ABS Info: Wheel Sensors | Mark De Koster | Tech Tip

[Randy Lucyk]

Most would not be aware that I have made a personal commitment to try and convince industry participants that we need to bring “time” into the discussion when offering these types of resources.

The advent of abbreviated video displaying “case studies”, with little to no discussion about the “billable time” that would be needed to perform the process indicated in the video, is not as helpful as it could be, if we included “time” as part of the discussion.

The make or model of vehicle was not indicated in this resource. Without that specific information, it is a little more difficult  to establish “bob” time for this, but i am going to call this an average of 90 minutes @ “bob” time (see below for description if interested), for this specific process on an average vehicle. This includes consulting  service information, accessing module and/or wiring, making 8 labscope connections, road test and interpreting the results. The initial analysis/testing with scan tool or other would not be included in this 90 minutes of specific testing.

In our store their would have been an initial charge of some amount, for developing a “diagnostic plan” for attacking the customer complaint. We are approaching $300 for diag and testing. We may not be able to talk about specific charges on open forums such as this, but we can certainly talk about time.

 

Concept of “bob” time, previously posted on a diagnostics forum:

I suspect most understand that many of the challenges we face in this industry have a root cause of low profitability in general, as we consider the service industry as a whole. I suspect most also understand that we don’t sell anything in the service industry until we sell time first, and that drives everything else.

It has occurred to me recently, as I am absorbing content from industry forums, case studies, resources, SOD calls, theory training, equipment training, articles, ect., that their is something missing. For the most part, in virtually every case(Imo), we leave out completely or drastically underestimate the time consumed to perform the services/process/procedures we are discussing.

I believe that this is caused by the fact that each individual approaches a problem differently, with different knowledge levels, skill sets, equipment capabilities, ect, So how could possibly have a time estimate that has any meaning?

I am going to suggest it starts here and now.

Whether you folks are willing to admit it or not, you are the best of the best. As such you have the opportunity to establish a new language for time, that could be invaluable towards moving this industry forward. In the title line, I called it “bob time”, described as follows:

“Imagine you are among the best equipped and trained/most efficient/most knowledgeable technicians in the industry, for the particular problem you just fixed/diagnosed/completed, how much time should have been allowed for the process?”

By including this baseline time estimation, I believe we could accomplish a great deal for so many that struggle in the industry, and as such, help our selves. Services advisors and other customer facing individuals are constantly looking for ways to justify the diag time we charge for, and i believe it is human nature to underestimate time, just like many technicians and technical advisors do. If we had a “best of the best”(bob? call it what you want) time estimate for them to consider, I believe it could go a long way into improving profitability for many shops.

Imagine if every resource, video, discussion, case study, ect had a bob time associated with it. Over time it would make a difference.

In my mind bob time is a starting point to adjust from. It should be the minimum time, that we should ever charge for a process/procedure/diag/service, regardless of what capabilities our techs have, because if it takes the best of the best this long to perform, how could it possibly be justified to charge less. I am convinced “we” do regularly charge less then bob time.

The following examples are what doesn’t help profitability. i am not singling these individuals out, they are just examples of what we are all guilty of:

My light bulb moment came a month ago as we were considering purchasing a new scope, and I reviewed a video by a respected industry trainer describing diagnosis of a vvt system, requiring connecting all eight channels to the vehicle. The video flashed from sitting inside the car talking about the problem, to hood up and scope connected to 8 different sensors, and looking at the outputs on the scope. My brain immediately said OMG, I would have to charge three to four hours of time for this procedure, where is that referred to in the video? I ended up reviewing more videos from the same organization and decided to hold off on the purchase, because my front counter is not ready for the tool, I need to provide them more resources to work from, so this can be a profitable purchase, not just a “you gotta have it” purchase.

Another example came yesterday on a different forum and then this morning I see this:

“No codes. Cranks good no start no spark.

So I had a few minutes to check this out before I left for work today.

I have good injector pulse, that I checked with the pico scope and current clamp.

Tailpipe has 30,000 ppm hc cranking showing good fuel, sounds high but no biggie.

I am assuming there is no spark on all coils because there is no signs of life.

For sure I have no spark from the 3 front coils that are easy to access.

I have battery voltage on both terminals of the coil connector while cranking with connector plugged in.

The coils have no primary signal from pcm.

Scanner shows 250 rpm cranking.”

This is a perfect example of what i am talking about. Did it really take a few minutes? I suspect we all know it did not. The author was not trying to be malicious, it is just the way the human mind works.

I believe each and everyone of us can do better.

Maybe it starts here