To Dispatch or Not Dispatch?

[dodgeboy]

I NEED SOME ADVICE ON USING A DISPATCHER FOR MY SHOP. I RUN A SMALL/MEDIUM SIZE SHOP.
USUALLY 8 TECHNICIAN (7 AT THIS TIME) MY GM IS CONVINCED THAT I HIRE A DISPATCHER. CURRENTLY I (SERVICE MANAGER) DISPATCH WORK TO THE TECHS. I DO NOT PLAY FAVORITES, AND I KEEP TRACK OF PRODUCTIVITY AND TECH HOURS. I TRY TO BE FAIR IN THE WORK LOAD BEING HANDED OUT. I FEEL THE SHOP IS SMALL ENOUGH EVEN DURING BUSY TIMES THAT I CAN HANDLE THE DISPATCH DUTIES, AND IT ALLOWS ME TO SUPERVISE THE SHOP. MY GM THINKS THAT A DISPATCHER WILL INCREASE SHOP PRODUCTIVITY?
I FEEL A LITTLE UNCOMFORTABLE HANDING OVER THAT RESPONSIBILITY TO SOMEONE ELSE. I KNOW ALOT OF YOU GUYS ARE USING A DISPATCHER, GIVE ME THE UPSIDE AND THE DOWN SIDE. I AM CONCERNED WITH ADDING ANOTHER EXPENSE TO MY DEPT. MY INACTIVITY ON THIS MATTER IS STARTING TO TICK OFF MY GM.

[flyboy]

You may want to give thought to simple support groups and have your writers work with four techs each and they dispatch the work. As your shop grows it will be much easier to be productive and keep some controll. As to the diaspatcher, well, I am dead set against it, though it works is some shops.

Let us know what you decide!

Mark

[Richard]

Maybe a dispatcher ISN'T the answer; maybe you need to try what we are, someone to work as a go-between/gopher for parts and service. This person sits outside our shop counter, the RO printer is beside him, so as soon as an advisor prints an RO, he gives one copy to a parts counterperson, and then gives the other copy to the techician (chosen by skill level and availibility). The parts counter person can be looking up parts, or pulling special order parts, while the porter is pulling the vehicle into the stall for the chosen tech. Also, the gopher gets all parts/servie quotes, and takes them to the advisors for approval. So far it has freed up techs, and service writers to do other things.

[Ser Sol]

If the issue is shop productivity, I do not believe that a dispatcher will help. Work mix is what deternimes shop production. With repair work at 100%, warranty work at 70%, and maintenance at 135%, it is easy to see that an appropriate work mix should lift shop production. It takes an effective selling system with the proper management tools and training to wring out the potential production every shop has.

If you are not hitting 105% to 120% production per day (9 to 11 hrs per tech), there is significant room to improve.

I agree about adding lateral support groups. It makes selling easier and any writer can handle 4 techs - 5 is optimal.

Pika68@aol.com

[PartsGuy72]

Coming from the parts counter point of view having a go between guy is a good idea for those RO's that may have recall or simple oil change type of jobs but for jobs that need a tech's diagnosis I cant see where it would be all that helpful. In the several Chevy stores that I have worked for in my career I have seen a "favoritism" problem in regards to shops with a dedicated dispatcher. The Toyota store I now work for have 4 techs per advisor and the techs and the writers seem to be alot more productive this way. Hope you find a system that works for you.

[NetProfits]

I have never seen a favorable or profitable ending in a shop with a dispatcher. Toyota has had the right idea since the 80's. Simple support groups (1 advisor per 4 techs) works great and has for me since 1990. Try it, you'll like it. Besides, if you are the Service Manager with 8 technicians, you can't possibly be managing what you should and efficiently carry out the duties of dispatching also. I use simple support groups in a GM shop. This also gives your service advisors control of their day and more assurances of keeping their promise to the customer. Favoritism will be minimized, if not gone altogether, and you will know quickly if there is favoritism. Give it a try for 30 days or 60 days with commitment and you will probably see the shop gross rise. Scrap the dispatcher idea, become the Service Manager and go to groups. Your GM will be happy with the results as long as he isn't living in the dark ages.

[Doug]

I agree. Dump the dispatch idea, go to production groups.

Doug

[David Cates]

Would a conversation on automated dispatching be appropriate at this point?

I am referring to ADP's ERO, R&R's ESI, etc..

Just curious.

[dodgeboy]

David, I would be open to conversation on anything related to this topic. I would like as many options as possible. So far it seems like most feel like I do about this. We use R&R, but not for dispatching. But I have been told by others on the R&R dispatching system that there are creative ways the technicians can manipulate the system. Any feedback is helpful, Thanks

[flyboy]

If you go to the groups, lateral support or teams you can save yourself a huge amount of money on the DSM systems, and you wont need it anyway. You might want to look at ESI or ERO, but I would forgo the Dispatching altogether, you just wont need it.