As much as 2020 was a pain in the butt for small businesses everywhere, it was also full of valuable lessons for those who paid attention. A handful of collision repairers in North America refused to fall prey to the challenges faced last year. Some business leaders charged ahead, growing and improving their businesses, [...]
In Part 1 of the Power of SOPs, I wrote about how business owners and managers can – and should – use standard operating procedures to build a systems-driven business that prevents the business from running them. (See that article here.) In this article, I am going to provide specific tips on how shops [...]
You’re probably wondering, ‘Dave, what does ham have to do with an auto body shop much less mindset and culture?’ Let me tell you a story. The Story of Grandma’s Ham A young wife wanted to make a special dinner for her husband on their first anniversary and chose a favorite family recipe: ham. [...]
I often ask shop owners, “Do you feel as though you own your business, or does your business own you?” I’ll bet you can guess which answer I typically receive. As a technician-turned-business-owner myself, I too know the pain very well. For many it is a feeling that working harder does not yield the [...]
One of the commonalities between most collision repair shops is chaos. I believe many shop owners have become complacent with chaos, chalking it up as a “normal” part of the industry. This belief in my opinion is insanity. Having been involved with collision repair for over 35 years now, I have witnessed an interesting [...]
One could easily debate that an auto body shop is an unlikely place to see an assembly line, especially when you try to visualize “assembly line” in the traditional sense. However, there are many more similarities between collision repair and the assembly line than you may realize. When Henry Ford introduced the assembly line [...]
A common practice I have noticed among hugely successful collision repair shops is that they hold daily production meetings and discuss an accurate delivery list. The list is shared between all members of the team. It is like holding a huddle prior to snapping the ball in a football game. The list represents your [...]
What is Continuous Improvement? Continuous Improvement. Another buzz word? Worthless Lean terminology? I don’t think so. Yes, the term has been used for a couple decades now by Lean gurus and companies like Toyota, but I want to ask you to think of ‘Continuous Improvement’ from a real world, practical, and much-needed perspective. Forget [...]
Most of you readers have heard about Lean Thinking, Lean Manufacturing, or simply Lean. But have you heard about the Theory of Constraints? I know some of you have, but as with Lean, the concept may still be a little unclear. Although there are both commonalities and differences between Lean and TOC, I believe [...]
In the collision repair business, cycle time has become more important than ever. Cycle time is a key performance indicator that affects customer service, profitability, and length of rental. Understanding Little’s Law will give you the knowledge needed to make significant cycle time improvements. Little’s Law was named after MIT Professor, John Little, and [...]
