Chapter 10
Gus's Garage

By Jake Snyder

As Gus and I were driving back to the shop from Charlie’s Café’, we discussed weekly production and how he struggles to get a uniform daily flow of cars delivered. We will first solve the Paint Department work-order problem from last month and then we will discuss "Takt" time and why Gus has to re-condition his operations to compete in long distance races.

Last month we set up new processes to manage the scheduling of "off-line" repairs for the heavy hit jobs performed by Jose. As part of the new process, Jose is now keeping the production work-order package at his station until he completes the final re-assembly steps and sends the car to the Detail Department for final cleaning. But if Jose keeps the work-order package at his station, what do the paint techs use for work instructions?

By substituting a simple half page generic drawing of a vehicle with line and "X" markings to indicate the panels to blend and paint, we implemented a simple visual work-order that eliminates the need to read a line-item printout and the subsequent judgments and discussions needed for blend panels. When handing-off to paint, Jose now records the date and time with a red marker on the new paint work-order and puts it back in the clear plastic work-order sleeve on the dash of the vehicle.

The new paint work-order instructions take just a few minutes to complete by the production manager or the estimator. I got the idea from a small but progressive bodyshop in Tennessee.

Gus decided to use a squiggly half circle mark on the vehicle drawing to indicate a blend-panel and an "X" on a panel to indicate full paint. There were several generic vehicle drawings pre-made to represent different vehicle types (i.e. 2dr, 4dr, suv, pickup).

For supplements, Gus highlights the areas (on the paint work-order) to be painted that are not listed on the repair order. He photocopies the paint work-order after making his "lines" and "X’s" and attaches the copy to a blank supplement sheet. The sheet is then sent (removed words) back to the estimator for processing.

Another simple device, which has reduced delays and communication breakdowns, is the use of a grease pencil to mark the vehicle’s minor damages. For those nicks or scratches that Gus wants to include, but are not on the repair order, Gus will circle the damage areas on the panel with a grease pencil as a repair instruction for the metal tech.

As a vehicle arrives in the paint department, the first action by department personnel is to place the paint work-order on the next empty slot on the display work board. Like Jose, we created a new paint assignment board that is simple and visual. The board has two rows: the top row is labeled "today", and the bottom row is labeled "tomorrow". From left to right, columns are numbered 1 through 6.

Basic work rules were adapted:

• Six vehicles are the maximum number of vehicles painted in a single day.
• Each vehicle entering paint is prioritized for work in the order which it entered the paint shop.
• As each job is completed, the work order is taken off the board, signed-off, and placed back in the vehicle for handoff to the metal tech for final re-assembly.
• Work orders remaining on the assignment board would stay in their original numbered position until the end of the day (blank spaces to the left indicate quantity completed)
• Unless there are no vehicles available, a vehicle is to be prepped and taped for painting at the start of the next day.
• Unless there are no vehicles available, a second vehicle is to be partially prepped for completion the next morning.
• If the metal department is unable to provide the paint department with the two next-day morning vehicles needed to be readied and prepped today, the following day’s paint production will not be expected to produce six-cars without Gus allocating additional resources or over-time.

Like most shops, the majority of Gus’s weekly production output is delivered within the last two workdays of the week. Consequently, the staff is in a sprint-mode by the end of the workweek, often leaving everyone drained. I explained to Gus there are many shops that have overcome this tendency because they have changed their operating point of view or perception of operations.

Gus did not understand what I was talking about. The point I was making to Gus is that his output frequency was not matching the input or demand frequency of his customers. Customers damage their vehicles throughout the day and week. The customer’s average daily demand schedule is totally out of sync with the "in on Monday and out by Friday" operating point of view. Every day of every week Gus’s Garage is consistently trying to force the rhythm of the customer’s demands to match the operating system of Gus’s Garage. His operations have to respond to the customer’s demands, not the other way around.

In order for Gus to compete successfully in the race for customer satisfaction, quality and cost-effectiveness, he has to gear-up his weekly and daily operations to be in rhythm with his customer’s demands. There is a German word for this called "Takt", meaning, "time beat". This is the "beat" at which business operations must produce their goods and services to meet the "demand beat" of customers. Customers must always dictate operating specifications.

Operators, who understand that autobody operations are more of a long distance race and not a series of high-powered weekly sprints, typically have highly profitable businesses that are in control, and often a fun place to work. They are conditioned to run the long distance race. They are not competing with a bunch of high-powered machines that are designed to run sprints and constantly asked to speed-up in order to "keep-up" with the never-ending race.

Gus’s Garage has no rhythm. The daily "beat" of his operation is out of sync with the demand "beat" of his customers. His current average customer demand is approximately 5-cars per day and 1.6-cars per hour.

For next month, I asked Gus to think about the differences between relative costs to compete in a long distance race with sprinters or resources conditioned for the long race. How many high priced funny-cars would it take to compete in a 500-mile Winston Cup Race? Or how many high priced 100-meter sprinters would it take to be competitive in a Marathon Race? How many times would these resources have to start and stop? What would their morale be like if you forced them to compete in a long distance race? Would you complain about poor motivation and an inability to compete because they cost you a princely sum and you know they are the best of the best?

Next month we will look at how Gus has to create a "paradigm shift" within his organization and operating strategy to dance to the "beat" of his customers. Jake Snyder, creator of the popular Gus’s Garage series, is interested in hearing from shop owners with real-life questions. E-mail JJ the Remote Pro, Gus’s intrepid consultant.