appointments and shop overload

[jharkey]

Am having a time trying to schedule work. We either have 15 to 25 carry overs, or have techs with no work at 2:00 pm. We do have used vehicles to fall back on, but that brings down the gross. There are 11 line techs and 3 advisors, any best pratices out there to share?

[norbray]

We have had good results from selling available hours. We set appointments for 65% of our calculated available hours(tech clock hours x 125%).

[robc]

I wish I had more answers, but part of it revolves around how you are scheduling and how early in the day you can recognize the problem.

Your scheduling has to allow some changes on the fly. If the first three jobs a tech pulls in results in diag and then SOP, clearly he is going to run quickly out of work. We should know what is going on by 11am and be looking for work. That way when someone calls asking about our next appointment we can say, how about today?

The same is true of overloading .. if our first couple of jobs turn out to be nightmares we can call the afternoon people and offer rescheduling if possible.

Oh and one other tidbit, especially with many of us going to daily part orders, if the shop begins to look like it is going to fall flat by mid-morning, get back to parts to see what SOP's have come in today.

I wish I had more.

------------------
** Rob, Editor WD&S **
Help is only a message post away!
robc@dealersedge.com

[This message has been edited by robc (edited 09-03-2002).]

[Fixedopsmgr]

I HAVE 1 PERSON THAT SCHEDULES ALL APPOINTMENTS. SHE ASSIGNS TIME TO EACH ONE. WE ALWAYS SCHEDULE 60-70% OF AVAILABLE TIME AS APPOINTMENTS AND LET THE TOW-INS AND NO APPTS FILL THE REST OF THE DAY. IT WORKS GREAT FOR US AND THE TECHS ARE AVERAGING 50-60 HOURS PER WEEK. IF WE SELL A LARGE JOB WE TRY TO AUTOMATICALLY CARRY IT OVER. THEN IF WE GET IT DONE WE HAVE OVER-DELIVERED.

GOOD LUCK

[NetProfits]

JHarkey,
Appointments and proper shoploading are very broad topics. If you would like further discussion and ideas forward your telephone in an email to me and I will be happy to call you and discuss what works well with me.

[lovemotors]

We had the same problem until we had Ed Kovalcheck from Net Profit come in and set us up with a system to preload the shop. Each advisor had their own appointment sheet and we brought the customers in every 15 minutes or so. Three advisors with three customers every 15 minutes. It took our customers a while to get used to it however after that they started showing up on time and calling if they were not going to make it. This really helped setting up the shop preload. On each appointment made the advisor would estimate the shop hours. Ed has made up a scheduling sheet that makes all of this very simple. Call Net Profit Inc.