Skip to main content
EVENT TRACKER
Keep track of rescheduled, canceled industry events with our COVID-affected event tracker - Powered by Snap Finance
Close
Sister Publication Links
  • Rubber & Plastics News
  • European Rubber Journal
tb-logo
Subscribe
  • Login
  • Register
  • Subscribe
  • News
    • OPINION
    • CORONAVIRUS
    • AUTO INDUSTRY
    • BUSINESS/FINANCIAL
    • COMMERCIAL TIRE
    • FACTORY FIXES
    • GOVERNMENT & LAW
    • INTERNATIONAL
    • MOTOR SPORTS
    • NEW PRODUCTS
    • RETAIL TIRES
    • SERVICE ZONE
    • SEMA/AAPEX
    • SMALL BUSINESS
    • TIRE MAKERS
    • SPONSORED CONTENT
    • TBC Corp. to make donation to company charity to reward vaccinated employees
      Titan to offer free COVID-19 vaccines at Iowa facility
      Bridgestone hosts vaccination events for plant employees
      Cioffi: Will remote working be the new normal?
    • SEMA closes deal for SEMA Garage property in Michigan
      Conti adding dynamic driving simulator at German R&D center
      Yokohama gains OE fitments on BMW, Mercedes-AMG sport utilities
      SEMA picks site in Michigan for 2nd SEMA Garage
    • Pirelli adds 3rd North American bicycle tire distributor
      Goodyear goes retro for 'Throwback' NASCAR race at Darlington Raceway
      Keter to expand NeoTerra SKUs through mid-2022
      Federal approved as 5th Formula Drift tire supplier
    • Fisher: Expect robust recovery in last half of year
      Vipal targets North America for machinery sales growth
      Commercial tire, retreading sectors on solid footing
      JK Tyre adds radial truck tires to U.S. portfolio
    • New York chipping in $3M+ toward Sumitomo factory expansion
      SBA extends and expands COVID-19 loan program
      Stimulus spending should help tire industry
      U.S. agro-science firm gets $1M grant to research sunflower latex
    • Bridgestone to upgrade Japanese OTR tire plant
      Point S Canada signs point-of-sale agreement with Flexiti Financial
      Fountain Tire promotes pair to new executive roles
      ETRMA adding Nexen and Czech and Slovak trade groups to membership
    • Goodyear goes retro for 'Throwback' NASCAR race at Darlington Raceway
      Federal approved as 5th Formula Drift tire supplier
      Maxxis offers discount to ChampCar competitors
      Michelin strikes supply deals with new Canadian racing series
    • Yokohama OHT adds severe-duty solid tire to Galaxy brand
      Bosch adds 22 aftermarket parts in Q1
      Snap-On introduces TreadReader handheld tire scanner
      Vogue Tyre introduces ‘biggest, boldest' red stripe tire
    • Point S Canada signs point-of-sale agreement with Flexiti Financial
      WTC webinar to address tire/wheel-balancing process errors
      Commercial tire, retreading sectors on solid footing
      TBC Corp. to make donation to company charity to reward vaccinated employees
    • Fisher: Expect robust recovery in last half of year
      Bosch adds 22 aftermarket parts in Q1
      Marinucci: Detailed instructions will save time
      Bartec introduces TPMS software updates
    • WTC webinar to address tire/wheel-balancing process errors
      SEMA closes deal for SEMA Garage property in Michigan
      SEMA picks site in Michigan for 2nd SEMA Garage
      SEMA touts expanded Las Vegas Convention Center ahead of 2021 expo
    • SBA extends and expands COVID-19 loan program
      Stimulus spending should help tire industry
      Giti disputes report blasting tire maker for accepting PPP funds
      SEMA survey shows resilient auto aftermarket in 2020
    • Coopers are ready to rock: Cooper Tire, Alice Cooper seek best garage band
      Last Mile: Delivery surge raises demand for medium truck tires
      Nexen touting manufacturing quality milestone
      Apollo isn't planning U.S. plant — yet
    • Sponsored By Yokohama Tire Company
      7 questions to ask consumers when they need tires for a crossover SUV
      Sponsored By Yokohama Tire Company
      Stocking Tires for Crossover SUVs
      Sponsored By AppointmentPlus
      Three Important Lessons Learned for the Tire Business During a Pandemic
      Sponsored By Yokohama Tire Company
      7 questions to ask consumers when they need tires for a crossover SUV
  • SHOP FLOOR
    • BALANCING
    • DEMOUNTING
    • SAFETY
    • TIRE REPAIR
    • TPMS
    • TRAINING
    • VEHICLE LIFTING
    • WHEEL TORQUE
    • Video: Balancing Tire
      Choosing the right balancing equipment
      Safety tips for wheel balancing
      An introduction to wheel balancing
    • Video: Demounting
      Demounting Equipment
      Making rims ready for a tight seal
      Tire changer types, tips and trends
    • Video: Safety
      Making friends with OSHA
      Ergonomics on the shop floor
      Customers
    • Video: Tire Repair
      Tire repair: Shining a light on visual inspections
      Staying safe when repairing a tire
      Essential tools, materials and equipment for tire repair
    • Video: TPMS Service
      Decoding sensor data for TPMS diagnosis
      Replacement TPMS sensor overview
      The life-saving work of TPMS
    • Video: Training
      Advantages of apprentice program partnerships
      Options and resources for CE tech training
      Internship ideas to attract tech talent
    • Video:Vehicle Lifting
      All types of lifts for all types of work
      Tips and recommendations for lifting safety
      The gravity of proper lift points
    • Video: Wheel Torque
      Using torque sticks to speed service times
      The danger of too much, too little torque
      The importance of torque specifications
  • Multimedia
    • VIDEOS
    • PHOTOS
    • PODCASTS
  • Events
    • ASK THE EXPERT
    • LIVESTREAMS
    • WEBINARS
    • SEMA LIVESTREAMS
  • Data
    • DATA STORE
  • Resources
    • DIRECTORY
    • CLASSIFIEDS
  • ADVERTISE
  • DIGITAL EDITION
  • Awards
    • Tire Dealer Humanitarian Award
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. News
September 02, 2002 02:00 AM

Boss´s planning impacts productivity, efficiency

Dan Marinucci
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Print

    AKRON (Sept. 2, 2002)—In my last column, I urged tire dealers to teach their technicians the fundamentals of shop productivity and efficiency.

    Doing so can motivate techs to work smarter instead of just working harder. Everyone makes more money and with a nice bonus-reduced stress.

    Later, I realized that it would be helpful to put productivity and efficiency into perspective by explaining what affects them. Putting these concepts into perspective will make them much more useful and meaningful to all service personnel.

    As I explained last time, I learned these concepts from guys who ran extremely successful service shops, practicing exactly what they presently preach. Later in life, realizing they needed a new challenge, these fellows began teaching business management practices to and consulting with other service shop owners and tire dealers.

    These savvy shop owners-turned-teachers typically agree on several critical points. In my last column, I said that productivity is labor hours sold vs. available labor hours. So if your service department is open 50 hours per week and you actually bill out 50 hours labor per tech per week, you´re 100-percent productive. These sources tell me it´s common to measure 50- to 55-percent productivity when they are consulting with a service shop or tire dealer.

    For now, achieving 100-percent productivity may seem a long way off for your service department. Maybe you´ll never reach that magic 100-percent mark. But imagine how much your service department´s bottom line would improve if you bumped productivity from the common 50 to 55 percent up to, say, 75 to 80 percent.

    Anyway, the first point the sources agree on is that productivity directly reflects how well management runs the service department. In fact, some consultants call productivity the boss´s batting average. It shows how effectively the boss schedules all repair work and how successfully he or she moves the jobs into and out of each bay. One consultant said some bosses have increased productivity 10 percent just by scheduling the work smarter.

    Imagine the improvement you can make in your business simply by holding your suppliers more accountable for slow delivery and delivering the wrong parts. Take a notepad and track the number of minutes per week poor parts service is costing your dealership. The tally, converted into hours, will probably scare you.

    Study workflow and your techs´ movements throughout the service department. Do you have commonly used shop gear located where most techs can reach it easily most of the time? Are you consistently scheduling the appropriate work into the appropriate bay? For example, the jobs that don´t require a lift should be assigned to lift-less bays. (Sounds simple until you actually watch how some bosses assign work.)

    Overall, sources said, the most common causes of poor productivity are waiting for parts, getting the wrong parts for the job, waiting for customers´ repair authorizations, dealing with a lousy shop layout and coping with careless job scheduling.

    In my last column, I defined efficiency as labor time billed versus the time actually spent fixing the vehicle. If the tech spends an hour repairing the vehicle and you actually bill out an hour´s labor for the task, the tech was 100-percent efficient on that job.

    The second major point on which my sources agree is that the most common causes of poor efficiency are inadequate or outdated shop equipment, insufficient training, inadequately motivated workers, inefficient shop layout and worker laziness.

    One great reason for techs to take a personal interest in measuring and monitoring efficiency is that it´s the best yardstick they can use to convince the boss that they need new equipment, more equipment and more training.

    New equipment and additional training should make a marked, measurable increase in overall shop efficiency.

    Another way to improve shop efficiency that should be near and dear to techs is an intelligent and manageable incentive plan.

    For example, the higher the efficiency numbers you produce, the higher the labor rate at which you´re paid.

    Hopefully, these short descriptions of productivity and efficiency will whet you and your techs´ appetite for more knowledge and more earnings. Think about it.

    Letter
    to the
    Editor

    Do you have an opinion about this story? Do you have some thoughts you'd like to share with our readers? Tire Business would love to hear from you. Email your letter to Editor Don Detore at [email protected].

    SIGN UP FOR NEWSLETTERS
    EMAIL ADDRESS

    Please enter a valid email address.

    Please enter your email address.

    Please verify captcha.

    Please select at least one newsletter to subscribe.

    Newsletter Center

    Staying current is easy with Tire Business delivered straight to your inbox.

    SUBSCRIBE TODAY

    Subscribe to Tire Business

    SUBSCRIBE
    Connect with Us
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • RSS

    Our Mission

    Tire Business is an award-winning publication dedicated to providing the latest news, data and insights into the tire and automotive service industries.

    tb-logo
    Reader Services
    • Contact Us
    • About Us
    • Site Map
    • Industry Sites
    • Order Reprints
    • Customer Service: 877-320-1716
    Partner Sites
    • Rubber & Plastics News
    • European Rubber Journal
    • Automotive News
    • Plastics News
    • Plastics News China
    • Urethanes Technology
    RESOURCES
    • Advertise
    • Privacy Policy
    • Privacy Request
    • Terms of Service
    • Media Guide
    • Editorial Calendar
    • Classified Rates
    • Digital Edition
    • Careers
    • Ad Choices Ad Choices
    Copyright © 1996-2021. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • News
      • OPINION
      • CORONAVIRUS
      • AUTO INDUSTRY
      • BUSINESS/FINANCIAL
      • COMMERCIAL TIRE
      • FACTORY FIXES
      • GOVERNMENT & LAW
      • INTERNATIONAL
      • MOTOR SPORTS
      • NEW PRODUCTS
      • RETAIL TIRES
      • SERVICE ZONE
      • SEMA/AAPEX
      • SMALL BUSINESS
      • TIRE MAKERS
      • SPONSORED CONTENT
    • SHOP FLOOR
      • BALANCING
      • DEMOUNTING
      • SAFETY
      • TIRE REPAIR
      • TPMS
      • TRAINING
      • VEHICLE LIFTING
      • WHEEL TORQUE
    • Multimedia
      • VIDEOS
      • PHOTOS
      • PODCASTS
    • Events
      • ASK THE EXPERT
      • LIVESTREAMS
      • WEBINARS
      • SEMA LIVESTREAMS
    • Data
      • DATA STORE
    • Resources
      • DIRECTORY
      • CLASSIFIEDS
    • ADVERTISE
    • DIGITAL EDITION
    • Awards
      • Tire Dealer Humanitarian Award