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Letter to the Editor

Organization 101: A Crash Course

Introduction to shop organization and better use of time

How often do your technicians wander around the shop looking for tools or parts they need?

What percentage of your negative CSI comments is based primarily on miscommunication among shop employees?

How much time do you spend tracking down an employee to ask a quick question?

How many vehicles get delayed in the production process because someone didn't have - or didn't read - the work order or other paperwork?

Are your shop's annual sales per square foot higher or lower than the national average of about $200? And how do they stack up against some of the top shops in the country that produce nearly double that?

If you don't like your answers to these questions, it may be time for some organizational improvements at your shop. And there are likely some efficiencies to gain. One multi-shop operation found that its technicians were wasting as much as two hours per day chasing parts, moving cars, finding tools, and walking to the office to ask questions or to provide supplement information, etc.

Nearly all that time could have been spent fixing cars if the shop and its systems were better organized.

INSIGHT has collected top organizing tips from successful shop owners for your education, and you'll be relieved to note that each suggestion is simple - common sense with little or no expense involved.

If you think that wasting a few minutes here and a few steps there is not worth bothering about, here's an arithmetic story problem to ponder with pencil in hand:

Let's assume that your facility's four technicians are operating at 150 percent proficiency (the low end of the industry average). Each averages 12 flat rate hours in an eight-hour day. At a $35 per hour labor rate, each technician is generating $420 a day in labor sales, or $8,400 in a 20-day month.

Now increase the technicians' proficiency ten percent to 160 percent. To accomplish this, each technician would have to turn 12.8 flat hours each day, less than one additional flat rate hour per day. In that same month of 20 workdays, each technician now generates $8,960 in labor sales. With four technicians, that small boost in proficiency generates an additional $2,240 in labor sales every month.

Mark Cantrell, co-owner and general manager of McLeod Autobody in Kirkland, Wash., likes to think in even smaller increments. He recommends that shop owners look for ways to save their employees just three-tenths of an hour each day.

"We've determined that if we can help a technician complete just three-tenths of an hour more labor a day - just by making sure he has or can find what he needs quickly - that adds up to $3,000 a year," Cantrell said. "Most shops already do the big things that help production. It's the little things that can help you gain that extra three-tenths."

Those small things have paid off for Cantrell's shop, which produces $3.3 million a year in sales out of a 10,500-square-foot facility.

INSIGHT asked Cantrell and other shop owners for simple steps and tips they have found to improve the organization - and thus productivity - of their offices and shop operations. Here's what they suggested:

• Tired of repeating yourself? Create "Top 10" signs for each department, listing the things you find yourself telling people over and over. This might include reminders about signing off on work orders, notifying the office 20 minutes before being ready for the next vehicle, various closing procedures, etc. These signs can be posted in the shop or in employees' stalls or on their lockers.
• Install mirrors in the shop to help technicians check vehicle turn signals and lights without needing someone else or getting in and out of the vehicle.
• Program frequently-used numbers into the speed dial feature of your shop phone system; make sure a current list of other important vendor numbers (scrap metal hauler, garage door repair company, shop alarm company) is posted by every phone.
• Organize your tool room or area, using a marker to outline where each item is to be placed or hung. This makes it more likely that things will be put away where they belong. (Labels are less effective than outlining because different people call things by different names, and because outlining allows you to see quickly what is missing.)
• Provide a supply of repair tags for techs to use to indicate when something isn't working, and designate an area for broken or malfunctioning tools. Even if your techs can find the tool they need quickly, it won't help if those tools aren't working.
• If your facility has an intercom system, make sure it is used to avoid unnecessary trips back and forth between the shop and office. Better yet, provide employees with portable phones or walkie-talkies to help them communicate with one another more easily.
• Ask your parts suppliers to label all parts with the work order number you supply. (A grocery store pricing gun can be used to quickly add a work order number to parts a supplier didn't label.)
• Post a sign explaining your delivery acceptance procedures to compensate for the high turn-over rate of parts delivery drivers.
• Post another sign in the parts area indicating which suppliers have return parts to pick up. Cantrell's sign is wired with lights that can be turned on to indicate which dealers have return parts waiting, but an inexpensive dry erase board can be equally effective. A simple two-part form can list the parts being returned and will make it easy for you and your dealers to make sure you get all credits earned. Require parts drivers to sign the forms when they pick up the returns.
• How much time does your office staff spend running updated work orders out to vehicles? If work orders are not needed immediately, post them next to the time clock for later pick up by the technicians.
• Keep all parts for a particular vehicle - replacement parts and those removed from the vehicle during repairs - together on a parts rack or cart, and tag the cart clearly.
• Include with each vehicle a checklist of items each department must complete and initial before the vehicle can move to the next stage of production.
• Use magnetic, color-coded, and numbered vehicle cones or "hats" to help you identify and locate a particular vehicle. Cantrell's shop also uses these to indicate which vehicles need to be photographed at various stages in the repair process.
• A hand-held halogen light can help detailers spot potential problems in a new finish that might go undetected until the vehicle is outside.
• Give detailers a checklist of items to inspect on every vehicle to prevent something small - a burned-out bulb, for example - from turning a repair into a comeback.
• Place a "jump box" in every room of your shop, so technicians never have to go far when batteries need some help.
• Provide a roll of 36-inch masking paper in every stall, making it convenient for technicians to protect interiors from grinding dust, etc. The time saved in vehicle clean-up will offset the cost of the paper. Keep a hand-held plastic masking machine at every overhead door to help technicians "close-up" a vehicle quickly before it is taken outside.
• Stripe your facility's parking lot and number the spaces. If the area is large, employees may waste precious time wandering around trying to find vehicles. Providing both the RO number and a space number can speed this process.
• Purchase a big supply of fluorescent poster marker pens. Once shops discover these markers, they can't imagine how they got along without them. Used car lots write on windshields with these water-based ink pens, and they are safe for glass and metal. They're great for circling damage you don't want missed, or noting customer "special requests" on vehicles. It's a quick and easy way to make sure everyone gets the warnings, reminders, and information they need about vehicles.
• Use a color-coded tagging system for keys (even as simple as one color for domestic vehicles and another for imports). Hunting for keys can be a major source of headaches and wasted time. Each tag should include the repair order and type of vehicle.
• And you know that set of keys you carry for everything that locks in your shop? The one that if you forget it at home everything comes to a screeching halt? Tag those keys and keep them at the shop in a lockbox for which only you and one other person have a key.
• Furnish your estimating area with a "tool kit" containing rubbing compound, some polish rags and drying towels, a small pry bar or spoon, glass cleaner, and the other items estimators often need to see all the damage or to help a customer quickly.
• Devise a two-part form to keep track of the often headache-producing under- hood labels or other small parts that won't arrive until after a vehicle leaves the facility. One half can be stapled to the cover of the job file or folder (as another reminder to explain to the customer that the part will be coming), while the other half goes to the shop parts department.
• Consider piggybacking a resistance spot welder and a MIG welder one on top of the other for repair procedures that require both types. Cantrell's technicians save time by locating and moving just one piece of equipment for these repairs.

"A lot of people say, 'If I had ten more stalls, let me tell you what I could do,' or 'If I could hire five more technicians, let me tell you what I could do,'" an industry consultant comments. "The real measure of what you 'could' do is what you get out of what you've got. The people who are really successful are the people who can take what they have and get the absolute most out of it."

So, that's INSIGHT's course, Organization 101. Your homework assignment is to implement some or all of the time-saving suggestions outlined above.

The final exam is just one True-False question: "Are you improving your shop's productive use of time by providing a more organized shop environment?" Please grade yourself!   o

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