At the end of last week, I was planning on discussing Blueprinting out of the gate this week. Then a light bulb came on and I almost missed the big elephant in the corner of the room. What about scheduling/inventory for incoming cars that will require Blueprinting?? Duh Greg! Sometimes I assume too much and forget more shops than not, struggle in this area. Especially right now with the high demand. Most shops back and front parking lots are packed with wrecked cars.
Another issue is, I know there are big shops and small shops to this day, that still bring most of their drivable cars in on Monday. They do this, because that’s just how they have always done it and they continue to kid themselves that these same cars will deliver by Friday. What this creates is pure 100% chaos for every department and especially for the admin staff. Bottlenecks are everywhere and when Friday night finally gets here, everyone is exhausted and just glad the week is over. Then comes Sunday night and they are all trying to suppress the inevitable. I call it the Viscous Cycle, that is going to start all over again Monday am. I just looked at Enterprises Arms website and the average Length Of Rental (LOR) for my market is 18+ days!! I know right now there are some folks reading this that are mumbling, “I could care less how many days the insurer has to pay for the rental!” Funny also, how some insurers still want us to bring in their cars only on a Monday (ha-ha).
Well, my No.1 objective in taking time to make these posts, is to show you how to achieve a near 20% net profit, how to take market share to grow your shop and how to create a culture that makes the work much more fun. So, I would probably pay attention.
The Toyota Motor Company is the largest and most profitable car manufacture in the entire world! This is due to their relentless pursuit to improve the way they do their work EVERY SINGLE DAY. I have been fortunate enough over the years to have some near genius level Lean coaches and some who were former Toyota employees. Not that this is about me, but I was also one of the few outsiders that was permitted to spend some time inside Toyota’s Georgetown, KY plant with their Lean coaches. I do need to give Mike Anderson, Tony Passwater & Axalta’s Steve Trapp a thanks for their initial support in starting me on my Lean Journey back almost 10 years ago now. Most everyone has heard of Lean Manufacturing, and it started at Toyota of course. My point is, we need to look to them for ways to implement their thinking to run our shops better.
In Lean Manufacturing or the real name, The Toyota Production System, there are seven types of waste.
1. Waste of Excess Transport
2. Excess Inventory
3. Unnecessary Motion
4. Waiting
5. Overproduction
6. Over processing
7. Defects.
These seven types of waste sound very familiar inside a body shop, don’t they? The biggest waste is (No.2) Excess Inventory! I had my ah hah moment for my shop, as far as how we scheduled and managed our incoming & onsite inventory (wrecked cars) years back. It was when I saw my numbers on a white board from my Lean coach at the time, John Sweigart. I couldn’t believe what we were doing to ourselves, and I was literally sick to my stomach. It has to do with inputs vs outputs and FIFO (First In First Out).
Next we will dive into some eye-opening & very interesting math, that I will teach you how to apply to your shop. Bring your thinking caps and try to be rested.