Mercedes Benz's E-Biz Solution: The Factory Delivery Reservation System

"One of our most fundamental goals in developing the system was to strengthen and market the Mercedes-Benz brand in the United States. The fact that we would be one of the first car manufacturers in the United States to have a factory delivery program would be seen as a very positive thing in this regard."

- William Engelke, Assistant Manager, IT Systems, Mercedes Benz US International, commenting on the FDRS.

Linking Customers

By 2000, Mercedes Benz United States International (MBUSI), builder of the high-quality M-Class sports utility vehicle (SUV), established itself as a company that also delivered superior customer services. One such service was the delivery option where by the customer could take delivery of the vehicle at the factory in Alabama, US.

The program called the Factory Delivery Reservation System (FDRS), enabled MBUSI to create and validate 1800 orders per hour. FDRS also automatically generated material requirements and Bills of Material¹ for 35,000 vehicles per hour. The Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution that made FDRS possible was based on Lotus Domino² and IBM Netfinity³ server⁴.

Analysts felt that with its innovative use of the new program, MBUSI not only managed to improve its customer relations by providing the best service, but also demonstrated its commitment to customers by making them an integral part of the process. Customers were, in a way linked directly to the factory floor – which was a powerful sales tool.

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1] Bill of Material keeps track of all raw materials, parts, and subassemblies used to create a finished product.

2] A product of IBM Corp., Lotus Notes and Domino R5 are the industry's leading client/server combination for collaborative messaging and e-business solutions.

3] The IBM Netfinity server offers solutions for file-and-print and application computing needs.

4] A computer or device on a network that manages network resources. For example, a file server is a computer and storage device dedicated to storing files. Any user on the network can store files on the server. A print server is a computer that manages one or more printers, and a network server is a computer that manages network traffic. A database server is a computer system that processes database queries.

Case Details

Case Code : ITSY009
Themes: e-Supply Chain Management
Case Length : 06 Pages
Period : 1990-2001
Organization : SciQuest.com
Pub Date : 2002
Teaching Note : Available
Countries : USA
Industry : Information Technology (Electronic Commerce)

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