Looking at 2017 and preparing for a very promising year it is becoming increasingly important to ensure your production staff is operating at an all time high. Most likely you fall into a group like the majority of us where we are still looking for additional technicians and this even makes it more important to get the very best out of every single technician in your stall. Here are a few common items that would be helpful to address with your staff to remove any unwanted roadblocks that reduce each individuals performance.

1. Clearly define “efficiency” and “productivity” terms for your techs so they know and understand the terms and how they can impact the result.
   1. Efficiency – how fast you perform each flat rate hour
   2. Productivity – how many flat rate hours turned in a given time period, typically an 8 hour day
2. Define the GOAL – performance is always increased when the goal is specific and clear. When the goal is challenging but well within the employees capabilities, the employee will accept the challenge and typically do their best to achieve.
3. Tools – Take inventory / Does your team have access to the best tools? Ask yourself.
   1. Are the tools well maintained and in good working order?
   2. Are your special service tools easy to get to?
   3. Are all the attachments/fittings there
4. Shop supplies – how many times have you seen your tech at the back parts counter or back room looking for a connector, washer or lubricant to finish a job. Usually they have to really look causing the loss of precious time
   1. Clean and organized
   2. Plenty of quantity on hand
5. Training – Fix it right the first time is not only good for CSI but it also drastically fixes efficiency without having to spend costly time repairing the mistake
   1. What is your process to properly train new technicians coming into your store
   2. Who is the person they can go to with any questions?
6. Proper Dispatching – if you have worked with your techs for any period of time you know their strengths. Now feed it to them. If you have someone that is fast with heavy line or one that is speedy with electrical feed it to him or her.
   1. Identify a process to quickly complete recalls and direct those to your entry level certified technicians so your senior staff  can help the shop produce all the other work at an efficient pace
7. Leverage technology – A slow Internet connection or a wireless connection that is spotty not only creates frustration but it burns delicate time. Most if not all of the factory updates are large files and uploading them to your customers car with a bad connection takes forever.
8. Sales and marketing strategy – What items are you marketing to your customers? Hopefully they are ones that you can do with extreme efficiency and create good gross profit. Identify the most efficient labor operation and develop an internal spiff around that operation.
9. Incentivize – Make it fun for your team and create a progressive incentive that helps everyone on the team increase his or her personnel best. If you can have every one increase by ten percent in a ten man shop will help you produce an additional 200 hours and in most cases this will generate over Twenty Thousand of additional labor sales

These are just a few to start with and if you observe your technicians routine or behavior there will be some other areas I’m certain you will have some constructive feedback to help your shops production. Good luck, make it fun.