I am going to start this out by describing a long-term automotive technician and friend of mine who I first met when I was running a tire store in Silver Spring, Md., a suburb of Washington, DC., in the mid-1980s. When I first met Todd, he mounted tires for us and aspired to become a technician. These many years later, I would describe to you a highly experienced, highly motivated, hugely productive technician who has averaged more than 100 billable hours per week for the last 35 years. As I write this, I know that most won't believe it, most will discount it, and I get it, but it is the absolute truth. We have all dreamed of this guy, and I have had the honor and pleasure of working with or around him for a great many years.
Too often, it is we (as owners and service managers) who are driving down production, efficiency, and proficiency, all the while pushing our technicians harder.
A big mistake we often make is looking at production as a function of who we have out in the bays in our shop. Too often, it is we (as owners and service managers) who are driving down production, efficiency, and proficiency, all the while pushing our technicians harder (because we are not generating the labor hours). We need to remain viable and profitable. Good, bad, or indifferent, I am going to suggest leaving those techs alone, (at least long enough to understand what is driving productivity, efficiency, and proficiency in our shop) to develop a plan and process to move it in a better direction.
Remember, parts sales always follow labor sales. If we are not productive, efficient, and proficient in our labor operation, we are losing parts sales as well. It might be worse than you think.
In part, productivity is a measure of our ability to keep our shop fully and appropriately staffed, along with our ability to maintain an adequate car count from day to day, week to week, and month to month. If we do not have an adequate car count, there is no way our technicians can be productive.
Appropriate staffing would include enough techs (at a cross-section of skill levels and experience) to handle the numbers and types of services and repairs we would expect to see. This is all a delicate balance, but a technician cannot be productive and efficient until we have adequate numbers of cars and are adequately staffed.
If our shop process is cumbersome or in any way pulls our technicians away from generating labor, we need to reset our priorities. We must develop procedures that will keep our technicians doing the things that will make us viable and profitable. Technicians are there to service and repair our customer's cars and they need to be focused on generating billable time. We need to do everything in our power to get out of their way in accomplishing this and pay them in ways that encourage them strongly in that direction.
According to the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA), when measuring our technicians, we can look at productivity, efficiency, and proficiency. Technician productivity is measured by the actual time worked in a day versus the number of clock hours available on that day (productivity = hours worked on cars divided by the number of hours available to work). NADA recommends 85 to 87.5 percent as a productivity guideline (since non-labor-related activities can take up to 15 to 20 percent of available time).
Technician efficiency is measured by the actual number of hours technicians take to perform the labor versus the number of labor hours sold (efficiency = flat-rate hours produced versus hours worked). Technicians can beat a time standard published in a labor guide. NADA recommends between 125 percent and 135 percent as an efficiency guideline. If my A and B-techs are not consistently beating those labor guides, I need to understand why and take appropriate actions (people and process).
Finally, we would look at technician proficiency. Technician proficiency is a measure that combines productivity and efficiency and compares hours produced to hours available (proficiency = hours produced versus hours available). Proficiency provides the truest measure of a technician’s time usage. NADA recommends that technicians be 100 percent proficient all the time with peaks to 120 percent.
In the real world, I would expect my B-techs to be producing at or around 40 hours every week and my A-techs to be above that lofty goal most of the time. Being an A-tech is not only having that knowledge and experience but also being able to produce those hours week after week. Measuring and managing our technicians is an important step. Set and enforce expectations for production. If you lead them and support their efforts with a good shop process, your technicians will follow.
Things you can do to drive productivity, efficiency, and proficiency:
• Market appropriately and consistently to assure adequate car count from month to month.
• Adjust your counter and shop process so that it flows and does not impede production.
• Define for your techs what your expectations are for production and meet regularly to review.
• Develop a pay plan that strongly encourages and rewards production.
• Set expectations for labor sales with your service advisors and meet regularly to review.
• Implement and oversee a comprehensive inspection process that includes maintenance checks and service history.
• Sell preventive maintenance and educate your customers on its importance.
• Be willing to ask your people for more and reward them generously when they succeed.
• Lead or hire somebody to lead for you.
All of us are responsible for supporting and driving production. Our techs are certainly measured and managed based on their productivity, their efficiency, and their proficiency but all of us have an impact on what is going on out there in the bays. All of us contribute to or take away from their success. Remember, productive, efficient, and proficient shops are successful shops.
It’s 8 o’clock. How productive will you be today?
