Team System

[tmjoyboy]

I am converting my shop to a team system. How does everyone else rotate saturdays? Technicians works 8-6 M-F, and 8-5 on Saturdays.

[Tyler Robbins]

Assuming that by "Team System" you are transitioning to "True-Team (Shared Pay), than:

Depending on the number of technicians in your shop AND the number of teams you're creating AND the number of technicians that are working on Saturday.

Ideally, you ROTATE an entire team to work Saturday, otherwise you will have to work out either:

A) A Team member who works Saturday contributes to the Teams weekly total and is shared appropriately.

OR

B) Pay differently on Saturdays.

Many shops, again, depending on the size, work volume, etc ALSO have also transitioned to 4 Day work weeks - this can be beneficial as it allows Saturday to become a "real" day.

The 4 Day work week does have other challenges and benefits, though, that I wont get into here unless someone requests it.

[tmjoyboy]

I understand theories and different shop structures. What my question was, and maybe I didn't phrase it correctly is "People that are not on 3 day work weeks, how do you rotate Saturdays amongst teams?" I am looking for proven shifts that work and not a class on Production systems.

[btk]

It depends on your pay period and work week.
For example we rotate Saturdays by the following schedule- Monday thru Saturday off Sun,Mon then work Tues-Fri the following week and then the teams rotate. The pay period is from Wednesday to Tuesday paid weekly on Friday. This way they get a 5 day work week

[Tyler Robbins]

(Assuming you are closed Sundays) If you want a PROVEN to work kind of schedule, then to me "proven" means that you actually generate more hours by being open more hours...

With that being said - Saturdays should be an "Extra Day" of the week. In other words, the week that you rotate in on Saturday is a 6 Day Week, in which case you can rotate them in as easily as you want.

If a tech works Saturday, but gets another day off through the week than you havent "gained" anything... regardless of the schedule.

In these times - every opportunity for the shop to generate more hours is essential to the ongoing stability of the entire operation. Technicians are a part of this same economy and the shop, and as much as no one would "choose" to work a 6 day week, by doing so, they also realize an extra opportunity to generate more pay for themselves too.

If you're looking for a "shift" that will cover more available hours and make everyone happy (without hiring more techs) it isnt out there.... If a tech currently working a 40 hour week (80 hour pay period) is asked to now work an 88 hour pay period and not feel like he made some kind of concession, it doesn't matter how you structure it.. Team or otherwise..

Again - if you are working with Teams - ideally, you rotate in the WHOLE Team to work it's every other or every third Saturday.

[btk]

Tyler,

If I understand your post correctly, although I agree with the premise about adding capacity. A six day work week with overtime doesnt make sense no matter how much you produced extra , it would be taken away by your increased overtime costs.

Secondly, I feel that Saturdays is the best day of the week for service work, so by adding 2 techs on a Saturday and giving them a Tuesday off, you may see a sustantial increase in hours produced for the week. Just my thought

[Tyler Robbins]

Not knowing exactly what your overtime costs are...I do appreciate that Saturdays tend to be very productive days, all the more reason to want to ADD that additional capacity, right?

Let's create an example:

Assume - 10 Techs producing at 100% (8 hours per day) with a gross of 75% and lets say a $75 Total (all pay types) ELR. So every hour generates $56.25 in Labor Gross and in this sample assuming all 10 guys working M-F) that generates $22,500 in Labor Gross per week. (2250 per man per week which is 450 per man per day M-F).

Seperately lets assume that a Saturday generates, as you mentioned, more productivity, so modestly, lets assume 10 hours produced on Saturday per man, instead of the weekly 8 hours. Lets assume a DRAMATIC overtime cost of 10% additional cost.

10 hours X $75 ELR X 65% Gross = $487.50 in additional labor gross per man per Saturday, OR in other words:

So even if you had to pay 10% overtime, you are still AHEAD an extra $487.50 per man each Saturday.

Factor in Parts gross at a 1:1 ratio and you have another every tech will generate an additional $262.50 per day in Parts gross.

So even an "overtime included" Saturday generates a total of $750 in additional gross profit (P&L) per man per Saturday worked.

If you have to make a choice, a Non-Overtime Saturday (because of a Day off through the week) would generate the same Saturday parts gross and $562.50 per man in labor.

The Parts gross generated on a weekday is $210 per man per day.

So here are all of the daily grosses:

A weekday generates: $560 in P&L Gross
A Saturday generates: $825 in P&L Gross
An Overtime Saturday: $750 in P&L Gross

So - If you "swap" out a weekday for a Saturday to avoid the overtime, you actually only gain $265.

HOWEVER, if you make it an additional day, and even with paying the overtime - you are ahead the full $750 in gross for each guy working each Saturday.

I know the topic of this thread is scheduling, so to me - the logical choice is to schedule the 6th working day and realize that extra $750!