Cycle time remains a key measurement in the industry, and it's not difficult to understand why. Certainly for insurers, rental car costs are closely tied to how long vehicles are in the shop. Insurer statistics also show that reducing cycle time allows for reductions in claims staff. And the likelihood of consumer litigation increases significantly the longer a claims file is open.
Shops have joined in the effort to reduce cycle time for a number of reasons. Some view it as a marketing tool – both vehicle owners and insurers are anxious to do business with those who will keep their vehicles for less time. And any shop that tracks its numbers knows that reducing the in-shop portion of cycle time is going to help the shop's bottom line as well.Here are some ways shops have found to build more efficiencies into operations to cut cycle time by moving vehicles through the repair more quickly.
Move more air
A retrofit for the paint booth at Cesare's Collision Repair & Towing in Visalia, Calif., was designed to help the shop make the switch to waterborne paints. But Shop Manager Pat Anaya said the change also has helped drying times for solvent-borne paint products.
Anaya said because waterborne requires more air movement in the booth, the shop added to its booth one of several types of "air accelerators" available on the market. The system adds sets of air nozzles mounted in the corners of the booth to push the downward flow of air against the vehicle and even into "shaded" areas, such as door handle recesses."We're still averaging seven to eight cars a day through the booth, so we haven't dropped off at all," Anaya says of the switch to waterborne paints, adding that such a system could help with production even in shops not shooting waterborne products. "As we get some more experience, I think we could possibly do even more because the (air accelerator) system even speeds up the drying of the solvent-based clearcoats."
Put things within easy reach
Sometimes just making sure technicians and office employees have ready access to the items they frequently need is among the best ways to boost productivity and cut cycle time.
Patty Denny of Denny's Valley Autobody in Puyallup, Wash., for example, said production at her company is spread out in two buildings, with the company's offices in a third. She said plans to purchase some additional digital cameras to make sure there is always one in each shop building to make it faster and easier for production and office staff to provide the documentation insurers are increasingly requiring."In the paint department, for example, insurers are wanting photos of spray-out cards and proof of blending," she says.
Having the cameras readily available will reduce employee trips back and forth to the office, she reasons.
Similarly, some larger shops or those spread out in multiple buildings have purchased a "jump box" for each area so techs never have to go far when a vehicle's battery needs help.
Providing masking paper for each technician can make it convenient for them to protect interiors from grinding dust, etc. The time saved in vehicle clean-up (and in not having the techs run to the paint shop every time they need some masking paper) can offset the cost of the paper.
And an intercom system or portable phones or walkie-talkies can help employees avoid time-consuming trips to various parts of your operation.
Focus on skill specialization
Helping your employees "specialize" is another way to boost their productivity and cut cycle time. The best spray technician, for example, should be in the booth spraying, not tinting paint, removing trim or masking or prepping cars; let lesser-skilled technicians focus on – and become efficient in – those steps. They should always have two or three cars at various stages in the prep process so that as soon as a sprayed vehicle moves out of the booth, the next one is ready to go in.
You can determine and track your "booth cycle time" by dividing the total number of hours the booth operates in a month (8 hours x 21 working days = 168) by the number of ROs processed. For example, 105 ROs in a 168-hour month is a booth cycle time of 1.6 hours per RO, a benchmark that a number of paint company trainers said shops should be meeting or beating.
If your booth cycle time is higher than 1.6, it may be because a car isn't being sprayed in each of the first and last hours of each day, or that the color matching process – which should be done ahead of time – is actually taking place in the booth.
Extend your hours
"As an industry, our shops are closed more than they're open," says Tony Passwater, president of AEII, an industry training and consulting firm. If you find on average that each vehicle is in your shop's paint booth for two hours, and you're only open eight hours a day, it's clear you're never going to be able to produce more than four cars a day.
There are two ways to address that, Passwater said. First, there's technology – infrared drying systems, roll-on primers, faster curing products – that could cut the booth time needed per vehicle. Cut it down from 2 hours to 1.6, and you can process one more vehicle in every 8-hour day.
"We've gotten real big into using UV primer," says Brent Gilmour, owner of Hyacinth Collision Centre in Salem, Ore., citing one way his shop speeds production. "It's dry in 120 seconds. That's helped us to improve our cycle time considerably."
But another good option for improving booth cycle time is extending the number of hours daily your paint booth is operating – and making you money rather than sitting idle. Not ready to add a complete second shift? Passwater suggests at least having one or more paint preppers come in early enough to have a vehicle in the booth ready to be sprayed right away when your painter arrives.
"You also want a car sprayed the last thing in the evening, too," Passwater says, so that at least some of the overnight "downtime" is used curing a vehicle until an automated timer shuts the booth down.
Add a fast-track lane
Dave Brown, general manager of Kniesel's Auto Body, which has two shops in the Sacramento, Calif., area, said one of the company's locations is experimenting with a "fast-track system" a team of employees focused on moving smaller repair jobs through the shop very quickly.
"We made those technicians responsible for the job and the commitment on the completion date, and have them totally in control of what needs to be done as far as a sublet repair or something that we can't do in-house," Brown says. "It lets the technicians eliminate all the roadblocks, beginning to end."
Blueprint before repairs
A frame rack or a paint booth can become an "expensive parking space" for a vehicle while waiting for an insurer approval or a part that hadn't been ordered. Blueprinting involves complete damage assessment up front, by completing the necessary teardown to determine all necessary parts (one parts order per job should become the norm and goal) and obtaining all insurer approvals before the vehicle moves into what then becomes non-stop production.
"We actually have one guy who does teardown of all the cars," Sharon Brennan, office manager for Hassell Auto Body in West Babylon, N.Y., says. "He writes everything that's needed, so when it gets into production, it goes right through. It speeds things up. The body technicians don't have to do the teardown and then have the car sitting there waiting for parts and stuff like that."
Look for the small time-savings
Not all efforts to improve cycle time require dramatic changes for a shop. Even just helping technicians complete a few more tenths of an hour of production each day can add up to faster cycle time. Adding mirrors in the shop can help technicians check vehicle turn signals and lights without needing someone else or getting in and out of vehicles. Use a marker to outline where shop-supplied tools are to be stored to reduce "hunting time" by employees looking for something they need. Use water-based fluorescent poster marker pens to circle damage on vehicles you don't want missed, or to note customer "special requests" on vehicle windshields.
None of these things taken alone will dramatically reduce your shop's cycle time. But an ongoing process of looking for even small ways to boost productivity can have a significant impact on cycle time – and your shop's bottom line.
