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Eliminating Waste in Auto Repair Operations
Eliminating Waste in Auto Repair Operations
Eliminating waste in automotive repair operations will reduce cycle time, increase vehicle throughput, achieve greater sales volume and increase profits. Waste in the repair cycle can be found in redundancy, unneeded actions and information lag time. Waste can be costly and focusing on eliminating it will make a business more competitive. Following are areas in which waste can be identified and eliminated:- Redundancy – Redundancy exists in auto repair operations when the same work is performed more than once. The most common occurrence of this is when information is written on paper then entered into the shop management system as opposed to entering it directly at the point it’s formulated … Read More >>
- Unnecessary Actions – Achieving maximum efficiency in automotive repair operations involves identifying and eliminating unnecessary and wasteful steps in business processes. This type of analysis requires looking at and identifying unnecessary activities and process flow disconnects … Read More >>
- Information Lag Time – Whenever there is a period of time between when an event occurs and that activity is recorded in the shop management system information lag occurs. This means that there is a delay in when the completion of part of the repair process is known by others who depend on it … Read More >>
#autorepairefficiency
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2 Replies
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Overall this is a very good article. I do disagree partially with the point on written repair orders. The technician needs a written copy of the repair order to take notes on while performing diagnosis and inspections. A tech copy of a paper repair order can get dirty and not be damaged. A computer keyboard on the other hand will be quickly destroyed by dirt, oils and other fluids that normally found on a technician’s hands while working. The time to clean those hands every time an entry would have to be made after a step in a diagnostic tree would far exceed the time lost due to transferring those notes to the sms in a condensed form once testing is complete. The customer for the most part does not need to see every step in a test procedure. The condensed version is all that is needed. For warranty or court purposes this information is extremely helpful. Notes that are in the technicians hand writing also carry more wait in court and audit proceedings than notes made only in the sms. Computer printed notes could have been edited or added at any time after the customer received an estimate or there invoice for repair . The tech notes on that dirty repair order will show a timeline of when they were actually made.
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Redundancy can be eliminated by using tablet technology. Tablets can survive the shop environment.
Using a tablet, the tech can not only diagnose, he or she can document the tests and findings immediately. Tech notes and findings can be entered while all is time stamped immediately. Pictures or video can further tell the story of what the tech did and found. Recommendations can be added right into the management system by the technician.
No more translating writing, copying and re-entering any information since it is already entered into the SMS.
Further more, redundant writing can also be eliminated by the tablet and software by building canned jobs and findings into the inspection leaving spaces open for the results of any pinpoint tests.
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