Engineering Information (EI) Process

This bulletin is being revised to add model years. Please discard Corporate Bulletin Number 04-00-89-053A (Section 00 -- General Information).

In an effort for continuous improvement, General Motors has a need to obtain technical information first hand from the dealer technician. It is often critical to obtain specific information prior to or during the repair process. As a result, this information will be used by Engineering to help "root cause" the customer's concern and develop/validate a field fix.

General Motors recognizes that the success of gathering timely and accurate information is dependent upon the dealer technician. Because of this need, General Motors uses a process identified as "Engineering Information." This process will allow General Motors to compensate the dealer/technician for their time and effort to provide critical information.

The following will describe the process of how an "Engineering Information" item will work.

1. A message will be sent to the Service Manager via Dealerworld (U.S.) or a Dealer Communication e-mail (Canada) announcing the Engineering Information item.
2. A service bulletin will be written explaining the purpose and specific information to be gathered. The bulletin will be released in SI.
3. Vehicles that qualify for the Engineering Information will be "flagged" with an EI code in the GMVIS system.

Important: If the flagged EI is NOT the same as the customer's concern, no further action is required. An EI is not the same as a Recall and is not required to be performed on a vehicle unless it matches the customer concern.

4. When the Service Advisor runs a GMVIS on the vehicle and notices the vehicle has been flagged for an Engineering Information, and this is the same as the customer's concern, the Advisor should identify the EI # on the R.O. for the technician's information and attach a copy of the GMVIS screen to the R.O.
5. The technician will need to reference/print the appropriate EI bulletin from SI prior to beginning to repair the customer's vehicle.
6. The technician should complete the Engineering Information per the instructions in the bulletin.
7. At the completion of performing the EI, the EI will provide the technician with specific directions to relay the information to the Engineer.
8. A unique labor operation is set up for each Engineering Information issue. This labor operation includes time to repair the vehicle as well as time to compensate the technician for the additional diagnostic time. The technician will need to document the labor operation and time on the repair order for the Warranty Administrator's reference.
9. The Warranty Administrator should submit the claim using the labor operation provided in the bulletin.
10. Once Engineering has determined that they have collected enough information, the EI will be removed from the GMVIS system.
11. Once an EI shows closed/removed from the GMVIS system, it is no longer necessary for the technician to collect information for Engineering. A dealer/technician will not be paid for their time on any cases set after the EI has been closed/removed in GMVIS.
12. When Engineering has a field fix developed/validated, the EI bulletin will be updated to a Technical Service Bulletin that will contain the field fix information.