Truck Parts and Service | Heavy Duty Trucking, Aftermarket, Service Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/495301
22 Service Bay objectives together," Delaney says. "Stan- dardization was one area where they saw an opportunity to do that." The concept of labor standardization is simple. A service provider selects a number of commonly requested or commoditized service requests and, through market and operational research, sets organizational benchmarks for completing each repair. These standards — one hour for a clutch recalibration, for example — are then used as universal billing bench- marks for all future service requests for that repair. Delaney says three important guide- lines to remember when looking at the viability of standardization in your operation is available repairs, technician performance and implementation. Standardized repairs should be repairs you know your techs can perform and you know your customers need. Pre- ventive maintenance and simple parts installations are repairs ripe for stan- dardization, but specialized service is not immune to normalization. Any service your business is capable of completing at a consistent speed and level of performance can be standard- ized, says Sean Ryan, vice president at Point Spring & Driveshaft. Services where your operation lacks consistency or expertise should be avoided. When selecting a repair for standard- ization it's also important to consider the team you'll rely on to perform the service. If you only have two techs capable of performing a specifi c repair, it's probably not a good idea to offer that service at a standard rate. Conversely, training tech- nicians to perfect a certain repair may allow you to hit an average labor time, but unless you can ensure you'll always have your facility staffed with those tech- nicians, standardization might not be in your best interest. Implementation matters, too. Once T R U C K P A R T S & S E R V I C E | A p r i l 2 0 1 5 Top Customer Concerns When Outsourcing Service Statistics courtesy of MacKay & Company. Quality of Service Cost Downtime Reliability/Accountability Other Quality of Parts Distance Warranty Issues Parts Availability 26% 26% 24% 8% 6% 4% 3% 2% 1% Point Spring & Driveshaft has built detailed customer-facing processes in its parts and service departments to improve effi ciency and customer uptime.