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in march 2024, china automotive quality network and kairui saichi consulting jointly launched the annual china automotive product quality outstanding contribution person selection promotion campaign, aiming to showcase managers' innovative practices in redefining and continuously improving product quality in multiple dimensions, and provide the industry with new ideas for responding to quality challenges.

in-depth visits to enterprises and dialogues with managers with outstanding contributions are important parts of this event. in this interview, li xi, executive vice president of chezhi.com, talked with lin gengtao, director of faw audi's after-sales service product support department, and had an in-depth discussion on faw audi's lean management of product quality, team empowerment, improving user product quality experience, and promoting full-journey technical service changes.

li xi (left), executive vice president of chezhi.com, has an in-depth conversation with lin gengtao (right), director of after-sales service product support department of faw audi

"user-centered and technology-oriented" is the working philosophy of faw audi after-sales service product support department. during the communication, lin gengtao believed that only by thinking about problems from the user's perspective can we understand the user's real thoughts and demands.

empathy and practical solutions for users

lin gengtao, director of after-sales service product support department of faw audi

when you first meet lin gengtao, you may be confused by his young face. in fact, he has worked in management in many quality-related departments of faw-volkswagen, and has been in charge of the after-sales service product support department of faw audi for more than two years. years of management experience have made lin gengtao think more about the work of the department. "to be user-oriented, we must learn to think from the user's perspective. only through such empathy can we understand the user's real thoughts and demands." based on this, he proposed the concept of "user-perceived quality." lin gengtao believes that there is a deviation between the perception of users and oems. the oem may think it is a small problem, but in the eyes of users, it is a big problem.

lin gengtao also has his own understanding of the concept of users. he believes that users include not only end users, but also dealer partners who provide direct services to end users. therefore, to achieve user service satisfaction, it is necessary to provide agile support and efficient services to dealers. we must think in the shoes of others, understand and grasp the difficulties faced by dealers and actively provide support. only by serving dealers well can they provide better services to users, thus achieving a win-win situation for users, dealers and brands. sun yongchang, head of quality analysis, said in an interview, "minister lin requires us to deepen user orientation and proactive awareness in our daily work, and always put user response and demand resolution first in our work."

build a big data integration platform to promote product quality optimization

final inspection station zp8 in the faw audi assembly workshop (photo courtesy: faw audi)

in 2024, based on the concept of "user perceived quality", under the promotion and leadership of lin gengtao, faw audi used digital tools to build a "global market product quality monitoring and optimization system", connecting the global quality data with user data, and running through the entire process of car use, maintenance, and maintenance. according to lin gengtao, this big data model system is called a "super indicator" within the oem, which can be used to capture all users' fault prompt information and maintenance information in real time. at the same time, combined with user complaint information obtained from the official complaint center, third-party complaint platforms and online public opinion, big data calculations are performed to identify real users' product quality needs in real time. for example, which problems are the biggest complaints from users and need to be solved first; which user-perceived quality indicators have risen and need to be handled immediately by manual intervention to prevent the spread of problems.

in addition, lin gengtao believes that it is not enough to just listen to the voice of users. "we cannot wait until quality problems occur after sales to 'put out fires'. we must help users think about problems in advance and solve them in advance." under his promotion, faw audi launched the "predictive active service" project based on this big data model system, and built a vehicle predictive model through big data mining technology. when the background or predictive model generates early warning clues, the staff will contact and invite the user to enter the station for inspection as soon as possible to eliminate hidden dangers in time. according to lin gengtao, after the pilot of this project was launched, since it is a voluntary behavior, currently about 30%-40% of users are willing to go to the store for inspection. with the continuous advancement of the pilot work, i believe that more users will understand and accept this service.

with the continuous improvement of the "global market product quality monitoring and optimization system", after being able to quickly monitor and gain insight into the product quality status, how to quickly achieve product quality optimization has become the primary task of the product support department. to this end, faw audi proposed to push "user perceived quality" from the market and user end to the product development, production and manufacturing process. in this process, lin gengtao believes that the "same frequency" between departments is very important, that is, all departments can understand the importance of this matter together, and it must be solved and corrected. take product development as an example. in the past, they focused more on technological innovation and made the technology market-leading. but from the perspective of the product support department, the most advanced technology is not necessarily the best for users. with the continuous promotion and running-in of the product support department, the "same frequency" consensus of product development on user complaints is also gradually increasing. at present, faw audi has made a breakthrough in promoting the "direct production" mechanism, simplifying processes and responding agilely, and delivering the market product quality status and end-user needs to the production line as soon as possible, so as to respond and solve the problem on the same day, and improve and optimize product quality more efficiently and quickly.

after breaking through the communication barriers between departments, faw-audi will continue to promote the full-journey technical service upgrade in 2024, and build a quality evaluation system and technical service mechanism from the user's perspective through full-dimensional insights into the voice of users and intelligent analysis of data interoperability. lin gengtao said that the reason for upgrading the full-journey technical service is that the times have changed. it does not mean that users will be satisfied just by repairing the car. taking maintenance as an example, the current improvement is more in the speed of solving product problems and the rate of repeated repairs. for different problems, we will recommend effective solutions to dealers to ensure that they can be repaired in one go.

when talking about the relationship between technical services and product quality, lin gengtao believes that the two complement each other and cannot be separated. good product quality can bring excellent technical service experience, and excellent technical service experience can in turn improve users' evaluation of product quality.

two-pronged approach to achieve simultaneous empowerment of two major "teams"

service consultant workstation at a faw audi dealer (photo courtesy: faw audi)

as we all know, team building and talent cultivation are the core of enterprise development, and the same is true for the product support department. lin gengtao believes that the level of team capabilities is the basis for the development of after-sales service business, but this "team" concept includes two levels, one is the team of our product support department; the other is the dealer team. according to him, faw audi has many online and offline training resources; at the same time, there are opportunities to be sent to the german headquarters for training every year to learn the latest technical maintenance solutions, technical principles, etc.

as for the improvement and training of dealer teams, lin gengtao said that online dealer exchanges will be held every month to deliver the latest maintenance solutions; offline training will be conducted twice a year for dealers, which is more inclined to practical operations to improve dealers' actual maintenance operation capabilities; and a national maintenance case platform will be established, where department employees and dealers across the country will contribute the best maintenance cases and solutions. when encountering difficult and complicated problems, they can go to this platform for inquiry. in this way, not only will the dealer team be empowered, but also professional tools will be provided for them to better serve users.

quality management faces new challenges in the era of intelligence

looking to the future, lin gengtao frankly admitted that with the application and popularization of intelligent automobiles, faw-audi will face many new issues in quality management, such as the application of new technologies, data security, user experience, etc.

the first problem is the reliability of software. lin gengtao believes that intelligent cars rely on complex software systems to achieve functions such as autonomous driving and car networking. how to quickly solve the problem of software reliability is a major challenge, because software is different from mechanical parts and is invisible and intangible. you may find a problem, but it is difficult to find out where the problem is. therefore, we must fix possible bugs in the early stage of software application, and we cannot treat users as "guinea pigs" for experiments. the second is data privacy and security. lin gengtao said that in the era of intelligence, the data generated on vehicles is massive, and how to protect this data from unauthorized access or abuse is very important, which is also a challenge we will face in the future. another point is user experience, including intuitive user interfaces, convenient service functions, etc., so brands need to fully consider users' actual needs and operating habits in the design stage. "we will actively listen to and feel user suggestions and integrate them into optimizing product experience," said lin gengtao.