DealersEdge Professional Forums

DOSE ANYONE HAVE A FIXED OPPERATION MANAGER AT THEIR DEALERSHIP IF SO WHAT DO THEY DO FOR THE DEALERSHIP JUST CURIOUS

Jeff,

I was a fixed operations director for the last 3 1/2 years I was at our dealership (1996-1999). The fixed operations director oversees parts, service, and the body shop of the dealership. This position has become crucial for dealers who want to unify their departments and turn them into a single profit center instead of looking at each department as a single profit center.

A fixed operations director should have an unbiased view between departments when it comes to conflict resolution. He/She will do what is in the best interest of the customer and the dealer while making sure there is no unfair practices going on between managers and departments. It worked for us, we increased our net profit 41% over 18 months once we got the pieces of the puzzle put together.

Chuck Hartle'

It has been my experience that a Fixed Ops manager is really a Service Manager who is supposedly the Parts Managers boss even though he hasn't the slightest idea of how a parts department should be run.

------------------
Scott Chatman

Jeff,
I say "ditto" to what Chuck says.

Scott,
I guess your comment about where a Fixed Operations Manager comes from depends and he/she knows depends on the person. Myself, I was trained body technician but sought an opening parts and reamined in parts for 14 years, and the last 11 has been as a Fixed Operations.

Jeff and Scott,
Alot of what a Fixed Opeations Manager does depends on the dealership. I have worked at dealerships during my parts years where one wasn't needed and also where one was necessary.
If in a medium size dealership and there is no General Manager, or the General Manager or Dealer is Sales Department oriented (most are), then they can make a difference. In larger Dealerships, there's alot that gets lost in the shuffle if they don't have one. In short, they are to be business and customer minded individuals who "tie" the "back end together".

Sam

Scott,

A fixed operations manager can come from parts as well (I did!). In the ISPS conferences that WD&S has hosted we usually see that the term 'Service & Parts Director' and 'Parts & Service Director' are very intentional. Those who have "Service" first come from the service side, those who have "Parts" first come from the parts side and they were not shy to admit that.

Sam says it best; the reason for a fixed operations manager is to 'bring parts, service, and body shop together and a single operation functioning for the good of the customer and the dealer.

As a parts director, once I started to see the conflicts that were typical between service and parts as my problem, (and I was paid off the performance of all the department's net profit) I began to look for common ground and ways to fuse the problems together. One way was to pay the parts, service, and body shop manager off the same net profit line I was paid on. The result; in 18 months we were able to increase our "NET PROFIT 41%". As I would like to take credit for this, it really was the managers working together and coming up with common solutions rather than fighting against each other that led to such a significant increase.

Chuck Hartle'

You may consider a Fixed Operations Admisistator position, rather than a Manager, this allows a unification of the dept.'s and places a person in a position to work with the managers to make everything euitable. There are drawbacks both ways, I've worked it both ways, the big factor seems to be the ability of the person you place in the job, experience is less valuable than versatility. give it a thought it can be very successful.

I am a FOM. I used to spend most of my day fire fighting in the service and parts departments. Then I sat the service manager and the parts managers down and informed them that their departments have been merged into one. They are now paid on Fixed Ops Profit. Better start working together. It took a while, but it is amazing how many conflicts they resolve before it gets to me. One common thread, PAY, was all it took. Now, I am free during the day to put together the information they need to make sensible decisions that positively impact the dealership and its employees. One session of "no more he said she said" with a stern but fair delivery can do alot of good.