Posts by Carm Capriotto, AAP

I believe that taking a deep dive into your procedures will become an important strategy to growing a stronger business. What if you were able to find three or four minutes per procedure? Think about how many brake jobs or oil changes you do. Multiply the time savings by the number of jobs you do and you’ll soon see that you can add time back into your day. We sell time and when we waste it, we never get it back.

We’ve recently done a few shows on lean. A recent Town Hall Academy really shows how this business strategy will work in your business. Here is the link.

Six Sigma Lean is a statistical process improvement methodology that uses a set of tools to identify and eliminate the causes of defects in manufacturing and service processes.

It is a process improvement strategy that uses simple statistical tools to detect, analyze and isolate defects in order to continuously improve products, processes, and services.

The Six Sigma Lean approach is a statistical and methodological approach to company management. It follows the principles of lean manufacturing and Six Sigma in order to achieve a high-quality product or service at reduced costs by eliminating defects (think comebacks).

Simply put you can review every procedure you have in your shop. You involve your team and discover all the steps, tools, people, systems, you need to perform said task.

A great example used in our podcast is the ‘Oil Change’. The opportunity to deeply review what we do when we have an oil change, where the tools are, where are the filters, among others. How many steps do we take to do one of the most repetitive tasks we have in our shop.

I believe this will be a top-five critical strategy in your business, up to and including growing sales, building leaders, succession planning, and financial controls.

You must give this podcast a listen so you can learn and appreciate the value and power of making your procedures ‘Lean’. Pull the team together to listen or watch this episode.

Are you a Euro Specialist?  Are you known for high-level diagnostics? Have you ever considered mobile diagnostics? Will you ever put a business plan together to become an ADAS calibration center? Ever thought about becoming a fleet specialist? Are you heavily invested in air-conditioning diag and repair. Is it time to change the brand to include the name ‘hybrid specialist’? And do you do alignments, they may be more important than ever. What about a detailing program?

Will being a ‘general repair’ service center earn me and my team a great living? How many more years do we have as vehicle technology and the cost of specialty tools and training pass up the general repair shop?

Do you need to equip for all I mentioned in the second paragraph? Probably not, however, this blog is about thinking and knowing that decisions you make today will affect your business vision and success tomorrow. And tomorrow could mean next year, three years or five years from now.

This discussion is about opportunity. Creating opportunities for you and your team so you can zig or zag as you invest in equipment, find talented people, train on new technology and look at your customer base and realize they will need you to do some of the specific repairs I mentioned above.

Don’t be stuck in the mud as you look to prepare your business for the future. Is an ADAS calibration center right for your market? Is a stand-alone new store that specialized in Euro a good move? How will air-conditioning systems be deployed to cool our electric fleet? And does your very best and brightest diagnostic technician have all the latest equipment, subscriptions and training to handle everything that comes your way? Are you so good with diag that other shops come to you for what they cannot repair?

Just some thoughts from the aisle seat for you to ponder. Put your vision hat on and think of positioning your business for tomorrow.