Truck Parts and Service | Heavy Duty Trucking, Aftermarket, Service Info
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/93351
Editorial | Denise L. Rondini So You Think You Are Effi cient By Denise L. Rondini, Executive Editor drondini@randallreilly.com D examined each area of your operation to see if there are pockets of waste and redundancy? Saying you are effi cient and actually o you think your business is operating at peak effi ciency? If you answered yes, when was the last time you actually eliminate or at least reduce them. Th is resulted in some signifi cant changes in his shop, some of which required him to spend money. However, he believed these invest- knowing you are effi cient are two diff er- ent things. I recently was speaking to a distributor who also off ers service and the subject of service effi ciency came up. He remarked that labor is a diff erent kind of inventory and that whether you sell it or not, you are paying for it hour aſt er hour. Th at makes it important to not only ments would result in the improved effi ciencies he was seeking. So he laid out cash for liſt ing systems, informa- tion systems, tech management systems and even developed his own scheduling program that includes a visual image of his shops. Th is system allows his service managers to see at a glance which bays sell your labor hours but to be effi cient in selling them. To determine how effi cient his service operation was, this distributor took an in-depth look at his business's repair process including keeping track of things that were not di- rectly related to the repair of the vehicle. He found things like rolling up the garage door, driving the truck outside, parking it, coming back in to the shop and rolling the door back down, took as much as 20 minutes per job. And that did not include the time the technician had to spend tracking down the service manager to fi nd out what his next job would be and then re- peating the process of getting the truck into the bay. By studying the process, this distrib- utor was able to realize where the inef- fi ciencies were and then take steps to 2 the process: "If you can have the truck in the bay so a technicians can move to it when he completes the job he has been on, have everything there he needs for the repair, if it needs to be up on the high liſt have it up, have the hood open, so he just stops the fi rst job and walks over and starts the next one. Th at is the most eff ective use of his time. around that philosophy and has been enjoying increased effi ciency ever since. But it all started with him taking the time to look in depth at all of the Th is distributor built his systems " It is important to not only sell your labor hours but to sell them effi ciently. are in use and which are available. Th e system also allows the service managers to schedule work into a specifi c bay so technicians no longer have to fi nd the service manager to fi nd out what jobs they will be working on next. What was the result of all these things — both big and small — that his technicians do when repairing a vehicle and then determining the best way to eliminate or minimize the things not directly related to "turning a wrench." If you haven't already taken a closer changes? Th e 20 minutes was reduced to fi ve. Now that might not seem like a big deal to you. But remember that is 15 minutes saved per tech per job. I will let you do the math for your facility. One thing is clear: the time saving and resulting effi ciency improvement can be signifi cant and result in your shop being able to actually handle more repairs per shiſt . And we all know that more repairs per shiſt should equal more cash to your bottom line. My distributor friend said this about TRUCK PARTS & SERVICE | October 2012 look at your operation and broken each activity down into steps and then ana- lyzed those steps, I suggest you consider adding that to your To Do List. Remember 15 minutes here, 15 minutes there and soon you are talking real savings. ■ Denise L. Rondini, Executive Editor