The best way to know if your product (or vehicle in this case) is achieving its purpose is to get feedback from a hands-on driving experience, something that MINI USA has turned to. Apparently this is their way of finding out the shortcomings of their electric-powered MINI E vehicles, now in daily use around New York, New Jersey and Los Angeles.

Among the drivers being eyed for feedback cover private customers, municipalities, universities, public utilities, non-profit and commercial organizations. Among the initial responses included:

• Optimization of the energy consumption through brake regeneration
• Managing the trip to the amount of range available
• Feedback on continued development regarding on-board efficiencies

Unlike in experiments, these are real experiences that could be valuable and make a difference in upholding the quality of the MINI E electric vehicles. The MINI E is the first chapter of BMW Group’s Project i, the company’s long-term commitment to research and develop a new type of vehicle specifically to meet the needs of the world’s cities, where the majority of vehicle growth is expected to come in the next 20 years.

(Source) Press

Tags: BMW, bmw group, commercial organizations, continued development, driving experience, efficiencies, electric vehicles, energy consumption, experiences, initial responses, municipalities, optimization, private customers, public utilities, regeneration, shortcomings, term commitment, universities

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Managing resources will always get a big boost once automation comes in. And as far as the OEM interface in automotive management process, the implementation of the Automotive Management Productivity Suite by AutoMate makes life easier when it comes to invoices, statements, and related reports needed for internal business procedures.

“With GM’s new Parts WorkBench upgrade, we can provide the latest Parts Shipment Information to our GM dealers, and automate the vehicle invoice process,” says Mike Esposito, president and CEO of Auto/Mate. “The less time dealers have to spend on administrative tasks, the more attention they can put on sales.”

The GM Vehicle Invoice module lets dealers automatically receive vehicle invoices on any given day. Auto/Mate receives the invoices from GM electronically, and distributes them to the appropriate GM dealerships’ AMPS system, reducing data entry duplication and increasing efficiencies.

Consistency and efficiency is crucial in any business setting. And with this new automation in place, you can be that everything will soon be up to date and leave minimal room for potential errors.

(Source) Press

Tags: administrative tasks, automotive management, business procedures, data entry, efficiencies, GM, gm dealers, gm dealerships, internal business, management productivity, managing resources, oem interface, productivity suite, shipment information, time dealers, workbench

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