Last month we looked at the difficulties and impossibilities of time studies. Physically observing and recording labor tasks for every part replacement and every combination of part replacements, is simply impossible. With dozens of new vehicles every year, hundreds of collision parts on each one, and thousands of possible replacement combinations, it simply cannot be done.
Focusing on a particular area of interest is only difficult. That can be done. One challenge is the logistics of locating a target repair and getting an observer there at the right time for the right length of time.
What does an observer do and what happens with the results?
An observer watches and may videotape all operations done by the technician to get the job done. An observer records each task done. Clock times are sometimes recorded using a stopwatch.
Ideally, an observer is present when a technician first gets the assignment. That takes time too, usually a good deal of time if the entire repair is reviewed at the vehicle with a foreman or manager. Parts must be located, unpackaged and inspected. The damaged vehicle needs to be brought into position. Tools and equipment may need to be located and moved into the repair stall. All of this is just to get started. Sometimes, these steps are difficult for an observer to identify.
At this point, one or more technicians start replacing and repairing parts. An observer can write down and time each task done when disassembling damaged parts, repairing parts and installing replacement parts. This part is fairly simple.
The repaired vehicle may go to the paint department and then return for re-assembly. The observer needs to stand by and be ready to continue recording until re-assembly is completed. Ideally, he or she would also wait through the detailing and final inspection processes in case anything else needed to be done.
A refinish study would start with getting the paint code and continue through mixing, edging, masking, spraying and polishing, to customer delivery status. Many different people may be involved in all those different steps. An observer would clock and track operations every time someone touched the vehicle.
So what tasks are recorded?
This depends on the target operations and level of detail defined by the information provider. In a full-blown time study, detailed steps would include tasks like "Get Wrench," "Rewind Air Hose," "Unpackage Part," "Talk with Manager," "Get Coffee," "Remove Two Rear Fender Bolts," "Raise Vehicle Front" and "Remove Wheel."
Notice that there are three general groupings where these tasks could fall; non-productive personal, non-productive job and productive job.
- Non-productive personal – Everybody needs time to wash their hands, take a phone call or maybe get a cup of coffee. There is a percentage of the workday taken up with such personal needs. This is human nature and is present in all working environments. Information providers could study this themselves or use outside industrial studies. In reality, this percentage doesn't vary much between different industries. Once established, it doesn't need to be thoroughly re-studied every time.
- Non-productive job – Every technician needs time to get and hook up air hoses, clean tools and read the estimate. There is a long list of these "off car" operations that must be done. They don't directly advance the repair, but are necessary to be in position for hands-on work. We might look at these as "labor overhead" or "setup" to do the job. Every job must have these or similar steps. Their time will vary by size of the job, but enough studies of this task grouping could produce a workable formula. Once established, this also doesn't need to be re-studied very often.
- Productive job – These are the hands-on operations actually done to repair a vehicle. This is straightforward and ends up with a list of tasks done to complete the job. Notice that this list may or may not be the same list from the vehicle manufacturer. Sometimes more steps are done. Sometimes less. This is a good record of what was really done.
Now that all that data is collected, how does that turn into estimate information? We'll tackle that next time.
"I'm not in competition with anybody but myself. My goal is to beat my last performance."
— Celine Dion
Bruce Burrow, AAM started writing estimates over 30 years ago, has worked for most of the information providers, and, as an independent instructor for the last 10 years, has trained estimators all across North America. He is ASE Master certified and an instructor for the Automotive Management Institute. Send questions, ideas and comments that you would like to see addressed here to [email protected] and stay tuned.
