Richfield, OH — May 28, 2003 — Ford Motor Co.'s Jaguar and Land Rover divisions have signed with solution provider OEConnection to provide more than 300 U.S. dealerships with an online parts procurement tool.
While Jaguar and Land Rover maintain parts distribution centers (PDCs) across the United States, the process of back ordering parts often leads to customer service issues. If a dealer can't get the parts they need for a customer's repair, they traditionally resort to phoning many local dealers to check inventory.
OEConnection's technology, called D2DLink, is designed to speed up the process, allowing a dealer to go online, locate a part and obtain a parts quote from another dealer, either locally or nationwide. The D2DLink service is available 24/7 and allows dealers to purchase the needed part (or parts) online, by phone or by fax.
OEConnection said the benefits to Jaguar and Land Rover dealers would include a streamlined process for parts locating, access to daily-updated parts inventories and the convenience of ordering parts online, features that can help dealers in reducing vehicle repair cycle time, improving customer service and increasing supply chain efficiencies.
The goal of D2DLink is to enable Jaguar and Land Rover dealers to respond to customers' repair needs more quickly and accurately, putting Jaguar and Land Rover drivers back on the road in less time. By offering dealers the online service, the luxury automakers hope to contribute to Ford Motor Co.'s effort to establish consistent systems and processes across its divisions.
Said Richard Tate, manager for parts supply and logistics for Jaguar and Land Rover: "Every day we don't implement the D2DLink service, our dealers miss out on the efficiencies it has to offer. The adoption of this online tool is a part of Jaguar and Land Rover's continued effort to better service their U.S. dealers as wholesale parts buyers and their luxury auto customers."
The D2DLink product is expected to be available to Jaguar and Land Rover dealers by summer 2003.
The two automakers join Ford and General Motors, as well as other import manufacturers, in making available to their dealers D2DLink, which is used by more than 9,500 auto dealers across the United States more than 50,000 times each day to search original equipment (OE) parts inventories, according to the solution provider.
