Your Source for Up-To-Date News and Research on the Collision Repair Industry
click here to subscribe to the FREE INSIGHT Editor's Desk News Alert Email
SUBSCRIBERS-ONLY
Today's News
INSIGHT This Month
INSIGHT Archives
Survey Center
Letter to the Editor
Business Tools
Subscription Information
CSI Reporting
Financial Analysis
IRS Audit Guide
Management/
Technical Info
Market Watch Rates
INSIGHT Inside this month's issue...
Feedback
Letter to the Editor
Tuesday August 30
Advanced Scheduling Tool Added to Mitchell's Solution Portfolio
Mitchell International, Inc., a provider of information and workflow solutions to the automotive insurance claims and collision repair industries, has announced an exclusive partnership with Collision Resources, Inc. to distribute and integrate its CR Auto Scheduler(R) program with Mitchell's UltraMate(R) estimating and ABS(R) business management software.CR Auto Scheduler uses a patent-pending technology that monitors shop capacity and resource utilization and uses advanced logic to schedule repairs more efficiently, resulting in reduced cycle time, increased daily production, and higher customer satisfaction. This latest addition to Mitchell's solution portfolio provides shops with an easy-to-use tool to help them schedule repairs more efficiently, and aims to ultimately help them drive more value from their estimating system and/or ABS.
Many shops struggle with the in-on-Monday, out-on-Friday rush, resulting in less-than-optimal utilization of the shop's resources. Unused capacity means unnecessary overhead, resulting in higher stress levels and longer cycle times. CR Auto Scheduler takes a shop's actual capacity into account, considering the amount of work already scheduled, calculating and adjusting hours to accurately represent the true size of the job, and adjusting for holidays, vacations, or other variations, to produce multiple scheduling options. A multi-location version, CR Auto Scheduler ME, is also available, enabling managers to view scheduled repairs, assign jobs, and review the workload across all locations.
More than a scheduling tool, CR Auto Scheduler learns from past jobs and applies that knowledge when scheduling future repairs. This unique learning ability enables the program to discover the most efficient route jobs can take through the shop -- from start to finish. Its load-leveling capability weighs a shop's pending workload against any unused capacity to make recommendations that will help make the most of a shop's resources, repairing cars with maximum efficiency.
"The Collision Repair Market continues to become more competitive, and with a reduction in the number of claims in the industry, collision repair facilities are looking for tools to maximize the repairs that come into their shop," said Marc Brungger, Vice President - Collision Sales at Mitchell. "By utilizing this scheduling tool, shops are able to ensure each job takes the most profitable and efficient route, producing higher profits and lowering operational costs."
"CR Auto Scheduler is the best thing that's happened to our business to make scheduling easier to manage," said Amy Wilmers at Advance Tec Body Repair of Houghton, MI. "It makes everything run smoother from production to delivery, because everything in the collision repair process is impacted by how the vehicle is scheduled."
Mitchell facilitates millions of electronic transactions between more than 16,000 business partners each month.
Collision Resources, Inc. provides consulting and technology solutions to increase the value of businesses within the collision repair industries of the United States and Canada.
©2005 Collision Repair Industry INSIGHT
All Rights Reserved
FEATURED
LINKS:
INSIGHT Supports the NABC!
Do You?