Findings October 2001 in Marseille

 

Safety

Safety officer is needed

Gas cylinder

Quality

2000 Quality plan was not followed

Red/Yellow/Green dot plan was initiated

Quality guru is needed

Process for logging instruments problems is not same as Palatine

 

Business Practices

The main problem with securing financing from a French bank is that CleanAirE has not been profitable.

Our French accountant has informed Gerard that CleanAirE salaries are out of line with revenues and that is the main problem with lack of profit.

Gerard would like me to give him guidance on pay raises for staff.

 

Rental

CleanAirE is reinventing procedures that have been already invented by Palatine

Shipping services in Europe makes rental much less dependable for customer.

Rental can not be done profitably using present system due to:

´ Free delivery time if we ship but not if picked up by client or shipped out of Europe.

´ Free weekends and holidays.

´ Easy discounting just for the asking.

´ Stock of common repair parts is not adequate

´ We are financing our customers for 94 days on avg.

´ Shipping problems are normal happening.

´ We are not positioned as a key business partner

´ Every order is quoted by fax

´ Invoices are all generated by hand typing.

´ Conflict of interest between rental of items that are also for sale creates opportunity for customers to easily get discounts.

´ Shop is not neat and organized.

 

Express

CleanAirE is re-manufacturing Palatine product to meet CE mark requirements.

 

Internet

Internet access is slower than escargot.

Engineer and technicians do not have easy access to internet on their PC.

 

Action Items

Standardize on one rental business model using the same software in all countries.

Stock repair parts for normal repair for next 4 months.

Set prices and stick to them. Stop discounting case by case.  Setup special rates for a special group or for meeting defined goals is OK.  Running specials or sales is OK if pre-announced.  BUT do not cut rental prices!

 

Schedule

 

Questions Not Asked

What percent of CEM users in Europe know that we rent instruments?