Fixed Operations
Bodyshop Management Control
By Dave Dunn
I wish I had a dollar for every time a dealer has asked me how to fix the bottleneck in his paint shop. Generally, dealers are hoping I will have a one-sentence answer. As usual, the answer is a little more complex than one sentence can express.
When dealers describe their bottleneck, I generally hear something like, "We can get the cars through the metal shop, but the painters seem to have more than they can do some days and are standing around on other days."
Plain and simple, the problem is not usually the paint shop at all but rather a combination of management problems centering around poor "metal shop" accountabilities and "rotten scheduling" practices. I have found that the perceived bottleneck is only a symptom of the real issue. Most bodyshops give very little attention to scheduling. The typical scenario goes something like this: "Mrs. Jones, when would you like to bring your car in for repairs?" She answers, "How about Monday?" The car is then scheduled to start repairs on Monday, along with every other car you are going to repair. Consequently, we start all the metal work on Monday and ultimately try to deliver most of the cars at the end of the week. The paint shop starts the week pretty lean on work and then, as the week progresses, eventually gets busier. By Friday, the painters have inherited all the work that the metal shop has generated, and inevitably the painters either work extremely long shifts on Wednesday through Friday or simply don't get the work out the door. Sound familiar?
The real problem as I see it is that the metal shop work isn't scheduled with any thought about its potential impact on the paint shop. The metal men are rarely held to any accountability as respects delivery time. The job or jobs are assigned to the metal man with some general admonition like, "Hey this car goes Friday." The metal man thinks to himself, "Great, I will work on all my jobs this week and get them all ready for primer no later than Thursday night."
The only problem with this thinking is that every other metal man in the company is thinking the same way. The net result is that too many cars hit the paint shop at the end of the week and that painters find themselves buried with work. After the painters practically kill themselves at the end of the week and empty out the paint shop, they come in Monday morning with nothing to do because the metal shop hasn't processed any work for them yet. The painters stand around, sweep up the shop, clean their paint guns and grumble and, ultimately, last week's scenario repeats itself all over gain.
My advice is simple:
Schedule work differently: Give attention to mid-week scheduling. Do not get into the "Friday it is" syndrome. Do not ask the customer when they would like to bring it in. Give them an either-or option. "Would you like to bring your car in on Wednesday or Thursday?" If you start on some cars on a day other than Monday, you might break the pattern of every car having to be delivered on Friday.
Set specific metal shop out times: When you assign the jobs to a metal man, give him a target specific to the metal work. In other words, do not say, "this car goes Friday." Tell him exactly when the car needs to be out of the metal shop to accommodate company scheduling needs. Tell him exactly when the car is to leave metal and be ready for paint. Something like, "This car needs to be out of the metal shop by Wednesday at 11:00 a.m."
By examining the real issues we can put pressure on the proper people to smooth out bodyshop production and delivery. I recommend that you look beyond the symptom and look at the cause of bottlenecked paint shops. It usually can be improved by mid-week scheduling and metal shop out times. Try it, and you will lower stress in the paint shop and deliver cars on time more consistently.
Dave Dunn is the most respected consultant in the field of collision repair management. Dave owns and operates Masters School of Autobody Management in Santa Barbara, Calif. He also owns Dave's Auto Body in Galesburg, Ill. ddunn@dealeronline.com
