Dedicated screens for sales consultants, inventory, business office, service advisors, managers, and TV boards.
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Dealership Ops / Workflow UI / Live Demo
PrepFlow Dashboard
PrepFlow is a role-based dealership workflow dashboard built to keep vehicle prep, paperwork, off-lot pulls, and day-end visibility in one place instead of scattered across whiteboards, memory, and hallway conversations.
PrepFlow dashboard live demo
What it is
A multi-role React dashboard with dedicated views for sales, inventory prep, business office, service, admin oversight, and a TV board for wall-mounted status displays.
What it solves
Vehicle handoffs break down when teams cannot see status changes, ownership, or blockers in real time. PrepFlow keeps each stage visible so work can move without constant check-ins.
How this portfolio version works
The live portfolio build opens in demo mode by default so visitors can explore the workflow safely in-browser without needing backend setup. Server-only AI actions stay off in this version to keep the demo fast and self-contained.
Good showcase moments
The project shines when demonstrating cross-team handoffs, day-end admin review, touch-friendly workflow screens, and the TV board that keeps status visible from a distance.
Proof this concept works
- The workflow is role-based, so each handoff is shown from the actual team view.
- The live demo path removes setup friction and lets reviewers test the flow immediately.
- The same task can be traced from check-in to admin visibility in one walkthrough.
Demo sequence
Tell the story in three moves.
- Start in Sales to show how a prep callback is requested and the delivery clock begins.
- Switch to Inventory to demonstrate the task queue, pause controls, and status updates.
- Move to Admin or TV mode to show how the same workflow stays connected across all stations.
Proof signals
What validates this concept fast.
- Role-specific views map directly to the real departments and handoffs in a CarMax store.
- Visitors can follow a delivery from callback to customer-ready without leaving the browser.
- The TV board view makes accountability visible at a distance — exactly how it works on the floor.
Why it lands
Operational, grounded, and easy to share.
- The problem it solves is real and immediately recognizable to anyone who has worked a dealership floor.
- Demo mode makes it safe to share without backend setup or live data concerns.
- Multi-role switching keeps the walkthrough focused on workflow, not just features.
The Problem
The goal is simple. The coordination to get there isn’t.
In a CarMax delivery flow, the customer-facing moment should feel simple: paperwork ready, car clean, yellow bow on the vehicle, and the customer smiling for pictures before driving away. But behind that moment, several departments have to move in sync.
The bottleneck is the handoff. A prep gets called back to inventory. Inventory waits for the sales consultant to drop it off. Once it is dropped off, inventory is on the clock to get the car prepped, cleaned, staged, and ready. At the same time, the business office needs to know what is coming, what to expect, and whether anything could delay paperwork.
Today, too much of that coordination depends on intercom pages, word of mouth, phone calls, or someone walking over to ask for an update. PrepFlow keeps “out of sight, out of mind” from taking over by making every important step visible in real time across all roles.
Who It’s For
Every department sees what they need to move the delivery forward.
Sales Consultants
A live delivery tracker that shows when prep is called back, when inventory receives the vehicle, when hidden steps are complete, and when the signing booth and customer-ready moment are close. Consultants can keep customers honestly updated, reduce uncertainty, and use the waiting time better instead of wondering where the prep is.
Inventory Associates & Lot Runners
A clear queue of vehicles called back, dropped off, or requested by another department. Once the consultant drops off the prep, inventory is officially on the clock: clean it, stage it, bow it, move it, or flag what is stopping progress — all without relying on intercom pages or radios.
Business Office
Early visibility into what deliveries are coming, where each prep stands, and what may affect paperwork before the customer reaches the signing booth. Prepare ahead of time, pause the process when something is missing, and avoid being surprised at the last minute.
Service Advisors
A simple way to call inventory for service-side tasks — off-lot vehicles, loaners, customer cars, or movement needs — without relying on radios or word of mouth. Inventory can accept, pause, complete, or flag the task so everyone knows what is happening and what is still waiting.
Store Managers
The live operating picture without walking department to department to build it manually. See which deliveries are moving, which are paused, who owns the next step, and where customer wait time may be building. Turn follow-up into coaching: remove blockers, rebalance work, and keep the delivery experience moving.
TV Boards
Large department displays that keep the important work visible. Each team can see what is waiting, what is paused, what just moved forward, and who owns the next step — keeping “out of sight, out of mind” from taking over during busy delivery windows.
Optional add-on
Recon / Service Technicians
For vehicles coming in from auction or trade, Recon can track the rejuvenation process from arrival through service, detail, and front-lot readiness — keeping the inventory team informed without manual check-ins.
Optional add-on
Buyers & Appraisers
Integration with the appraisal system could give buyers visibility into what happens with purchased vehicles after appraisal — including whether a unit is moving smoothly into inventory or needs early attention.
Technical Approach
Built for tablets, text updates, and big department TV boards.
React + Vite + Tailwind CSS
Fast, responsive screens for consultants, inventory, business office, and managers without adding native app deployment overhead. Every view is optimized for tablets and wall-mounted displays.
Firebase-ready
Live sync across role views so an inventory update, business office pause, or completed hidden step becomes visible to the whole team immediately — no polling, no refresh.
Demo mode
A store leader can walk through the full call-back-to-delivery workflow in one meeting: prep called, vehicle dropped, inventory clock started, business office notified, pauses handled, and final delivery cleared.
Multi-store ready
Store-scoped workflow today, with the structure to add district or regional visibility later without a rebuild. Each store runs independently with its own config.
Projected Impact
Small minutes saved across every handoff become real store-level value.
The savings don’t come from one giant change. They come from removing repeated friction: fewer pages, fewer walks across the store, fewer status checks, fewer missed handoffs, and fewer moments where a customer is waiting while the team finds out what already happened.
Using a conservative model of 80–100 delivery and prep handoffs per week, even 10–15 minutes saved per handoff creates roughly 13–25 labor hours back each week. Research on customer wait-time perception (Maister, 1985; Katz et al., 1991; JD Power delivery satisfaction data) consistently shows that visible progress and honest status updates dramatically improve how customers experience the wait — even when total time doesn’t change.
When consultants can explain in real time exactly where the prep stands, the wait feels controlled, honest, and professional — which turns into better CSI scores, stronger referral potential, and fewer customers walking out mid-wait.
Weekly handoffs
80–100
Time saved each
10–15m
Labor hours back
13–25/wk
Annual labor value
$17K–$46K
Labor value at $25–$35/hr
~$325–$875/week
Annual labor value per store
~$17K–$46K
Holding-cost value if prep delays shrink
~$26K–$104K/yr