APPENDIX- 1 Questionnaire Survey on Four Wheeler Service Centres

Respondents Profile Name: Age: Educational qualifications: Present designation: Experience in the present designation (in Years): Total experience in the service center (in Years): 1. Demographical Data of the Service center a) Name of the enterprise b) Industry category (micro/small/medium/large) c) Year of commencing of service d) Geographical location e) Number of permanent employees i) Technical ii) Non-Technical iii) Others f) Average turnover (per annum) g) Whether the center has certified ISO-9000? If not specify any other

2. Service priorities Following are some perceived important attributes for your service. Please rank them in the order of importance usually assigned in your company. (Tick at the appropriate places) 1 (1) Service quality (2) Cost competitiveness (3) Delivery performance (4) Responsiveness to Customer needs Any other please specify 3. Service activities 1). Indicate the most critical service activities that are usually carried out and mention their respective duration Name of the activity a) b) c) d) Service time (mins or hrs) 2 3 4

4. Details of service centers a)Average arrival rate of vehicles per day __________ 1) Free service per day __________2) Paid service per day__________ 3) Running Repairs per day ___________4) Body Repairs per day__________ b) What would be the average time to complete the servicing a vehicle? c) Average service rate of vehicles per day d) Average number of operations those are required to complete service of a vehicle? e) How much percentage customers those are happy with your service center f) Are you conducting any survey from your customer on your service? 5. Attributes for service How important do you feel are the following factors for successful service (0 indicate that it is not at all important while 5 indicate that it is extremely important) Tick () at the appropriate places? a) Location of center b) Firm size (number of empl.. c) Age of the center d) Modernization of center e) Level of automation 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 3 4 4 4 4 4 5 5 5 5 5

f) Long-term relations with g) Information supplied by customer h) Conflict resolution Any other please specify

0 0

1 1

2 2

3 3

4 4

5 5

6. Some aspects for improving the service 1) What are the priorities that are considered before starting service? a) b) c) d) e) 2) If the customers were not happy with the service render by you then what would you do?

3) Do you require any technical/financial support for improving the service?

Thanking you

Respondents signature with seal

APPENDIX -2 Consolidation of Questionnaire Survey

1. Age < 30y 7 30-40y: - 9 40 50y: - 4 > 50y: - 2 4. Total Experience < 10y 8 10-20y: - 9 > 20y: - 5 7. No. of employees < 50 9 50- 100 10 > 100 3 10. Service Priorities b) Cost competitiveness c) Delivery performance d) customer needs 1 19 22 31 22 39 4 10 28 37 47 13 29 35 45 11. Average Arrival rate 29.4 vehicles/ day Free Service 8.18 Vehicles/day Paid service 16.59 Vehicles/day Body repairs 4.41 Vehicles/day Average Service rate 25.45 vehicles/day Average Pending rate 4 vehicles/ day 2. Qualification ITI 4 DAE 9 DME 3 B.E 6 5. Category of Industry Small 11 Medium 8 Large 3 8. Average turnover/annum < 2 cr 11 2-5cr 8 > 5 cr 3 3. Designation General Manager 3 Proprietor 4 Works Manager 8 Assistant works Manager -7 6. Age of the Center < 10y : 12 10-20y : 9 > 20y : 1 9. Certification I So 14 Non I So 8

a) Service Quality Responsiveness to

12.

Attributes for Service d) Modernization e) Level of center 35 4 10 57 01 22 36 49 54 h) Conflict resolution 12 22 34 4-8 5-6

a) Location of b) Firm size c) Age of the centre of centre automation 11 23 12 22 37 26 35 48 36 45 54 46 59 52 f) Long term relations g) Information supplied with customer by customer 43 22 5 19 33 46 5 11

Curriculum Vitae
The author of this thesis is, Chekuru. Venkatadri Naidu was born on 10th April, 1968. He received the degree of Bachelor of Technology in Mechanical Engineering from Nagarjuna University, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, India, in the year1990. He received Master of Engineering in Industrial Engineering from College of Engineering, Andhra University, Visakhapatnam in January 2002. He worked at various capacities as an Engineer/Senior Engineer/Manager in Various Industries like Bhagyanagar Metals Limited/ Wires International W.L.L/ Shanthi plaster Products Ltd from 1993 to 2000. The author has started his teaching career in the department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, Andhra University as faculty on contract basis (2001-2002). Presently, the author has been working as Assistant Professor in the department of Mechanical Engineering, GITAM Institute of Technology, GITAM University, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India since 2002. His areas of Interests are studies on Improvement of Service sector and operations research. The author is a life member of Indian Society for Technical Education and Institution of Engineers (India).

International Journal of Applied Engineering Research ISSN 0973-4562 Volume 5 Number 4 (2010) pp. 709720 Research India Publications http://www.ripublication.com/ijaer.htm

Success Factors in Automobile Serivce Sector: A Study on Four Wheeler Service Centers in India
1

Ch Venkatadri Naidu, 2A V Sita Rama Raju and 3P M Valli

1

1,3

Asst. Professor and 2,3Professor Department of Mechanical Engineering, GITAM institute of Technology, GITAM UNIVERSITY, Visakhapatnam 530 045, Andhra Pradesh, INDIA, 1 E-mail: cvnaidu4@hotmail.com 2 Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, JNTUH, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, INDIA

Abstract Since last few years, service sector occupies a strategic position in the economic growth of a country. In India, the contribution to the nations gross domestic product is prominent. However, its contribution is not to the level of its expectation as it could be. In this context, there is need to identify the determinnats that enhance to the level of its expectations. A survey was carried out in the four wheeler automobile service centers across India. This study reveals that modernization and continuous improvement is the most important factors for the growth of service sector. Attempts to be made on these lines leads to enhance the customers satisfactoions and thus growth of the whole automobile service sector in India. Key words: Service sector, Four wheeler service centers, Success factors and Questionnaire survey.

Introduction
With the advent of economic liberalization and globalization, many of the transnational corporations have been shifting their production basis to India (Bala Subrahmanya, 2007). It shows nearly more than five hundred manufacturing facilities have been established in India. Amongst all the sectors, automobile manufacturing sector recorded a considerable amount growth especially in India (UNICTAD, 2008). As a result of enhanced sales of automobiles, it has created a sudden boost to the service sector also. Although it has created huge employment opportunities and

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Ch Venkatadri Naidu, A V Sita Rama Raju and P M Valli

progress towards has been made in the contribution to the economic growth of Indias gross domestic product, expectations have not been met as what it could be. Studies (Bagodi and Mahnaty , 2008) have had attains a phase on service sector on how to enhance its position and its contribution and has become an important issues for the researchers in the developing counties. Majority of the researchers have studied on various aspects of quality orientation and its related issues. 1 and 3 are with the Department of Mechanical Engineering, GIT, GITAM University Visakapatnam- 530 045, AP India. 2 Asoociated with the Department of Mechanical Engineering, JNTU University Hyderabad -500 075, AP India 1 Corresponding Author(cvnaidu4@hotmail.com) However, to the authors knowledge, it is surprising that, no study have been done in India on how to improve and what are the steps that necessitates for accelarated growth. Literature revels meeting the vehicle owners expectations are the central for the customer satisfaction and growth of the whole service sector. In this back drop, a filed study has been carried out to know the issues that hindering the growth of the sector. Four wheeler service centers have been chosen for this purpose and a questionnaire survey has been carried out. The rest of this paper is organized in the followings sections. Section two represents automobile sector in India and importance of proportionate growth in the service sector. Section three presents about key factors for success of service sector and questionnaire survey and its analysis are discussed in section four. Finally conclusions have been made in the last section five.

Automobile manufacturing sector in India

In India, the automotive sector comprises of automobile vehicles manufacturing sector and component manufacturing sub sectors. It is the one of the key segments of the economy in India. It has recorded a 4 per cent contribution in the nations gross domestic product and 5 per cent in industrial production(Saranga, 2009). The welldeveloped Indian automotive industry able to fulfils this catalytic role by producing a wide variety of vehicles like passenger cars, light, medium and heavy commercial vehicles, multi-utility vehicles such as scooters, motorcycles, mopeds, three wheelers and multi purpose utility vehicles like tractors etc. The first car was rolled out in the dates back in 1898. The automobile industry of India has come a long way. During the early stages, the automobile industry was overlooked by the then Government of India and pertinent policies were not favorable. The liberalization policies in 1990,s and other related tax reliefs by the India government in recent years have made remarkable impacts on automobile industry. With the added improvement of information technology, Indian auto industry, which is currently growing at the pace of around 18 % per annum, has become a hot destination for global auto players like Volvo, General Motors and Ford (UNICTAD, 2005). Further details of the growth of this sector can been seen elsewhere (SIAM, 2009).

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Issues in the service sector

Automobile industry in India, as discussed in the above has shows a tremendous growth over the past two decades(SIAM, 2009). Furthermore, the demand is expected to grow at an increased rate for the next two decades or so. Literature shows that there is a huge gap between its sales volume of vehicles and number of service centers, and the service rendered by the service centers and the gap is steadily increasing. Naturally, the delivery of the vehicle decreases which directly impacts the satisfaction of the customers. Managing high levels of manpower churn emerged as the single biggest challenge, as this figured in the list of top three challenges with every respondent. Across players, average manpower turnover appeared to be in the order of 30-40 percent, varying across different levels. High manpower churn impacts players in different ways. On one hand, it creates a continuous need to recruit and train people, just to maintain current levels of service. The need to expand the network creates additional pressure. At the same time, losing skilled and trained manpower, especially to competition, impacts not only the quality of service but also the competitiveness of players. Lack of training is the next critical challenge, as this directly impacts service quality and delivery. While ensuring continuous skills up gradation for existing service manpower, players also need to provide training for new joiners. Given the high levels of churn and need for expansion, several players feel that their service capacity, number of training facilities, instructors, etc are likely to be under pressure to meet future training needs(Bagodi and Mahanty, 2008). In this backdrop, among the issues, stated, success factors that enhance its growth and attributes in automobile service centers have been addressed in this paper. Key success factors Before implementing the survey, several visits have been made to various service centers and face to face intensive discussions have been held in length with the executives of the centers. It has resulted the fallowing points, identified as three key success factors for automotive servicing which are listed below (1) Availability of adequate numbers of skilled manpower, across different levels, skills include not only technical skills but also customer management. (2) Continuous improvement in productivity and quality, to reduce service times, improve capacity utilization and reduced costs enhances increase customer satisfaction (3) Focus on softer aspects of customer management and innovate to retain customer loyalty to ensure timely expansion of network. The above assessment of the automotive service landscape clearly highlights that manpower availability and skills are the key challenges players face in providing quality service to their customers. These aspects are considered in preparing the questionnaire.

Questionnaire survey
Real world data are essential requirements for carrying out research in socio economic systems. The required data reside in different forms, namely as primary data,

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secondary data and tertiary data. Primary data is highly indispensable for the success of any research but it is costly, time consuming and most often difficult to procure. Data from other sources can be acquired relatively easily but often that do not meet the purpose. A questionnaire survey is a research instrument used in a study to gather primary data in a valid, reliable and unbiased manner. A questionnaire survey is a good way, often the only way, of getting a picture of the current state of a group: a community, an organization, an electorate, a set of corporation, or a profession (Janes, 1999). The questionnaire for conducting a survey should be designed meticulously. They should also be tested to ensure that they meet their purpose. Sometimes a standard research instrument is used for a questionnaire survey. However, one must be careful in using a standard research instrument since the relevance of the variables may differ from country to country, or even from industry to industry. A pilot survey helps the researchers to a great extent in finding the variables to be measured and hence, in designing an appropriate questionnaire. The importance of research questions of the survey is Service priorities Success factors for service Details of questionnaire The three page questionnaire is divided into 4 parts focusing on a number of issues, (i) profile of respondents (ii) demographical data of the service center (iii) service priorities (iv) success for service. Both openended questions as well as closed ended questions were used in the questionnaire. A combination of checks, yes/no, Liker scale and fill up the blanks form, question and answer form questions are framed against the issues as mentioned and exploratory notes are provided wherever required to assist the respondents in filling the questionnaire. Of the total 80 questionnaires 9 returned undelivered, and out of the remaining, a total of 22 usable responses are received. It shows a response rate 31% which is acceptable for research. The information in first and second section is regarding respondents profile and demographical particulars of service centers. Because the background (age, experience, qualification) of the respondent is most important based on that he gives right information regarding our survey and also demographical particulars means age of service center, number of employees, firm and Industry category plays greater role because based on these parameters, the information we review will change based on its seniority. The information in the third section is regarding relative ranking of service priorities. This is the most important aspect regarding any service center point of view because now the service center gives importance to various parameters; those are service qualities, cost competitiveness, delivery performance and customer needs. This reflects the attitude of the service center and the relative performance of those parameters. In the fourth section the information regarding the success factors of the service are given. The critical success factors of service are marked on a Likert scale 1-5 (1

Success Factors in Automobile Serivce Sector means below

713

not important 5 means most important). The factors considered are given Size of the center Location of the centre Modernization of the center Automation of the center Age of the center and Conflict resolution

Analysis of Responses 22 responses are received within the Andhra Pradesh region. The responding centers are from all categories of authorized and dealer centers. Category wise responses are presented in the Figure 1. Majority of respondents are from the small centre (50%) category. The rest of the responses are from medium and large centers. Area wise responses and its details are shown in the Table 1.

Table 1: Details of Responses. City Number of Responses Hyderabad 12 Secunderabad 3 Khammam 1 Visakhapatnam 6 Total 22

Category of Service Centres

11 8

Small

Medium

Large

Figure 1: Category of Service Centers.

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Ch Venkatadri Naidu, A V Sita Rama Raju and P M Valli

Figure 2 gives the details of the age of the industry. Only very few are above 20 years. These centers need to establish full pledged manpower, technological set up etc. Age of the Service Centres
Above 20 y 5%

Between 1020 y 41%

Les than10 y 54%

Figure 2: Age of the Service Centers.

Since most of the centers are of small category, therefore manpower availability in the centers is also another important factor for improving the service. The results reveal that 14% of service centers have more than 100 permanent employees. 45% have permanent employees in the rage of 50-100 and 41% have employees less than 50 respectively (Figure 3).
Number of Employees
Between 50100 14% Less than 50 41%

Above 100 45%

Figure 3: Number of Employees.

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715

Profile of Respondents The details of the respondents are given in Figure 4. Respondents are working in various capacities like general manager, works managers and assistant works manager cadres. 7 respondents were proprietor/general manager/ assistant general manager with 20 to 40 years experience, 15 respondents were of works manager/assistant works manager with 5-20 years experience. Their age details are given in Figure 4.

Designation of the Respondents

4 3 2 1 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 G.M-3

Proprietor-4 A.W.M-7 W.M-8 40

Figure 4: Designations of the Respondents Very few of them are technically qualified and experienced people. 6 respondents were having technical degree (B.Tech/B.E), 12 respondents were having diploma in technical education (DAE/DME), and 4 were technicians with I.T.I. qualification.

Age of the Respondents

Above 50 y 9% Between 40-50y 18% Less than 30 y 32%

Between 30-40 y 41%

Figure 5: Age of the Respondents.

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Ch Venkatadri Naidu, A V Sita Rama Raju and P M Valli

Respondents Experience
Above 20 y 22% Less than 10 y 37%

Between 10-20 y 41%

Figure 6: Respondents Experience.

It shows that 22% of the total respondents are having more than 20 years experience. 41% of the total respondents are having between 10 to 20 years experience and 37% are having less than 10 years experience Service Priorities The competitive priorities in the perspective of service are considered below and could be defined as follows: Service quality (C1) Cost competitiveness (C2) Delivery performance (C3) Flexibility (C4) For each priority, the respondents are asked to indicate on Likert scale as mentioned before. The summary of the responses is shown in the appendix. Table 2 shows the mean and standard deviation values of the priorities. The descriptive statistics for the obtained data has been performed and the paired t test and values have been shown in Table:2 The results indicate that the top most priority for the service center is cost competitiveness. It shows a mean of 3.318 with moderate deviation of 0.718.The delivery performance has been as the second priority where as the quality and the other becomes the least priorities. It is clearly understood from the statistics that they are providing the service with competitive prices, which is more essential. Where as the quality and the flexibility needs improvement. t values and p values are significant at 0.05 significance levels. However, due to limited number of sample size the t value shows less than the desired value for the C1 variable.

Success Factors in Automobile Serivce Sector Table 2: Statistical Test for Service Priorities.
Variable C1 C2 C3 C4 N 22 22 22 22 Mean 1.182 3.318 2.955 2.545 Sd.dev 0.501 0.716 0.844 1.011 SE Mean 0.107 0.153 0.180 0.215 95% CI Lower Upper Bound Bound 0.960 1.404 -0.226 0.953 -0.311 1.129 0.759 1.969 Paired T- test P-Value 0.00 0.213 0.250 0.00 T-Value -12.02 1.28 1.18 4.69

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Scale Validity Analysis Inter item analysis is used to check the scales for internal consistency or reliability. Chronbachs coefficient alpha is calculated for each scale, as recommended for empirical research in operations management (Nunnaly, 1994). In order to assess the homogeneity and inter correlations of the factors in an item, Chronbachs alpha, a measure of internal consistency often used in cases where participants respond to questions in a Likert scale , is calculated for each item as = n. r + (n-1)r where, n is the number of items and r the average of inter-item correlation among the items. The values of should lies in the range of (0, 1). Chronbachs alpha values for each scale are more than 0.5, which is considered adequate for exploratory work (Nunnaly, 1994). Table 3 gives the alpha values for the different scale for priorities. It shows alpha values of all the attributes are more than 0.6 hence, the survey results are acceptable.

Table 3: Chronbachs Alpha Test. Attributes Quality Cost Delivery Responsiveness Chronbachs Alpha 0.71 0.69 0.85 0.67

Success Factors for Service Based on the literature discussed in the previous sections and field studies fallowing are identified as the success factors for improving the service sector growth. The 8 factors have been listed below a) Location of the center (S1) b) Firm size (number of employees) (S2) c) Age of the center (S3) d) Modernization of the center (S4) e) Level of automation (S5)

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Ch Venkatadri Naidu, A V Sita Rama Raju and P M Valli f) Long-term relations with customers g) Information supplied by Customer h) Conflict resolution (S6) (S7) (S8)

The respondents were asked to indicate level of agreement with each one on a scale 1-5, where 1 indicates that it is not at all important while 5 indicates that it is extremely important. The responses of the questionnaire are shown in the Appendix. The descriptive statistics and the test results are shown in Table 4. Table 4: Mean score of Success Factors. Critical Factor Location of the center Firm size Age of the center Modernization of the center Level of automation Long-term relations with customers Information supplied by customer Conflict resolution Mean 3.84 3.51 3.00 4.86 3.54 4.18 4.09 3.66 Std. Dev 1.207 0.959 1.155 0.750 1.184 0.351 1.006 1.255

The values of the means are ranging from 3 to 4.86. When the factors are arranged in the order of magnitude, modernization of the centre and long term relationships are considered and perceived to be the two most critical factors. This indicates the importance of modernization of the centre and understanding and maintaining the relationships with the customers needs to be studied for improving the service rate of the centre To ascertain the soundness of the responses statistical test such as paired t test and the significance values are presented in the table. All the values are significant at confidence levels of 0.05 (Hair et al., 2005). The validity test results are shown in Table:5. However, due to limited number of sample size the t values are showing negative value for the C3 variable. This can be improved by taking large sample size data

Success Factors in Automobile Serivce Sector Table 5: Statistical Analysis Critical Factors.
Quartiles Variable C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 C7 C8 Min 1.0 2.0 1.0 3.0 0.0 4.0 2.0 1.0 Max 5.0 5.0 5.0 5.0 5.0 5.0 5.0 5.0 Q1 3.0 3.0 2.0 3.7 3.0 5.0 3.7 3.0 Q3 5.0 4.0 4.0 5.0 4.0 5.0 5.0 5.0 SE Mean 0.257 0.204 0.246 0.160 0.252 0.074 0.215 0.268 95% CI Lower Upper Bound Bound 3.329 4.399 3.166 4.016 2.488 3.512 3.758 4.424 3.020 4.071 4.707 5.019 3.736 4.628 3.080 4.193 Paired T-test P-Value 0.459 0.073 0.00 0.036 0.000 0.006 0.056 0.541

719

T-Value 0.75 1.89 -4.16 2.24 -4.95 3.07 2.03 -0.62

Conclusions
Automobile service sector has emerged as the key contributor for the economic growth of India. In order to enhance the contribution to the nations gross domestic product there is need to identify the determinants of it. A survey was carried out in the four wheeler automobile service centers across India. Study reveals that modernization and continuous improvement is a must for the service centers for its. The following are the two important conclusions drawn from the analysis: (1) Cost competitiveness occupying the most competitive priority and the delivery performance is the next important priority for the service centre. This very well indicates that focus of the service centre is towards customers. (2) Modernization of the servicing centre is the most critical success factor for improving the service rate and the growth and the next most important Success factor is Long-term relations with customers Attempts to be made on these lines leads to satisfy the customers expectations and thus growth of the whole service sector.

References
[1] Bala Subrahmanya, M.H. (2007), Development of Strategies for Indian SMEs: Promoting Linkages with Global Transnational Corporations, Management Research News, Vol. 30, No. 10, pp 762-774. Hair, J.F. Jr., Anderson, R. E., Tatham, R.L. and Black, W.C. Multivariate Data Analysis, Person Education Pvt. Ltd., Singapore (2005). UNCTAD,World Investment Report 2008, United Nations Conference Report on Trade and Development, Geneva (2008). Janes, J. (1999), Survey Construction, Library Hi Tech, Vol. 17, No.3, pp 321325 Nunnally, J C. and Bernstein, I.H. Psychometric Theory, 3rd Edition, McGraw-Hill, New York (1994).

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Ch Venkatadri Naidu, A V Sita Rama Raju and P M Valli UNCTAD,World Investment Report 2005, United Nations Conference Report on Trade and Development, Geneva (2005). Saranga, H. (2009), The Indian Auto Component Industry-Estimation of Operational Efficiency and Its Determinants using DEA, European Journal of Operational Research, Vol. 196, pp 707-718. Bagodi V. and B. Mahanty (2008), Service Quality Dimensions in Designing Profitable Business Strategies in Indian Two-Wheeler Services International Journal of Services and Operations Management, Vol.4(4), pp.460-480.

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