Truck Parts and Service | Heavy Duty Trucking, Aftermarket, Service Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/495301
Mike Delaney, president and CEO at WheelTime, says his network has sup- ported the use of rapid diagnostic bays since its inception. By immediately get- ting a truck scanned for fault codes and problems, he says WheelTime's members are able to identify the scope of the repair they have ahead and begin acquiring the parts and tools they need. An immediate diagnosis also helps when it's time to push repair orders out into the shop. When you know exactly what's wrong, it's easier to know which tech is best trained and equipped to fi x it, Ernst says. "Most techs don't like getting pulled off a job without warning," he says. "But if we know one of our guys will need to do a specifi c repair, we can let him know so he can prepare." 2 Maximize common areas Spacing throughout your facility matters, too. New facilities should always be built to allow easy entrance and exit from bays, include wide passageways and be equipped with ample storage space, says Mark Martincic at KEA Advisors. Management of space is doubly im- portant in existing facilities. Just because you can't expand your facility doesn't mean you can't better use the space you have. A thorough cleaning and reorgani- zation of a messy facility is a great way to improve productivity, Martincic says. "The objective is to arrange the ele- ments [of a service shop] in a way that ensures a smooth work fl ow or a particu- lar traffi c or process pattern," he says. One obvious benefi t comes in how employees move about your facility, he says. Pathways from service bays to tools, machinery, parts and recycling or trash bins should always be easily accessible and clean. This allows technicians, service writers and parts procurement staffers to freely move about the facility without bottle- necks or accessibility issues. Removing clutter from a service facil- ity also dramatically cuts down on time wasted searching for a specifi c part or product. APEX Supply Chain Technologies has two particular vending and storage prod- ucts geared specifi cally toward assisting service providers with shop organization, says Kent Savage, president and CEO. Savage says APEX's vending products in particular allow repair facilities to condense large quantities of high-volume parts such as widgets, kits, bolts and belts, as well as small tools and dispos- able shop supplies in small areas. And in the case of both its vending machines and larger locker products, Savage says all of APEX's products have the ability to log and track all vending history. "Searching a shop looking for a tool because nobody knows who has it wastes an awful lot of time," he says. "Our tech- nology can show who checked out a tool, and when." Martincic says training department heads and shift managers on the value of cleanliness also can go a long way toward overall performance improvements. In larger facilities, appointing an employee to be a cleanliness czar or small team to a cleanliness committee helps ensure that all employees are regularly aware of their responsibility to shop appearance. Creating a regular cleaning schedule for all employees to follow helps, too, says Mark Rubini, president at Toledo Spring. "The work we're doing is very dirty and greasy but that doesn't mean the shop has to be," he says. "I've always been told our place looks pretty clean for the kind of work that we do and that's good to hear. "It's not spotless by any means, but people aren't falling over anything be- cause of clutter, either." 3 Keep your techs in the bay This is a big one. Equip your bays with as many tools and parts as can reason- ably fi t — and assign other employees to provide what doesn't — so your techni- cian has no reason to leave his workspace during a typical day. Overlooking that central clause can 13 Cover Story W W W . T R U C K P A R T S A N D S E R V I C E . C O M A p r i l 2 0 1 5 | T R U C K P A R T S & S E R V I C E Providing technicians with necessary tools and equipment is one great way to improve service effi ciency, as shown in this photo courtesy of the WheelTime Network.