COMPANY ANALYSIS

iWash Auto Care Sdn. Bhd.

TECHNOLOGY ENTREPRENEURSHIP (ENT600) : CASE STUDY

FACULTY & : FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE, PLANNING AND SURVEYING

PROGRAMME : BACHELOR OF QUANTITY SURVEYING (HONS) AP224
SEMESTER :5
PROJECT TITLE : CASE STUDY OF IWASH AUTO CARE SDN BHD
GOUP MEMBERS 1. WAN HAZIQ AZRI BIN WAN MAHAZIR (2017488748)
2. MOHAMAD NIZAMUDDIN BIN MOHD YUNOS ( 2017488818)
3. MOHAMED AFIFI DANIEL BIN MOHAMED AZMAN (2017488582)
4. MUHAMMAD NIZAR BIN SELAMAT (2017488512)
5. IZZUL AZRI BIN ISMAIL (2017488416)
LECTURER : DR. HARDY LOH
GROUP : AP224 5G
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Alhamdulillah praises and thanks to Allah because of His Almighty and His Utmost blessings,
we were able to finish this case study within the time duration given. We would like to take this
opportunity to express our gratitude and indebtedness to our beloved parents and family for
their unconditional love and support throughout this whole process.

A special thanks goes to our lecturer, Dr. Hardy Loh for giving us the opportunity to embark
on this project. Thank you for all the constructive comments and long discussions that enable
us to complete this work.

Last but definitely not the least, we would like to express the deepest appreciation to all our
peers who have helped us with this case study.

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Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ...........................................................................................................1

1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ......................................................................................................3

2. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................4

2. 1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY ....................................................................................................... 4

2.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT ........................................................................................................... 4

2.3 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY ......................................................................................................... 4

3. COMPANY INFORMATION .................................................................................................5

3.1 BACKGROUND OF COMPANY ................................................................................................. 5

3.2 ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE ............................................................................................... 5

3.3 SERVICES OFFERED ................................................................................................................. 6

3.4 TECHNOLOGY USED ................................................................................................................ 6

3.5 BUSINESS, MARKETING, AND OPERATIONAL STRATEGY ........................................................ 6

3.6 FINANCIAL ACHIEVEMENT ...................................................................................................... 7

4.0 COMPANY ANALYSIS .......................................................................................................9

4.1 SWOT ANALYSIS ..................................................................................................................... 9

5. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ............................................................................................11

6. RECOMMENDATION AND IMPROVEMENTS ....................................................................14

7. CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................................15

8. REFERENCES ....................................................................................................................15

9. APPENDICES ....................................................................................................................16

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1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

iWash Auto Care Sdn. Bhd. is a company located at Shah Alam. This company mainly provide
car detailing services from exterior to interior cleaning. In this report, we study the background
of company, organisational structure, products and services offered, current technology use,
and financial achievement that are involved in this company. We also analyse some aspects
of the company such as the strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats. In addition, we
have recommended some alternative solutions for the major problems that is faced by the
company. These alternatives can be practised by owner for the purpose of business progress.

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2. INTRODUCTION

2. 1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY

This case study examines the strengths and weaknesses of iWash Auto Care Sdn. Bhd. and
mainly discusses the problems and solutions to them. It also acts as an account of an activity,
event or problem that contains a real or hypothetical situation and includes the challenges and
difficulties that the company face in the business world. Case studies are used to help iWash
Auto Care Sdn. Bhd. to see how the difficulties of real life influence decisions making. The
term of case study refers to both a method of analysis and a specific research design for
examining a problem. Analyzing a case study requires us to practice applying our knowledge
and our thinking skills in a real situation. To learn from a case study analysis, you will be
―analyzing, applying knowledge, reasoning and drawing conclusions (Kardos & Smith, 1979).
This case study will analyse a real-life situation exist in the iWash Auto Care Company where
existing problems need to be solved. The steps involve in studying this company case is by
identifying the problem. Then, the serious problems are selected to be the major problems in
the case. We will then suggest some solutions to those problems and the problems will be
relating the theory to a practical situation. Finally, best solution is selected and to be
implemented.

2.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT

In order to be a successful company, we want to know how the existing company has been
established as a whole company. What makes the company strong enough to compete with
the others? When the company facing any problems, what should they do to make sure the
company overcome the problems? Besides, we are curious to know what is the actual product
or service that the company has provided.

2.3 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

This exploratory study examined the internal and external of iWash Auto Care Company. It
mainly discusses the problems and solutions to them. Furthermore, to help iWash Auto Care
Sdn. Bhd. to see how the difficulties of real life influence decisions making. The company also
can identify factors that influence the functioning of the organizations providing very useful
information in the strategic planning process.

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3. COMPANY INFORMATION

3.1 BACKGROUND OF COMPANY

iWash Auto Care is one of the car detailing specialists that founded in 2009. They began their
establishment during early 2007 by operating in a small scale around the neighborhood
without an official license and workshop. Along with the economic progress, the founder
started to shift his business to a bigger scale targeting bigger market. iWash Auto Care offering
many ranges of professional restoration services, each carried out to the utmost level of care
and quality. Within just a year, they had successfully expand their target market to drivers
around Shah Alam and Subang Jaya.

As we already know, every company have their own goals in order to success in the long-term
period and to serve the market well. iWash Auto Care mission to be a world-class car detailer,
providing both professional and high quality services to customers through the latest
technology equipment. At the same time, they will ensure that the customers will receive the
best services from the trained and experienced workers.

3.2 ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE

Managing Director
Tee Yee Xiang

Director
Nazrul Abdullah

Staff Leader

Cashier

Staff Staff Staff Staff

Figure 1: Organisation Chart for iWash Auto Care Sdn. Bhd.

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3.3 SERVICES OFFERED

iWash Auto Care mainly provide services for polish and wax any categories of vehicles.
Besides, they also sell some of the cleaning products they used upon the customer’s request.
What ordinary about this company is that they can clean not only the exterior, but also the
interior of the car which includes the cushion wash whether it is fabric or leather, the
dashboard, the carpet, and also the door panel. They also provide free consultation regarding
the problems on finishing of the car that some customers are facing. The employees are well
trained since the company provide effective training program to improve their car cleaning
skills and knowledge. Moreover, iWash Auto Care also provide services ranging from normal
car wash and vacuum, engine clean, Carnauba waxing, windscreen polish and shine, tar
removal, and headlamp shine.

3.4 TECHNOLOGY USED

Since iWash Auto Care is focusing on cleaning the interior of the car, it is a must for them to
own and equipped with the latest machines. Currently, they already own Soteco Lava, a carpet
spray extraction cleaner. This vacuum able to clean the interior fabrics and carpet of a car.
For normal vacuuming, they use EUROPOWER VAC8002, which able to clean extreme dust
particles in a car without hassle. For exterior cleaning, they use Lida Air Compressor
connected to special water hose to spray water and shampoos.

3.5 BUSINESS, MARKETING, AND OPERATIONAL STRATEGY

iWash Auto Care operates every day except public holiday. They operate for twelve (12) hours
from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. with an hour break for each employee with turns. In line with the
technological trend, iWash Auto Care have their own Facebook and Instagram page which
frequently updated with latest activities and promotions. They also subscribe to Facebook and
Mudah Ads to promote their business more to the society.

Normally, they offer promotions especially during festive seasons as it can maintain good and
loyal relationship with the customers. Besides, they also offer a discounted price of car wash
including vacuum to students as the location of their premise is populated by this group. In
order to be different compared to other their competitors, they offered many packages which
suits the customer preferences.

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3.6 FINANCIAL ACHIEVEMENT

As the result of the study, we found that iWash Auto Care usually achieve their financial
target. The expense allocated on the washing products actually set the limit of their income
which they could have gain a bigger profit. After discovering that their financial statement
could be more profitable, we can conclude that they should have improvement in terms of
their operational strategies, in order to gain more profit for their company.

However, these are their financial statement that shows the net profit gained by iWash Auto
Care every month :-
Weekdays : Minimum 20 cars
Weekends : Minimum 25 cars
Normal Carwash : RM10.00
Water Coating Carwash : RM30.00

Income

Say, minimum half cars opt for water coating carwash per day.

Weekdays (Normal Carwash) = RM10.00 x 10cars

Weekdays (Water Coating Carwash) = RM30.00 x 10 cars
Total per day = RM400.00 / day x 5 days / week
Total per week = RM2,000.00 / week

Weekends (Normal Carwash) = RM10.00 x 13 cars

Weekends (Water Coating Carwash) = RM30.00 x 12 cars
Total per day = RM490.00 / day x 2 days / weekend
Total per week = RM980.00 / week

Total per week = RM2,000.00 + RM980.00

= RM2,980.00 x 4 weeks / month
Total per month = RM11,920.00 / month

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Expense
Salary per month : RM1,000.00 / worker x 6 workers
Premise rental charge : RM2,000.00 / month
Utilities bill : RM500.00 / month
Products : 5% of the monthly income
: RM11,920.00 x 5%
: RM596.00
______________________________
Total expense = RM9,096.00 / month

Net Profit = Income – Expenses

= RM 11,920.00 – RM 9096.00
= RM2,824.00

Percentage Return on Investment

= Net profit
x 100
Expense
= 31.05%

As conclusion for this section, it shows that the profit gained by iWash Auto Care achieve
the financial satisfaction. The percentage of ROI gained is around 31% which shows that it is
profitable. Usually, competitors in carwash business could gain from 15% - 45% of ROI.
However, it is suggested to promote their business more aggressively to attract more cars
per day. Increasing orders could increase the revenue of this whole company.

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4.0 COMPANY ANALYSIS

4.1 SWOT ANALYSIS

Strengths Weaknesses
(S1) Good online marketing (W1) Weak marketing strategies
(S2) Varieties of packages (W2) Slow drying process

Opportunities Threats
(O1) Venture into cleaning contracts (T1) Services by competitors
(O2) Produce own cleaning products (T2) Rapidly changing technology

Table 1: SWOT analysis table

A) Strength

(S1 ) Good online marketing

One of the strengths is that iWash Auto Care has good online marketing strategy where they
use many platforms to promote their business. They have their own website that provide
sufficient information about their company and contact information. For social media, they use
the most current apps, which are Facebook, Instagram, Facebook Ads, and Mudah Ads. This
platform is widely used and obviously, it is an effective way to promote every business that
ever existed in this world.

(S2) Varieties of packages

The second strength they have is varieties of packages offered. The 3-tier packages suits the
customers budget and preferences. Normally, customers like students would opt for the
cheapest package which enough to keep them comfortable for a journey in a cleaned car.
Meanwhile, customers with luxury cars would opt for the most expensive package. The
different between these packages is the products used and the time spent for the detailing
services. This shows their efforts toward customer need and preferences

B) Weaknesses

(W1) Weak marketing strategies

It is true that iWash Auto Care have already use most of social media platforms to introduce
and promote their business. However, we noticed that some are still missing that make their

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business are not recognisable enough. They stated that they do not use any negative
marketing such as viral marketing as they do not want to portray any negative image that could
tarnished their business's name. Without they realised, this viral marketing strategy is effective
in boosting their company's name and recognition in the eye of the customers.

(W2) Slow interior cleaning process

Their services are mainly including cleaning the carpets, sofa and even the seats. Using their
special equipment, the cleaning process is usually short and effective, however the only
drawback is the slow drying process. This process of drying the carpets or fabrics is time
consuming. It also depends on the weather.

C) Opportunities

(O1) Venture into cleaning contracts

The company is ready and willing to strive to exploit the identified opportunities. Venturing into
any cleaning contracts would lighten up their company’s image and also maintain their
financial incomes. Thus, they need to form strategic alliance with other players in the industry

(O2) Produce own cleaning products

If they have their own cleaning products, they can reduce their dependency towards the
supplier. Besides, they would also be different and stand out from the other competitors. In
order to grab this opportunity, they firstly need to team up with other players in other industry
sectors and attract employees with other sills and knowledge to diversify activities

D) Threats

(D1) Services by competitors

Companies out there are growing and competing aggressively where they provide similar
products and services that can meet customer needs and wants. This could be a main threat
for them since they are in the same industry.

(D2) Rapidly changing technology

The rapid pace of technological and digital changes is the biggest challenges for technology
related business. To ensure that they can get their work done within a short period time with
utmost quality, iWash Car Care used the latest technology. Despite that, it is not competent
enough and hard for them to keep up with the technological changes, as the latest technology
require them to invest lots of money.

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5. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

5.1 Findings

While trying to be a well-known and higher standard company, iWash Auto Care already faced
some problems which lack of marketing strategies are, slow drying process, and unable to
keep up with recent technology. These problems somehow have become a barrier that is
preventing them from achieving satisfactory services, an outstanding company's performance,
and splendid sales. Therefore, this case study is done to put those problems to end in order
to assist in their production and performance.

Marketing strategy problem

From our observation, we can see that iWash Auto Care did not really get that much
recognition from society out there, as they are focusing their business only within their
premise. They do not apply the on-call delivery carwash with people outside their premise as
other competitors did. The location of their premise is good enough, but they failed to attract
more customers since large number of potential customers prefer to go to automated carwash.
This is because people can save time as automated carwash operate at a fast pace. In
addition, iWash Auto Care did not use any negative marketing where it is actually effective in
boosting the company's name and recognition towards society. As we all know, people age
ranges from 18-40 years old are the main social media user compare to senior citizens who
are not really expose to digital world.

Slow interior cleaning process

Their services are mainly including cleaning the carpets, sofa and even the seats. Using their
special equipment, the cleaning process is usually short and effective, however the only
drawback is that the drying process because they do not have the equipment that helps to
hasten the drying process, which takes 1 – 2 hours to dry. Besides, it also depends highly on
the weather. Their drying process have to be perfect in order to prevent white spots emerging
caused by chemicals that does not dried at the specific needed time.

Technology and financial issue

Technology issue is a common problem to companies that use technology in their daily
operations and this happened to iWash Auto Care. The technologies are changing rapidly,
and it is hard for them to keep with the recent one, as it requires them to invest a lot of money.
This problem can be solved if it is addressed with the right way.

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5.2 Discussion

From the findings, we can summarise that the major problems are marketing strategy problem
slow drying process and technology issue.

Starting with the marketing problem, iWash Auto Care can choose any social media, make it
the main channel, and be great at it. Whatever they choose as their best option, put most of
energy into that channel by providing information to their targeted customers. Now this does
not mean iWash Auto Care should not be active on multiple other channels, but it does mean
that the “centre of gravity” should exist on their core platform. They will be surprised and
amazed on what will happen when they leverage this kind of focus. Besides, iWash Auto Care
should try the negative marketing strategy such as viral marketing since it is the fastest way
to spread information to others. This concept may look nasty, but it is very effective these
days. Next, they should get laser-focused on customers’ desire. Instead of primarily focusing
about services that they are trying to deliver, focus first on what the customer are looking for
to get out of the content they provide.

Their interior cleaning process consists mainly on vacuuming, scrubbing and spraying in the
surfaces. Firstly, they will vacuum all surfaces that has light dirt and dusts to allow the
chemicals to enter the fabric effectively, usually by spraying. After vacuuming and spraying
they will scrub the surfaces such as seats/carpets with a simple brush. The scrubbing part
seems to slow down the cleaning process a bit, due to not having special scrubbing machine.
After the scrubbing is done, they will use a specialise vacuum to suck all the dirt and grime
from the seat and carpet, and after which the drying process will be executed. The drying
process are the longest due dependency of the sun. This is very time consuming in order to
achieve the top quality of cleaning. iWash Auto Care should have an equipment that can blow
hot air and powerful fabric dryer. With this technology, it would ultimately save their operating
time without wasting it on drying under the sun. Besides, it would also prevent white spots
emerging caused by chemicals that does not dried at the specific needed time.

Moving on to technology and financial issue. iWash Auto Care face problem, which they
cannot keep up with the recent technologies due to insufficient resources. They do have big
plans in the future, but they hardly find optimal solutions to overcome this. The current
technology that they had now is good enough but in the future, they might as well need more
advance technology. At this point, the question is how do they addressed this problem? One
of the alternative solutions that we can think of is co-creation. This idea is to find non-
competitive companies that are also targeting the same customers as them and work together

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to develop more promotions. They can find non-government companies to collaborate with
and create more promotions such as handling events, and campaigns. Even though this
alternative quite burdensome but by doing this, they can get more recognition from others and
can increase their sales and consequently they will have enough capital to provide more
advance technology.

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6. RECOMMENDATION AND IMPROVEMENTS

Based on these major problems, we recommend that iWash Auto Care need to put lots of
efforts on equipping to the latest technology to make their company align with the technology
pace. This is because the main technological problem that iWash Auto Care dealt with is only
that they cannot spent too much time on the interior cleaning process. The reason behind this
is water presents in a wet fabric seats or carpets are hard to be vacuumed even with powerful
industrial wet and dry vacuum. They usually vacuum the general surface of the carpet first
before drying it under the sun. If the operation falls on a rainy day, they don’t provide the
cushion or carpet cleaning service.

The way to ensure the efficiency of the cleaning services provided by the company is to equip
with sufficient heated air blow to improve the drying rate while controlling the cleanliness of
the interior of the car. This is because heat and air flow contribute greatly for drying surfaces.
iWash Auto Care should have an equipment that can blow hot air and powerful fabric dryer.
With this technology, it would ultimately save their operating time without wasting it on drying
under the sun and able to provide the service even on rainy day. Besides, this technology
would also prevent white spots emerging caused by chemicals that does not dried at the
specific needed time. If the technology is available and be equipped with this company, iWash
Auto Care would easily eliminate threats from the competitors or even from automated car
wash because as we all know, automated car wash does not provide interior cleaning services
for the time being.

Other than that, another improvement suggested for this company is to invest in a power tool
to ensure that the seat is brushed evenly and constantly throughout the whole surfaces. Invest
in equipment that will help to improve the cleaning quality as well as saving extra time and
energy.

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7. CONCLUSION

Briefly, we can conclude that any problems that exist in this world have their own solutions to
solve them. In this case, iWash Auto Care faced difficulties regarding their marketing strategy,
technology, and financial problem. Therefore, this company need to take further actions before
the problems get serious and could affect the entire business.

iWash Auto Care only need to initiate actions to be in place to leverage their strength,
overcome their weaknesses, strive to exploit identified opportunities, and to address threats.
If actions are taken, iWash Auto Care will achieve their mission which to provide the best car
detailing services at town with affordable price. If the mission is achieved, the current vision
which to expand branches all over the city including producing their own cleaning products
line-up would be clear to see.

8. REFERENCES

Abdullah, N. (2018). Company information and problems faced.

Kardos, G., & Smith, C. O. (1979). On writing engineering cases. In Proceedings of ASEE
National Conference on Engineering Case Studies (pp. 42-50).

Mindtools.com. (2018). SWOT Analysis – Discover New Opportunities, Manage and

Eliminate Threats. [online] Available at:
https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC_05.htm [Accessed 10 Oct. 2018].

Fraile A. (2018). What Is Viral Marketing? Advantages and Examples. [online] Available at:
www.cyberclick.es/numericalblogen/what-is-viral-marketing-advantages-and-examples.
[Accessed 10 Oct. 2018]

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9. APPENDICES

Figure 2: iWash Auto Care premise.

Figure 3: Business card and free wash coupon

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 Figure 4: Services and packages offered.

Figure 5: Products used for cleaning services

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 Figure 6: Air compressor to spray water and soaps.

Figure 7: Soteco Lava, a carpet spray extraction cleaner

Figure 8: EUROPOWER VAC8002, industrial vacuum.

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