As a vehicle owner it’s safe to say that at some point your pride and joy will be involved in a collision. Whether it was your own misjudgment or someone else's that caused the mishap, the end result is the same. It will have to go to the body shop for repair. The exchange between vehicle owner and repair shop usually follows the same script “how long will it take to repair?” asks the owner “depends on how long it takes to get the parts and what else we find” is the reply.
It’s easy to forget that as it is a bricks-and-mortar business, where all stages in the repair process are manual, executed by skilled automotive repair technicians, rather than an automated or “high tech” environment, that they too are using KPI’s to increase production throughput, increase earnings and keep customers and insurance companies happy.
It was something I had never considered until I stumbled across a fascinating blog post by Chris Sheehy of the Auto Body Consulting Group.
He explains in his article how the automotive repair industry use a KPI called Cycle-Time and why its one of the most important KPI’s they track. The industry standard is around 10 days which is averaged out from minor scrapes to “train wrecks”.
The industry also looks at it from a production and a customer perspective, which varies the formula for the calculation.
Production Biased Cycle Time: The average number of calendar days elapsed from the date the vehicle was received at their business, to the date the repairs were completed.
Customer Biased Cycle Time: The average number of calendar days elapsed from the date the vehicle was received at their business, to the date the customer took delivery.
Analyzing the variance in Cycle Time between Production and Customer bias enables a shop to improve its workflow process, get cars back to their customers sooner and reduce costs to insurers through shorter rental costs. This in turn helps to provide am improved customer experience and lower insurance premiums.
It’s reassuring to know KPI’s are not only important to large enterprises but they also apply to the local body shop.
Next time my car is in the shop for repair I will be sure to ask how they calculate cycle time!
The entire article can be read at Chris’s blog page http://bit.ly/jakSg
