Online Order Tracking and Status

[Kun Liu]

I don't think this would happen unless no dealerships

[Russell Humphreys]

I would like this system but I bet Ford figures it is not a big value add. I wonder how many people factory order vs. just buy off the lot.

[fordex]

Scanning this topic as I just ordered a 16 Explorer late last month. I found and tried the cotus.ford.com and gather from the posts, that I got the results I could expect: no info.

 

If I ran a store, I'd have my fleet/inventory guy or gal send email updates to customers who have orders. Make a big deal on the order status to let customer's know it was getting closer. I'd think it's at least a 10 to 1 ratio of in-stock to order units, so not a crazy amount of customer orders to follow imo.

 

That said, the Ford dealers here in the Denver Region are pretty weak. High turn rates in finance, sales management and sales floor; corporate ownership. Service departments have never been good outside of a good advisor here and there who move on quickly. They all make a mess of the interior on pretty pricey units. Fortunately for Ford, I don't make my product decision on their service depts as there are other options for that.

[cab2g]

I for one really wish that that beta site of Fords actually worked. I'd rather not deal with asking the dealer every week for status updates. They have better things to do and a computer can get the same results very easily.

[Tx-wizard]

This would be great. Even if it were just an automated email whenever the status changed. Possibly even including pictures as it passed through the assembly line. It would be easier than creating a portal where customers could log in and check the status on their own. It would definitely beat asking the dealer for updates since so many don't seem to want to bother trying to explain things, even though most of the time we know more of what it means than they do.

[meyeste]

Here is one for Ford, how about an online order tracking system accessible by the customer. I have heard that GM and Chrysler both have a system for tracking, while Ford is lagging behind. I have to rely on my dealer to give me updates, and even then they are behind (my Mustangs status in Dealer Connection Vehicle Visibility hasn't been updated since 8/5 according to the dealer). No one is able to tell me where my car is, why is has been delayed or any info what-so-ever. Needless to say, I am getting very disappointed. My online window sticker says that the car was made on 08/06/09, another Mustang with the same build date is sitting on the dealer lot, mine is sold as soon as it gets here, but the one that is going to sit around for who knows how long shipped from the factory and is sitting there on the lot.

Has there been a hold in Flat Rock on Kona Blue Mustangs? I don't know.

I recall I interviewed with Saturn in Delaware to help them create such a system in 1999, GM offered the job through a michigan based contracting company. We would have used WonderWare if you've heard of it - pretty cool stuff Cat uses it has well. I really wasn't impressed with Delaware and thought the contracting rep was not on the up and up so stuck where I was and all in all I think I made the right choice. I am not sure how long it took for GM to get that online, I thought Saturn started offering that perhaps a year later. I don't recall that much of how Saturn used WonderWare it has both data collection / and process control suites, I was a process control guy. Had been involved in a project in college in 1998 that I believe was the first use of a live data feed to the internet of data being collected real-time for customers that rented a food process lab to test processing techniques. It was hugely popular and brought in so many customers the professor in charge of the area got jealous and actually but funding for our group which consisted of myself and one other guy, as he was supposed to be bringing in the most revenue (my introduction to workplace politics), anyway back from that jaunt through the past.....

I am surprised Ford doesn't do this, they have to track the vehicles through the manufacturing process. If that is the case creating a system to keep owners up to date would just be a matter of reading what is already in a database and getting it out to the owner. I suppose it's a matter of when does Ford actually begin the designating and tracking custom orders. A low cost option would be to simply create a scheduler to read all registered owners that have opted in, read status and email or text owners an appropriate message. Effort would be creating or agreeing on the reportable status points, create appropriate content texts and getting contact information from owners which I am fairly certain is also collected, the dealer got my info. Honestly I have multiple examples of similar code in production that could do it today, with minimal modification.

Of course a more modern app would be expose REST or SOAP service that would authenticate encrypted requests based on user/order # info and respond with status and create a mobile app that owners could download and get updates on their phones. I do get there are security issues to consider, however limit information to updates on the car and keep the owner info out of the data transfer. The upside of that system is Ford could sell advertising on the apps to help over development and O&M costs, from there possibilities are almost limitless.

Edited May 17, 2016 by meyeste

[akirby]

I think part of the problem has to do with translating Ford's internal codes to something the average customer would understand and the timeliness and quality of the data inside Ford's systems. From what I've seen the process is straightforward as to getting the order scheduled, a VIN assigned and getting it built. However, order priority and dealer allocation play a big part in that as others have recently found out. In that case the customer really needs to work back with their dealer and unfortunately the dealer may not always be forthcoming if they don't have allocation or they have other orders prioritized ahead of yours. And Ford doesn't want to be in the middle of those types of issues.

 

The other problem is after it's built the tracking can be vague. It shows things like "sent offsite" with no explanations. There could also be additional staff required to answer questions.

 

I think they put out a beta version, found these problems and are probably fixing them behind the scenes but I'm guessing it's not a high priority project.

 

Waiving the dealer allocation for retail orders would help a lot (meaning sold vehicles are allocated immediately and don't come out of the dealer allocation). They've done this for specific vehicles in the past. But I'm sure the dealers don't like that.

[meyeste]

If Ford is anything like Boeing they already have cameras, and seeing as how Allen came from Boeing

A simple static cam on the end of the line wouldn't be anything like Big Brother.

I don't see anything wrong with that, it is a privilege to work not a right, if my employer wanted to film me I'd be okay with it. I would use the film to show them why they must pay me more.