About Wira Auto Services
Wira Auto Services Sdn Bhd is a vehicle servicing and tyre workshop business founded in 2012 by Encik Roslan bin Ahmad. The company operates nine workshops across Johor Bahru, Kulai and Pasir Gudang, employing 64 staff, of whom 41 are technicians. Together our branches service up to 320 vehicles a day at peak, and the company's annual revenue is approximately RM 18 million.
The twelve months that led to this project
How Wira works today, and what the system changes
This prototype is built in stages. Items marked Planned are not switched on yet; items marked Live already work in this prototype.
How Wira works today
- Every job starts with a handwritten job card in a duplicate book: the customer keeps one copy and the branch files the other. Quotations for repair work are also written by hand and given to the customer at the counter.
- Each branch keeps its parts stock list in a separate Excel file. Branches cannot see each other's stock.
- Technician hours are not recorded. Instead, the foreman estimates how long a job should take and how long it took.
- Customer service history is kept in paper folders at the branch where the work was done.
- Service reminders are made by one clerk at head office who telephones customers from a notebook.
What the system changes
- Live Customers book, change and cancel online, with the number of free bays checked for every time slot.
- Live Digital job cards and quotations, created once and shared across every branch.
- Live One shared inventory with stock visible across all nine branches, with transfers between branches approved by a Manager.
- Live Technicians clock in and out of each job, so hours are measured instead of estimated, and recovery is compared across branches.
- Live Service history follows the customer and is readable at any branch.
- Live Service reminders are worked out from service history; reminders and booking notices are sent by email to customers who opted in.
- Planned SMS and WhatsApp reminders are built and stay switched off until a provider account is connected.
- Live Encrypted nightly backups with a weekly restore test; Planned an offsite copy, which starts when a destination is connected.
Each problem, and where to see the fix
Handwritten job cards and quotations in a duplicate book.
Live Digital job cards and quotations shared across every branch
See the Staff Job Cards page →About RM 410,000 of slow-moving parts sits at one branch, while other branches buy the same items from retail suppliers at roughly a 30% premium.
Live One shared inventory, visible across all nine branches
See the Staff Inventory page →Technician productivity cannot be measured: two branches are suspected of significant under-recovery, but management has no evidence either way.
Live Technicians clock in and out, so hours are recorded for every job, and recovery is compared across branches
See the Staff Technicians page →14% of warranty claims submitted to the vehicle distributor were rejected last year because the service history could not be produced in an acceptable form.
Live Service history follows the customer, readable at any branch, with a printable warranty evidence pack
See the Customer Service History page →The repeat service rate fell from 61% to 44%.
Live Reminders worked out from service history and sent by email to customers who opted in; SMS and WhatsApp stay off until a provider is connected
See the Customer Reminders page →No access controls existed on the branch files. A service advisor who resigned in August took a copy of the customer contact list to a competing workshop.
Live Individual staff accounts, role-based permissions and an audit log
See the Staff User Management page →In November, ransomware encrypted the desktop computer at the Pasir Gudang branch, and three months of job records were lost because no backup existed.
Live Encrypted nightly backups, and a weekly restore test that proves the newest backup can be restored
Planned An offsite copy of every backup, which starts when a destination is connected
See the Staff Security and Backup tab →What the board wants, and what we recommend
The board intends to launch an online booking and service history portal, automated service reminders by SMS and WhatsApp, and bring all nine workshops onto one system.
Two options were considered. Option A is a vendor's cloud-based workshop management system, charged per branch per month, including the customer booking portal and automated reminders. Option B is the operations manager's proposal to extend the Microsoft Access database the company already owns, built years ago by a part-time contractor who is still available at a low hourly rate.
Capital is limited, and the company has never employed a full-time IT staff member, so any system must be affordable, reliable and simple to run without a dedicated IT department. We recommend Option A. This website is the working prototype of that system, with all nine branches on one shared system. Online booking, branch confirmation, digital job cards, quotations, technician time recording, stock transfers, reports, staff account management, encrypted backups with a tested restore, and email reminders are live; the offsite copy of backups, SMS reminders and WhatsApp reminders are not switched on yet.
What is real and what is simulated
Company facts come from the Wira Auto Services case study. Operational data (customers, bookings, staff names, prices, stock) is fictional sample data created for this prototype. This is a working prototype built with Node.js, Express and PostgreSQL. See our privacy notice for how we handle data you enter here.