THE INSPIRATION: Norm Nadalin, owner of Nadalin Auto Body in Washington, Pa., has one of his own mistakes to thank for the inspiration behind his efficient shop. Nadalin’s shop runs on a key system—when a car is checked in, the key is tagged and assigned to a technician. Once the job is done, the technician informs Nadalin that the car needs to be moved (at Nadalin Auto Body, technicians don’t move cars—if they’re moving cars then they are not working on cars, making the shop less efficient, according to Nadalin). Once the car is moved, the process begins again.
One morning around 9:30, one of Nadalin’s bodymen told him that his car was ready to be moved. When Nadalin circled back around the shop at the end of the day, he noticed that the car was still there. He had forgotten to move it. “I’ve got to come up with a better system than them talking to me,” Nadalin thought.
Nadalin Auto Body already had a light system to show when the bathroom was in use (red meant occupied). Nadalin figured that if it worked for the bathrooms, why not make it work for the rest of the shop? So, when an electrician was in doing some work for the shop, Nadalin had him install a light system for two of his stalls.
WHAT IT DOES: Two of the bays (soon to be three) have a fourcolored light system mounted on top of them for everyone to see. The lights, which are extremely bright, indicate to the rest of the shop the status of the technician’s current job. The tech just presses a button that correlates with his needs, and someone will come around to answer the request. The light remains on until the request has been answered.
A green light means everything is running smoothly. If the technician switches his light to blue, it means he needs something from the painter. A red light means that there’s a parts problem and that the person in charge of parts is needed. The yellow light alerts Nadalin that the tech is almost finished with the job and to get the next job lined up.
