Investigating the Investigator
Issue
In conducting complaint or other investigations, it is not uncommon for manufacturers to want to find similar investigations conducted by NHTSA—concurrent and historical. Perhaps the best way to find these similar investigations is to view other investigations by the investigator, since typically the same investigator is investigating similar issues.
But for years, there were no available tools in the market that offered the ability to track or provide that information. The only way to gather this information used to be to collect all the investigations ever conducted by NHTSA and manually go through closing resumes for all investigations, and then compile the results “by hand” to sift through.
Until now.
The Datrato Solution
With the emergence of Datrato, what once was a massive undertaking is now a heartbeat and a click away. While viewing any investigation report, simply clicking on the name of the investigator in the “Open/Close Resume” data field opens a report showing all the investigations performed by that investigator. The Open reports allow users to understand the full breadth of investigations that are currently being performed, which provides intelligence on the issues being raised and questions being asked. And the Close reports provide valuable insight into those investigations that have been performed historically, which offers information on manufacturers’ responses to the issues, provides some barometer on how manufacturers responded during the investigation, and gives the user access to closing data on the resultant outcomes.
The user can also click on the Profile Tab to view the Summary Profile for the Investigator.
The Investigator Profile Report shows summary information about the investigator, what he or she has done in the past, show the investigator’s track record, how much time he or she takes on average, what percentage of investigations gets upgraded, what percentage gets recalled, etc. This valuable information, which is not available anywhere else, provides a unique insight into the working of the investigator and helps the manufacturer prepare in dealing with all likely scenarios.
The Profile Report also displays information such as which manufacturers the investigator has investigated, as well as on which components he or she has done the investigations primarily.
Figure 1: Open/Close Resume Section for Investigation Report
Figure 2: Investigator Report
Results
This powerful tool allows Datrato users to have at their fingertips valuable information that most certainly will lead to better analysis—all built right into the easy-to-manage and intuitive interface. What was in the past far too labor-intensive to even consider is now simply another button in the Datrato system.