EXTENDED HOUR WORK SCHEDULE

[gfagen]

we have a large very busy service department
and are extending our hours to 6 day working
from 7 to 7 with the tech's & advisors working 4 days on and 3 days off, i know some
of you out there are doing this and it's working very well, does anyone have a schedule which has them switching every 2-3 weeks so everyone has weekends off at times
and also have coverage in the shop for the work coming in we would like to be fair to everyone.

need some help and idea's

[daponik]

Bump for this thread. We started doing this a few months ago and I think we still have a few kinks to work out. It was supposed to be a godsend for techs and advisors - but lately it seems like a bigger headache.

I would love to hear what some of the guys doing this successfully are doing right.

[AKTOYPM]

7AM-7PM 7 DAYS A WEEK (yep 84 hours a week)
for several years
Get ready for a treadmill of problems and compromises.

[dodgeboy]

I was hoping to see more discussuion on this topic than what has been posted. I am also looking at extended service hours for our shop. One of the major stumbling blocks I have is shop size. I have 7 bays, 1 alignment bay and 7 techs. (usually have 8 techs) There are no flat stalls for anyone, and we are severly squeezed for space. Adding techs for additional hours would be difficult as there is no place to store their tool boxes. I have tried to convince our owner that we need more room to grow, not necessarily more hours to work. That has been an issue of discussion lately. So, anyone out there with a very small, cramped shop have any advice on maximizing shop potential or extending hours without losing techs please let me know.

[davedineen]

Our Parts and Service Department is open from 7am to 8pm Monday thru Thursday, 7am to 6 pm on Friday, and 8am to Noon on Sat. We have our shop divided into four "groups" and they work one late shift per week on a specific day. (example, group one works from 10am to 8pm on Monday, group two works from 10am to 8pm on Tuesday) They also work as a group on a 4 week rotation for Saturday hours. Thier service advisor works with them. I have tried many other systems in the last 10 years and this is the best and most effective system that I have found. It's easy to understand, people know when they are supposed to work, and are responsible to find their replacement if they are on vacation, etc.

[jdaniel]

We ran parts & service at 4 stores from 7a-8p Monday-Saturday for many years. It worked where the manager bought into it and actually scheduled the work to take advantage of it.
The biggest problems were hiring enough people to cover the extended hours and continuity of service. With most advisors and techs working 3 or 4 days a week we had continuous communication problems between shifts and teams. Again, management's commitment reduced (but not eliminated) the problems. We started out working most employees 3 13 hour days with 4 days off, many liked that- they used the extra time off to moonlight or start their own businesses. We adjusted several employees to 4 and 5 day workweeks which smoothed out some of the problems, but made for ugly schedules.
We phased it out a few years ago when the tech shortage made it too hard to staff the hours (and management gave up on the idea).

If you have the people to do it and work out the communication channels so that cars and customers don't get lost it could really stretch your capacity.

Good Luck
Jack