First are capacity and capability. You may say, "Capacity? That's pretty straightforward. Just measure the square footage of the shop and determine the number of bays it will accommodate." This is where the planning starts. You need to ask other questions. How long and wide should the bay be? How large should the aisle be? What will be the bay-to-technician ratio? Also, what type of vehicles will be the target repair and what method of repair will be used? These issues influence greatly the ideal size of a bay.
Where and how the tools, supplies, and parts will be stored and distributed also influences a bay size. Even how a vehicle is placed in a bay, and whether it will need to be moved before it goes to another repair station, influences productivity — or more precisely put — the shop's repair capability.
Regarding size; often when a planner is designing the bay, the belief is (while perhaps at an unconscious level) that bigger is better. A bay that is designed and used efficiently, though, can be smaller than you may imagine.
Dimensions
To determine the size and placement of a bay, first consider the type of work that will be performed. What will be the technician-to-bay ratio? In the past, a 3:1 ratio (three bays to one technician) was a common planning scenario. You might often have heard, "My guys are all 150-percent productive, and to maintain that productivity they need three bays," or "I need three bays so when my mud is drying I can work on another car," or "While I am waiting for parts, I work in another bay."
This belief set is so strongly held that of all the planning steps performed when designing a bay or stall, the most care must be taken when proposing a reduction of the 3:1 ratio. Technicians love their domain. Bays often become personalized with large stationary toolboxes, refrigerators, lockers, entertainment equipment and other items, all pushed up against the wall. Vehicles can end up getting pushed farther into the center aisle. This means that lots of shop area is taken up for a technician's personal space.
A 3:1 ratio limits a shop's capability and reduces its workforce density. Suppose a shop has a workspace measuring 60 feet wide and 75 feet long with 12 bays of capacity. Working with a 3:1 technician-to-bay ratio, its workforce density is four technicians. By changing the ratio to 2:1, the space can accommodate six technicians. If it is a 1:1 ratio, its workforce density is 12. Consider that it's physically impossible for a technician to work in two stalls at one time. If work is planned with care and timed so parts are ready for the technician, and if the technician has an efficient "plan of attack" for the repair of a vehicle, the 3:1 technician-to-bay ratio can be reduced.
Employees, both production and support staff, need to plan for this efficiency, and a 1:1 ratio may take some time both to become accustomed to and planned for, but reducing the space a technician uses increases a shop's capacity and capability.
Tools
Where and in what type of storage container tools are stored also influences how a vehicle is worked on and thus affects the size of bay that is needed. One thing that can be said for collision repair technicians (me included) is that most have never met a tool we didn't like. That weekly trip to a mobile truck more often than not resulted in a technician returning with another needed tool. Before long the toolbox became too small and an add-on was needed. These big boxes end up being pushed up against the wall, and the bay becomes more crowded and less efficient.
Since the tools are routinely stored against the wall, where the power (air, electrical, vacuum, etc.) also is located, vehicles are pulled into a bay, with the vehicle area being worked on close to the tools and supplies. But parking vehicles in this manner makes parts and workspace more difficult to access, thus reducing productivity. If the vehicles were parked so that the damaged area was closest to the center aisle, parts carts could be readily accessed and the workspace would be roomier.
If the technician's tools were mobile, easily movable from bay to bay, needed room would be freed up, which could allow for a wider center aisle and easier, faster movement of vehicles (you don't get reimbursed for moving cars). With the work near the center, all access is improved, trash can be controlled, and painted parts are delivered easily — all speeding up productivity. With 50 percent of sales costs going to labor, increasing labor efficiency increases profits dramatically.
Design
How wide should a bay be? With both doors open, a vehicle can easily be 14 feet wide. It's not often that a vehicle is damaged on both sides, so a 12-foot width for most bays will allow for easy access and good space control. Team repair may need more space, however.Bays also should be clearly marked with lines and numbers. The numbers are helpful to identify where a vehicle should go, as well as where the technician should go. With technicians moving to the vehicle, instead of the vehicle moving to a technician, a more fluid traffic pattern can be maintained. Painted floors help with cleanup, and a clean work area will increase morale and reduce accidents. Dividing lines help to cut down on "aisle creep." Workstations help keep hand tools off the floor. That means technicians don't have to bend over to retrieve tools, which reduces labor times and technician fatigue. All these factors should be planned for.
In some areas where space is limited, angle parking can be used. Vehicles can be moved out of the bay when work is completed and moved to the next area, such as moving a masked vehicle to a booth. Traffic flow should be smooth and direct, with vehicles moving in only one direction when at all possible.
Utilities
All utilities and tools should be available close to where the work is being performed. Toyota has given a great deal of thought to their "kaizen" method of continuous improvement and ergometrics (the study of the amount of work needed to complete a task) by lifting work to the worker and having tools, power and supplies close to the worker. With this system, less unproductive movement is needed, and the worker stays less fatigued, thus more productive.
If each bay has a trash container, power near the center aisle, a portable lift, a vacuum and a less-skilled assistant to bring parts and supplies and clean up, time is freed up for the more-skilled and costly technician to repair vehicles.
Working Conditions
The area a person works in and the comfort that the area offers greatly influence how productive a person will be. How wide and how long a bay should be depends on available area and layout and also on the type of work being completed in that space. A bay that is 12 feet by 20 feet for single technicians allows for sufficient room to complete most repairs. Painted floors with markings for each stall will help keep jobs contained. Trash receptacles for each bay or at least every other bay keep the areas cleaner. Handy power such as electricity (both 110- and 220-volt), air, vacuum and light all improve the "quality of life" as the technician works.
Lighting is especially critical in the paint area, where 100 foot-candles are needed but also in the collision bay area, where lighting is often not sufficient (90 foot-candles is recommended, and as workers age the amount of light that they need increases). It's helpful to remember too that when vehicles are parked with the damage close to the center aisle, better lighting is often more available.
Painted floors, as mentioned earlier, help with both morale and safety. They also make cleanup much easier. Large trash such as boxes, damaged metal and containers can be picked up using a mobile pushcart. The wastebaskets can be emptied, and then the pushcart is rolled to the receptacle. Machines that sweep, wash and scrub, then vacuum up the water make short work of daily cleanup, which can be done by an entry-level employee.
Temperature in the working environment should also be considered. In the winter when the building needs to be heated, a heat setting of 68 degrees will be sufficient for comfort, and will keep workers from overheating. Even in the paint department, especially when using waterborne, the recommendation is 68 degrees for storage and application. (The key ingredient when curing waterborne paint is air movement. Solvent-borne clears can be baked for curing only.)
Noise needs to be considered too. Though we know that loud noises will damage our hearing, not everyone realizes that prolonged moderate noise can also be harmful. Also, it is not comfortable to work in an environment that constantly requires us to raise our voice to talk to others. Think about the possibilities for noise control around the work bay. Equipment that produces loud noises could be placed out of the work area and supplied remotely. Air compressors and central vacuums can be placed in a sound-resistant room out of the work area. Air makeup for paint booths can be mounted outside of the room, and hearing protection should be provided and used in the work area.
Stimulating efficiency
In that "better bay," other things such as a movable supply cart that is restocked daily, standardized work procedures and supply list, a creative work schedule and having a shop assistant all will go a long way towards improving productivity.
The work cart should have the needed supplies such as tape, wax and grease remover, cleanup towels, assorted abrasives, supplies for "bagging and tagging" parts and fasteners as they come off the vehicle, etc. Each technician should have a standardized list of supplies that are restocked each day. As the technician goes on to the next assigned job in a specific bay, the supply cart goes along. The parts cart for the vehicle should also be there.
Using teams might be an efficient work strategy to plan for, too. If the vehicle is a candidate for team repair, times when more than one technician will be working on it at once may require two bays beside each other to be available. The technicians both go to the vehicle with their carts and tools. With all the necessary tools and equipment at hand, vehicle cycle time improves.
Building a better bay means more than just providing space in the shop for technicians, and certainly more than calculating square footage and assuming more space is needed. Better-designed bays in an existing shop can significantly improve a shop's capability, without increasing its capacity.
Operating a smooth and productive shop is complex, and considerable planning is necessary. But once the planning is done, with better bay systems and procedures put in place, a shop can work more smoothly, efficiently and of course, more profitably.
