T E C H NOLOG Y U P DAT E
THE FUTURE IS HERE
Inside the Shop of Tomorrow
Who will service vehicles in the age of the connected car?
Recently at AAPEX, AAIA
demonstrated a model of an
automotive service facility
where all of the management
systems, service equipment
and diagnostic data were
connected to each other.
Professional automotive
service technicians and the shops
where they work are referred to as
the revenue well-head of the aftermarket
industry. Everything we do
in this $285 billion industry is aimed
at putting product on a vehicle and
getting the customer back on the road.
But the competition for those service
and repair dollars is fierce and new
vehicle technologies deployed by car
manufacturers are aimed at cutting
into the aftermarket share of the
26 | AFTERMARKET INSIDER | VOLUME 73
pie. The aftermarket is an industry
of innovators and tinkerers. The
challenges of today and tomorrow
demand that we tinker (big time) with
how a modern service shop operates
and how consumers connect
with their chosen service provider.
Recently at AAPEX, AAIA demonstrated
a model of an automotive
service facility where all of the
management systems, service equipment
and diagnostic data were
connected to each other. In fact, the
entire shop was connected to a car
hundreds of miles away by way of
an aftermarket telematics device. For
three solid days, shop owners and
service managers visited the Shop
of Tomorrow and remarked how
they wished their operations worked
like ours. In our model the need to
produce paper is eliminated until the
customer comes for their receipt. Any
information about the vehicle and the
service work to be performed is imme
http://www.aftermarket.org/tomorrow
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Aftermarket Insider Issue 73