The Service Department’s method of organizing car repairs will impact the entire operation. A shop who is operating reactively tends to be disorganized as compared to a shop operating with the non-reactive approach. The non-reactive approach means scheduling auto repairs in advance, keeping a record of what repairs needs to be done and scheduling on when repair is to be done. The most important aspect of getting operations organized is knowing what data you need.
With an accurate data on hand your Service Department will run smoothly and one can expect higher efficiency since your technicians already know in advance what are the tasks for the day, increase in profit and sales since you can organize auto repairs, similar tasks can be grouped together and workers can become highly skilled with routine tasks.
These are some of the things that can still be improved in Service Operations:
- Service Capacity – knowing your shops’ ability to finish a task in a day will help determine how many repairs you can schedule. This can be computed by the number of cars for repair/number of labor hours available. Knowing what is your Service capacity will enable you to understand how many auto repairs your team members will be able to finish in a day and if that can still be improved.
- Resource Planning – each employee has their own set of skills or specialty. Knowing what your employees are capable of makes it easier to assign tasks/repairs, just make sure not to overload the person. Assign tasks/repairs based on worker’s specialty so that you are banking on the person’s strength and efficiency, therefore, you can expect higher yield and better output.
- Parts Fulfillment Request – By gathering the right data, the shop will have repair information ahead of time so if certain parts are needed to complete the repair, these can be purchased in advance before the vehicle is brought in for repair. Your shop has prevented lost hours in procurement.
- Customer Appointments – with the data gathered, repair identified and parts needed are acquired. Its easier to schedule the repair. This avoids unnecessary trips on the part of the customer too.
- Appointment Scheduling – if the shop has gathered the right data, identified the repair needed, procure the needed parts to complete the repair and assign the repair to the person skilled at fixing the damage, the Service Department will run like a well-oiled machine.
