Detail department expectations

[j_corwin]

Need to know if my expectations are in line or not. Over the years we have done recon in house and also out-sourced. Currently done in house however I am not pleased with turn around time. Need to know if any one has intelligent data or benchmarks. I rtealize that an 04 model with 12k miles will take less time than an 01 with 75k miles. Just want to know if anyone is really on top of the detail department enough to guide me.

------------------

[scotstrong]

First question would be whether or not your detailers are hourly or flat rate. If they are hourly, changing them to flat rate gives them far more incentive to improve their productivity. Only caution here would be that there needs to be minimum quality standards that are enforced so that they are not totally sacrificing quality for quantity.

Scot Strong

[Old Irish]

I have two flat rate detailers. The expectation is they should each bang out 2 cars per day.

If you look at day-by-day production is obviously doesn't always work out that way, but if you look at a month's worth of work you'll see that the numbers usually fall into place.

Like any other flat rate work, they gotta take the good with the bad. For 3 days they may get nothin' but dually crew cabs that have been used by a logging company, then the next 3 days they may a whole slew of auction cars with 12K miles each......

The problem we have is the "rubber band" situation: one week with only a few cars... then the next week used car department will buy 25 auction cars and dump 'em on us all at once....and want 'em all done "tomorrow", of course (That's a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the idea!)

Cheers
DD

[ras2]

Old Irish,

We are considering putting our detailers on a production pay plan as well .. Could you give a little feedback in the following questions ---\

What pay rate range do you have your production paid detailers on? With only having two detailers, How do you handle Saturdays, delivery washes, and demo Washes? One last thing, What is your flag time for a wash and flag time for a detail

[Old Irish]

The detailers are paid $12.50/flat rate hour and flag 4.0 hours per car. Sometimes some real "pigs" come long and we give 'em an hour or two extra but that's an exception. Used car department pays $175.

These guys do all the used car details and and whatever customer pay ones we sell on the service desk.

New car department has their own hourly lot attendants/helpers who do demo washing, delivery washing and fluffing. Service department lot attendants wash customers' cars, as needed, for service department.

Detail supplies, by the way, are billed to the shop supply account. Each month we count the total number of details done and allow $15.00 each for supplies. If we do 80 details then $1200.00 comes off the labor gross and is used to off-set supply expense.

Quality control can be a problem and requires a constant vigil be kept.

Pressure washing engine compartments can be a problem, too. If they guys are not careful electronics can be damaged. For instance, service department recently had to "eat" a $1500 ABS module on a used Lexus---it got water logged. That hurts.

Cheers
DD

[This message has been edited by Old Irish (edited 12-31-2005).]

[j_corwin]

Appreciate the input. Being a smaller store we normally have 2 to 3 guys who do it all. Detail/wash for delivery/lot maintainance etc. Just seems that it takes waaaaaaaay to long to get a unit turned around. Flat rate will likely not work in my situation. I will have lulls where there might not be a detail. At that point they are maintaining what is here. I realize if detail was all they did that flat rate would be the way. I need to figure out a way to increase productivity. I guess the real question should have been...does anyone have a good baseline. Old Irish says 4 hours per car unless it is a pig. Any other input appreciated.