploration of potential factors influencing component failure, enhancing the validity and depth of the research findings.
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Miriam Borchardt, Marcelo Souza, Giancarlo M. Pereira and Claudia V. Viegas
Branded car dealerships with best revenue by serviced car also have the best after-sales customers’ satisfaction level. The purpose of this paper is to present the analysis of the…
Abstract
Purpose
Branded car dealerships with best revenue by serviced car also have the best after-sales customers’ satisfaction level. The purpose of this paper is to present the analysis of the after-sales quality management practices adopted by dealerships with the best performance in terms of customer’s satisfaction and revenue and how such practices contribute to these results.
Design/methodology/approach
A multiple case study was performed with nine leader branded car dealerships in an emerging country, considering the entrance car. The performance indicators to evaluate customers’ satisfaction, revenue and operational indicators related to product support, brand manifestation and relationship with customers were identified. Quality management practices that support the best results achievement were analyzed.
Findings
The three dealerships that represent Asiatic brands have best customers’ satisfaction and revenue performance. These dealerships typically have different processes comparing with dealerships that represent European and American brands concerning to: continuous improvement management; warranties and stock management; services scheduling; offer bonuses to customers; and customers service that emphasizes focus on technical and commercial expertise.
Originality/value
This research considered indicators performance and, based on that, analyzed the dealerships’ practices that support the best performance. Such aspect has room for academic literature since the quality management research related to car industry focuses mainly on manufacturer and generates managerial insights to the car industry and its dealerships.
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The purpose of this paper is to propose a novel lean management tool to provide a comprehensive and flexible evaluation model while converting customer voices into technical…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to propose a novel lean management tool to provide a comprehensive and flexible evaluation model while converting customer voices into technical characteristics in lean implementations.
Design/methodology/approach
For this purpose, the proposed model was constructed by belief space-evaluations, quality function deployment (QFD) and analytic hierarchy process (AHP) in interval type-2 fuzzy (IT2F) environment. This model involves three phases: determining the linguistic weights and belief-based relations with their IT2F-sets, processing information about IT2F-based belief-evaluations and ranking the technical characteristics using the defuzzified belief-based relative importance values.
Findings
The proposed model was applied to automotive after-sales service in Turkey to demonstrate its use in lean service-decisions. This model was compared with its classical and type-1 fuzzy versions. The ranking-results of the proposed model differed from those of the other versions. The reason is that the IT2F-environment offers a sensitive and flexible evaluation of the model’s linguistic scales.
Research limitations/implications
Calculations in the proposed model may be quite involved for practitioners. An Excel-dashboard was created to simplify the computational complexity.
Practical implications
Researchers/practitioners can apply this model to any lean manufacturing/service implementation.
Social implications
Company managers/employees/customers can recognize their perception-mechanisms via belief space-evaluations and experience how uncertainty in the perception-mechanism affects their decisions.
Originality/value
The proposed model provides a new lean tool due to the Bayesian model combined with QFD-AHP in IT2F-environment. This model eliminates the ambiguity in conceptual change-based lean decisions.
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Veysel Yilmaz and Yelda Sürmeli̇oğlu
In this study, the service quality of an automobile authorized service center was investigated based on the European Customer Satisfaction Index (ECSI) model. The ECSI model…
Abstract
Purpose
In this study, the service quality of an automobile authorized service center was investigated based on the European Customer Satisfaction Index (ECSI) model. The ECSI model includes image, customer expectations, perceived quality, perceived value, customer satisfaction, customer complaints and customer loyalty.
Design/methodology/approach
In the study, an attempt was made to improve the ESCI model by adding the trust factor as a moderating variable. After an extensive literature review, measurement questions were developed to best represent the factors in the research model. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to test the fit of the research model and test the hypotheses.
Findings
As a result of the analysis, only one of the 13 hypotheses tested was not supported. According to the results of hypothesis testing, the highest effect was found in the relationship between customer satisfaction customer complaints, customer expectations and perceived quality. In addition, customer expectations affect customer satisfaction indirectly rather than directly. In this case, customer expectations, perceived value and perceived quality influence customer satisfaction.
Practical implications
The customer satisfaction quality index score of the authorized automobile service whose service quality was measured was calculated as 72.75. Although customers were generally satisfied with the authorized service, their expectations were not fully met.
Originality/value
In the study, an attempt was made to improve the ECSI model by adding a trust factor. Trust, which was added to the model as a moderator variable, fit the model. As a result, it was revealed that trust has an increasing regulatory effect on the relationship between perceived quality and customer satisfaction.
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Gregory Strydom, Michael T. Ewing and Campbell Heggen
This study aims to present an extended service-profit chain (SPC) framework for assessing service performance. This framework is then used to investigate non-linear and asymmetric…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to present an extended service-profit chain (SPC) framework for assessing service performance. This framework is then used to investigate non-linear and asymmetric links between service delivery investments and customer satisfaction, as well as time lags in organisational performance outcomes.
Design/methodology/approach
The study draws on panel data with repeated measures from a sample of automotive after sales service departments. Data collected comprises both objective and survey-based data, including operational inputs, productivity, service quality, service experience, behavioural intentions, customer retention and organisational performance.
Findings
Non-linear and asymmetric effects are identified, suggesting that customers’ evaluations of service performance are more sensitive to negative performance (dissatisfaction) than positive performance (satisfaction). Accordingly, focusing on attributes for which customers are experiencing negative performance first, and then allocating resources to attributes for which customers are experiencing positive performance, can be far more consequential for improving customer satisfaction.
Practical implications
From a practical perspective, the findings deepen current understanding of the relationships between service performance metrics. They also provide guidance for managers seeking to better deploy service resources to enhance service quality, customer satisfaction and customer retention to improve profitability over time.
Originality/value
Drawing on a unique and rich data set, this study provides a significant improvement on previous SPC frameworks by adding new dimensions identified in recent meta-analyses and addresses calls for more research into non-linear, asymmetric and longitudinal effects within the SPC.
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Cid Gonçalves Filho, Kip Kiefer, Marc Fetscherin, Alexander Blandina, Marcelo Nacif Rocha and Plínio Rafael Reis Monteiro
This paper aims to explore how brand relationship quality (BRQ) influences consumers’ perceived sense of justice in the context of service recovery situations.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore how brand relationship quality (BRQ) influences consumers’ perceived sense of justice in the context of service recovery situations.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted a survey of 368 Brazilian consumers who experienced real-life automotive service recovery situations. The authors tested their model and underlying hypotheses using structural equation modeling.
Findings
Stronger BRQ led to higher levels of perceived justice (distributive, procedural and interactional), which in turn led to higher customer satisfaction of complaint handling. Ultimately, higher customer satisfaction led to lower complaining, lower retaliation and higher purchase intention. The authors' alternative model tested the effects of BRQ sub-dimensions on justice perception. Interestingly, trust produced a “love-is-blind” effect, while intimacy revealed a “love-becomes-hate” effect.
Originality/value
This study assessed BRQ and its sub-dimensions (self-connection, satisfaction, commitment, trust and intimacy) on sense of justice (distributive, procedural and interactional) within service recovery. Also, this study demonstrated the opposing effects of the brand relationship sub-dimensions trust and intimacy on perceptions of justice.
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Vahid Nabavi, Majid Azizi and Mehdi Faezipour
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the effect of the ISO 9001 quality management system on customer satisfaction and show an application of an analytic hierarchy process…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the effect of the ISO 9001 quality management system on customer satisfaction and show an application of an analytic hierarchy process (AHP)-based method for measuring the customer satisfaction index (CSI). This will be useful to anyone who wants to have an ISO 9001 quality management system in his or her organization.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper describes an ISO 9001 quality management implementation process based on ISO 9001 requirements, and uses the AHP method for weighting effective criteria on customer satisfaction. All data were obtained via questionnaires and assessed with EXPERT CHOICE 11 software.
Findings
According to the results of the weighting, the factors influencing the satisfaction of a kitchen worktops customer, price and sales terms of this product has a significant impact on customer satisfaction and, in competitive conditions, this criterion has a determining role in the creation of utility for customers. ISO 9001 quality management system has been able to increase the CSI within an 11-month period of study.
Originality/value
This paper is the first to use the AHP method with a new approach in a case study, offering a complete, comprehensive method for assessing customer implications.
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Yangyan Shi, Tiru Arthanari, V.G. Venkatesh, Samsul Islam and Venkatesh Mani
This study aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the supply chain (SC) operations of importing used vehicles into New Zealand and how such SCs affect business practices…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the supply chain (SC) operations of importing used vehicles into New Zealand and how such SCs affect business practices and performance.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses an exploratory qualitative semi-structured interview approach to interview the different stakeholders involved in the global used vehicle SC.
Findings
The research identifies the overall network structure of the used import vehicle SC from Japan to New Zealand and characterises key aspects of its operations and network connections. This paper finds that Japanese buying agents have integrated increasing numbers of services to provide a trouble-free trading platform, which has created a direct-import model for used vehicle companies in New Zealand.
Practical implications
The findings and recommendations are useful in designing and managing the used vehicle SC for all stakeholders and effective real-time management of uncertain factors.
Originality/value
The paper primarily analyses SC operations by researching the cooperation and coordination between SC components and networks, based on providing the flow of used vehicles from Japan to New Zealand. It constitutes a pioneering practice-perspective research paper in this domain.
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N. Saccani, L. Songini and P. Gaiardelli
To analyse the role of after‐sales services in manufacturing contexts, and the related after‐sales performance measurement systems.
Abstract
Purpose
To analyse the role of after‐sales services in manufacturing contexts, and the related after‐sales performance measurement systems.
Design/methodology/approach
An exploratory case study research was performed in the automotive, household appliance, IT and consumer electronics industries. The sample is made up of 48 firms with after‐sales operations in Italy.
Findings
The role attributed to after‐sales activities in the IT and consumer electronics and household appliance industries shows an orientation to improve company image, customer satisfaction and retention (marketing focus). A different situation characterises the companies studied in the automotive industry. In most firms, however, measurement systems are quite simple and short‐term oriented, especially in the IT and consumer electronics and household appliance industries. The measurement of non‐financial performance emphasises effectiveness rather than efficiency, and the automotive industry, on the whole, presents more advanced measurement systems, together with more integrated strategic management of after‐sales. The household appliance industry, on the other hand, due to the significant presence of SMEs, is characterised by less sophisticated performance measurement systems.
Originality/value
Provides a representation of current empirical practices in after‐sales role and performance measurement, a topic insufficiently covered by conceptual and empirical research.
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