Why its important to implement
Legal binding agreements require documented evidence of work completion for payment protection, warranty compliance, and claims defense over required retention years.
Documentation for Claims Protection
Throughout the process of assessing, gaining approval and then repairing the vehicle there are a number of documents that must be retained as evidence that the business carried out the work and to protect it from any claims that may come in the future.
Vehicle Safety Assurance
This will ensure that occupants of the vehicle are safe in the event of another accident.
Legal Binding Agreement Protection
Most accident repairs are carried out by the body shop on behalf of a work provider and is generally under a legally binding agreement for the work to be carried out in a high quality and safe manner so that the vehicle will react in another accident the way it was engineered to do so from new.
Electronic Filing System Benefits
By collecting and storing these documents in a BMS or at least an electronic filing system the business will have clean and neat way to make sure they have these important documents in place and easily assessable for the required number of years.
Manufacturer Warranty Requirements
Vehicle manufacturers give a warranty for the body structure, and this includes the paint work for aesthetic reasons and to protect the body from corrosion.
Business Impact
Cannot prove work completion may result in payment denial, legal issues, OEM warranty rejection. Missing documentation wastes administration time searching physical files.
Profit
If the business cannot prove that it has carried out all work and show all documentation, payment may be denied.
Profit
If the business cannot prove that it has carried out all work and show all documentation, business could face legal issues if it cannot prove with documentation, it carried out all work as agreed with the work provider.
Profit
If the business cannot prove that it has carried out all work and show all documentation, business could face OEM approval issues if it cannot prove with documentation, it carried out all work as agreed with the work provider, as the OEM may reject body warranty.
Additional Administration Work
If there is any kind of request for paperwork for a job and everything is not stored in the BMS or electronic storage system administration staff may spend many hours looking through physical documents, spending time on this instead of other needed work.
action steps
Invest in BMS software, implement documentation storage processes for all staff, ensure manufacturer repair methods access, enforce policy compliance.
Documentation Policy Enforcement
Regularly check that this is being carried out for every job, strong internal warnings if policy not followed once established.
Manufacturer Repair Methods Access
If the business does not have accesses to manufacture repair methods, it should invest in a program to supply these required documents.
Documentation Storage Process
Implement process for all VDA's and office staff to store all documentation in the BMS.
BMS Implementation and Usage
If it has the software but does not use it to collate and store all documentation, then this must be implemented as soon as possible.
BMS Software Investment
If the business does not have a BMS it should invest in this software.
Related tasks
Milestone:
02: Streamlining VDA Processes