Mobile home manufacturer benefits from online warranty processing  
     
  abas customer DethleffsKarlsruhe, September 12, 2006 - A new warranty processing systems allows the mobile home manufacturer Dethleffs to determine what its end customers really want. But also specialist dealers benefit from this Web tool.  
     
  The recreational and tourism industry looks forward to a bright future. Motorcaravans and caravans as manufactured by Dethleffs GmbH & Co. KG, located in Isny, are a trend. The typcial buyer wants to live in his mobile home the same way as in his normal home: furnished according to individual requirements - when selecting the fabric for upholstering the corner seat or the pattern of the built-in cupboards. Dethleffs has recognized this fact long ago and offers a diversified range of classic caravans and motorcaravans which can be equipped almost without restrictions. Therefore, the variant management - almost no delivered product is the same - is one of the core competencies of the company.  
     
  Good prospects  
     
  People at Dethleffs are in a good mood because business is booming. 6,635 motorcaravans and 6,485 caravans are the overall planing for the model range 2005/2006. Compared to the same period of the previous year, the motorcaravan production increases by a proud 21 percent, and the production of caravans by a round 4 percent. For the first time ever the company expects 260 million Euro for the current fiscal year. 850 employees contribute to achieve these objectives, as well as a network of traders which is represented throughout Europe. The vehicles are only distributed indirectly. 98.5 percent of Dethleffs belong to the associated company CMC, which is completely under the sphere of influence of Erwin Hymer, also the chairman of the supervisory board of the Hymer AG.  
     
  Warranty program  
     
  Customers are spending more money for "their" mobile home, but their demands have also increased over the past years. An important criteria to ensure customer satisfaction is the fast processing of possible warranty cases, the processing of warranty claims and inspections. In all cases this requires a detailed knowledge of the respective vehicle ("as-built data"). The gradual warranty program complicates matters. Dethleffs gives its customers the option to expand their warranty claim by buying respective options. This is even possible at a later point in time.  
     
  Online warranty processing  
     
  Online warranty processingIn 2003 Dethleffs realized that the until then used paper chaos to process warranty claims was no longer contemporary. Not only the complicated, tedious transfer of information between dealers and OEM made it necessary to look for an alternative, but also the recurring misunderstandings which were due to indecipherable, hand-written remarks on the warranty cards. Another solution was therefore needed which would not only increase the reaction rate, but would also make the storage of ready-made forms and the processing of form applications unnecessary. The second option to only have the forms available on the Internet was not approved of by the manufacturer of mobile homes. That way, the unstructured processes would have only been shifted to the computer. Rainer Lochner, responsilbe for the implementation of the new warranty processing system at Dethleffs, says: "We were looking for a system which could be easily operated by our dealers and did not allow incorrect entries." The operating comfort was an important criteria, because the dealers have different levels of computer knowledge and they were not to be burdened unnecessarily. It was also not an option to use different media - everything, from the sales of the vehicle, including maintenance, up to the warranty claim and the resulting credit notes was to be processed by the new system. Thus, they had to choose a third option, an Internet-based solution with connection to the ERP system used by Dethleffs.

Inquiries showed that such a system was not available on the market. It suggested itself to assign the ABAS Software AG and TDS, located in Friedrichshafen, with this task, since the ERP system which is being used at Dethleffs is abas ERP, and TDS is responsible for programming and installing the interface of Dethleff's dealer information system (HIS). At the location in Isny a total of 300 abas ERP Linux users are registered. The business software abas ERP is used to process standard business procedures and control production. HIS is an online spare parts ordering system with connection to a 3D-CAD spare parts catalog and shopping cart function. It thus connects E-commerce in the Business-to-Business area with an additional information platform for dealers.		  
     
  Structure of the solution  
     
  The implemented architecture of the portal solution GA-online is elegant and modern at the same time. By using Web services, the abas Business Software now links the information system HIS and the spare parts catalog so that the warranty processing has been expanded by the functionality of the already existing CAD supported catalog browsers. The catalog browser is connected to the MCAD system Solid Edge which is used by the constructing engineers at Dethleffs. Both systems, spare parts catalog and GA-online, are Web Applications. One of the specifications was that neither abas ERP, nor HIS had to be adjusted. Thus, a Web service, which acts as interface between both systems, seemed the best solution. TDS and ABAS developed an interface description via WSDL (Web Service Description Language) with which a Web service could be switched before the warranty application. The Web service takes on the product information and passes it on to the application. At the same time TDS also realized a client by means of the WSDL which transfers selected products to the Web service of the abas Business Software via the catalog browser. An abas eB server is interconnected so that the ERP system cannot be directly accessed externally. The Dethleffs firewall is installed between the eB server and the ERP system.  
     
  Advantages of the online warranty processing  
     
  Manufacturer of mobile homesThe online warranty processing has been in use since November 2004. A total of 127 dealers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland are using it. The tool is impressive due to its easy operability - only those buttons which make sense in the input context are displayed. Due to many default settings the query is limited to the absolutely necessary. This helps to avoid incorrect entries. A clearly structured authorization or access system accomodates the dealer's different authorizations.

There are many advantages for Dethleffs. Michael Fleschhut, Head of Organization/IT at Dethleffs GmbH & Co. KG says: "The largest part of the domestic warranty cases can be processed within minutes with the warranty processing system based on abas ERP. The large number of ambiguous warranty claims which were so far manually processed by fax could be decreased considerably through the connection of abas ERP. The processing effort for warranty claims has thus decreased considerably." The administrative effort, for example regarding the invoices handed in by the dealers, is marginal. GA-online, moreover, makes it possible to quickly have an overview of all warranty claims and their status; the up-to-dateness of the data is always guaranteed. Thus, the evaluation of statistics is possible, for instance regarding the inspection and warranty history. This continuity makes it possible to economically set-up a database in which the delivered vehicles can be assigned to the end customers. This is to be used to set up a closed control system from construction, via maintenance up to error analysis for the product. Even if people at Dehtleffs do not want to call it that way, the finaly objective is product lifecylce management, since the extracted information can be used to directly approach end customers.
That the warranty processing system has also captured the dealers, confirms Claudia Wutschke at Best Caravaning, Baden-Baden: "GA-online works very well. The time we can save now compared to the previous manual processing is at least 30 percent." She is very happy with the response time of the system. It is on average only 3 minutes. Of course there are many more gains for the dealers. The dealers are, for example, always up-to-date concerning the terms of contract of the respective customer, they have knowledge about the inspections and repairs that were already carried out and know, when the next repairs of the vehicle are coming up. Thus, both are concerned about customer satisfaction.		  
     
  Company profile Dethleffs GmbH & Co. KG  
     
  Dethleffs: Motorcaravans and Caravans Arist Dethleffs must have been a very special family guy. In order to take his loved ones with him on business trips, Dethleffs, who actually specialized in the production of whips, built the first German mobile home in 1931. Numerous requests had the effect that only a little later mobile homes on demand were built in a woodshed. In 1936 already six permanent employes worked in the company department "Dethleffs Wohnautobau". 20 years later, in the reconstruction years after the war in Germany, serial production was started due to increasing demand. Receipt of many international awards for design and quality. In 1973, Dethleffs built a new factory on the outskirts of Isny with a production floor of 12.000 sqm. The number of employees increased to 235 (today: 850). Ten years later Dethleffs built its first motorhome and became a pioneer in the motorhome production. Dethleffs was the first company to use the Fiat Ducato chassis as a basis for their coachbuilt models. In 1993, the mobile home manufacturer successfully passed the first crash test to be documented in public at the German Federal Institute for Road Traffic in Cologne. In 1996, Arist Dethleffs dies in Isny at the age of 88. In 1993, the company decided on the abas Business Software. In the year 2004, Dethleffs was the largest manufacturer of coachbuilt and partially integrated vehicles.  
     
  Further information on ABAS:
pr@abas-software.com (Press and Public Relations)
Phone: +49 (0) 721 96 72 30; Fax: +49 (0) 721 96 72 31 00		  
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