Light Board Booking System for Vehicle Inspection Wait Time Reduction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Service companies, such as vehicle inspection facilities, face inefficiencies due to the lack of on-site booking systems, leading to long wait times for mechanics and increased costs, as they cannot pre-book inspections and must wait for hours before cars are inspected, reducing productivity.
Innovation Solution
A method and system utilizing a light board with lamps to manage immediate bookings, where professionals can accept or delay bookings within a set time frame by pushing response buttons, allowing for real-time decision-making on booking acceptance or delay, and notifying customers through a common server.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of time
If no on-site booking system is implemented, then the system remains simple and easy to operate, but wait times increase and productivity decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The booking system is segmented into distinct visual components (lamps representing different customers) and functional components (booking push-buttons at customer locations, response push-buttons at service locations). This segmentation allows the system to manage multiple bookings simultaneously through a simple visual interface, reducing wait times without requiring complex centralized control systems.
Solution Approach 2:
The light board acts as an intermediary between customers and service professionals. Instead of requiring direct communication or complex scheduling systems, the light board visually mediates booking requests and responses, enabling simple operation while effectively managing booking times and reducing customer wait periods.
2Productivity
If immediate booking management is implemented, then productivity increases and costs decrease, but the system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables self-service booking management where customers can request immediate bookings by pushing buttons at their location, and service professionals can accept or delay bookings by pushing response buttons. This self-service mechanism eliminates the need for complex scheduling operations or manual coordination, increasing productivity while keeping the system simple to operate.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces complex mechanical or administrative scheduling systems with an optical signaling system using light boards and push-buttons. This substitution maintains simplicity in operation while enabling efficient immediate booking management, thereby increasing productivity without proportionally increasing system complexity.
3Speed
If visual signaling system with lamps is implemented, then booking response time decreases, but system complexity and installation requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts the essential signaling function from complex communication systems and implements it through simple, standalone light boards and push-buttons. By taking out only the necessary visual signaling components and eliminating unnecessary complexity, the system achieves fast booking response speeds while maintaining simplicity in installation and operation.
4Ease of operation
If on-site booking capability is added, then customer service quality improves, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses simple push-button interfaces that replicate familiar booking actions at both customer and service locations. This copying of simple interaction patterns enables easy operation for users while avoiding the need for complex centralized booking systems, thereby improving customer service quality without significantly increasing system complexity.
Data Source
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AI summary
A method (1000) for managing immediate bookings from a plurality of regular customers (RC-1, ..., RC-N) by a service company (10), the method (1000) comprising steps of - requesting (1100) an immediate booking at the service company (10) by pushing a booking push-button (110), - sending (1200) a signal (200) to the service company (10) through a common server (170), - receiving (1300) the signal (200) at the service company (10), where the signal (200) activates a lamp (L-X) among a plurality of lamps (L-1, ..., L-N) representing the plurality of regular customers (RC-1, ..., RC-N) optionally the plurality of lamps (L-1, ..., L-N) are positioned on a light board (120), - responding (1400) to the immediate booking by either - accepting (1410) the immediate booking by not pushing a response push-button (130) paired with the lighted lamp (L-X), or - delaying (1420) the immediate booking for a set period by pushing the response push-button (130) paired with the lighted lamp (L-X), - sending (1500) a response (300) to the regular customer (RC-1) through the common server (170), where the regular costumer (RC-1) is notified about the acceptance or delay of the immediate booking.