Digital Dealer - March 2018 - 42

F I X E D O P E R AT I O N S

Continued from pg. 40

The sacrificial piston had
sent a powerful message.
Beside a few other areas
to shore up, this was not
a difficult fix and good
numbers were generated
in a short period. (Sorry
for the engine analogy - it
just seemed to fit)
CASE TWO: Here,
there was a history of
marginal to poor management decisions, many
determined as short-term
fixes, which then created
long-term negative consequences. Way over-paid
metal techs versus the
menial insurance rates,
unanalyzed complex
processes which caused
the need for more support
personnel than productive
ones, little to no security
of parts and supplies, a
generous handout of stall
space per producer at a
monthly expense of over
$8,000 per stall limiting
the available staffing
areas, little benefit to
the company from the
prepper position, overly
well-paid and too comfy
management, infighting
and unhappy everyone,
and to top it all off, a
poorly designed facility for
the application creating a
multitude of other issues.
Essentially, the facility
would have to be twicesized to just to pay for the
well-paid support clique.
Ugh.
CASE THREE: Yuengling Lager and beer goggles ... Wait, sorry that's
for another article.

BINGING ON CHANGE

Since we could not
locate the reputed magic
wand, this project took
a year to completely
reverse. This shop man42

MARCH 2018

aged to denigrate all five
of the vital ingredients
in the profit recipe. The
good news was that all
was fixable, provided
there was enough commitment from top management to the difficult
decisions that were going
to have to be made, and
thankfully there was. But
this type of improvement
need is a series of the old
adage: "Change is two
steps forward and one
step back," which defines
that change creates
more potentially difficult
situations to be dealt with
effectively, and no one
knows what those will be

chumps, it's used for
everyone's benefit starting with the government
taxes. Without it these
bozos couldn't pay their
bills without borrowing
(oh, yeah that's right, they
do that now), there would
be no new equipment,
building adds and fixes,
bonuses, raises, marketing funds, additional
help, and the list goes on.
Profit is attainable for just
about any department
provided the five vital
ingredients of the recipe
are managed correctly,
peppered with some motivation and endurance.
No one said it would be

...MANAGERS
BECOME COMFORTABLE
MAINTAINERS, AND
UNCOMFORTABLE
CHANGERS. THINK OF
THE PAINLESS 'THAT'S
THE WAY WE HAVE
ALWAYS DONE IT'
SYNDROME."
until the adjustment is
made. Unfortunately, too
many are defeated by the
second round of pushbacks, after overcoming
the first. This reality is
probably the number
one reason managers
become comfortable
maintainers, and uncomfortable changers. Think
of the painless "That's
the way we have always
done it" syndrome.
Attaining a reasonable
profit is an essential task
of every department manager. While profit may
be a dirty word to some

D I G I TA L D E A L E R . C O M

a "piece of cake," like my
now learned good friend
Mainer Dan would say.
LESSON

Here's the reality of
fixing any department.
Start with a vision. The
other day I was with a
suffering client, and I
asked the department
manager to design the
personnel makeup of the
department starting with
a completely clean sheet,
including all staffing,
locations, payplans, performance objectives, and
budgets. He did and after
a few massages of his

info, this is now the vision
that we are targeting.
So, the next steps are
to analyze the five vitals
to determine how we
will progress. If it takes
three months, six months,
or an intense year, we
will march forward until
this vision is achieved.
Without this detailed image, where would we be
going? I guess anywhere
would be acceptable,
something I witness too
much in the dealer world.
GIMME SUMTON

If you want to take a
look at your service and/
or body operation using
the five vitals (not to be
confused with vittles)
send me a note to Ed@
NetProfitGroup.com and
put on the subject line
"Push them vitals my way
Pablo" and I'll send you
a nifty little Excel workbook to sift through. Who
knows, you might cook
up some delicious actions
while you sip on your cool
Yuengling.
ED KOVALCHICK has
traveled the world training
and consulting in ﬁxed operations with manufacturers
and dealers. His extensive
background includes master
technician status, independent shop owner, dealer
with all Chrysler & Nissan
franchises, and founder
of Net Proﬁt Inc., ﬁxed
operations consulting and
training. He is a graduate of
the University of Louisiana,
and has served as state
president of the Automotive
Service Councils, and the
advisory boards of Wyo Tech
and Virginia College. He has
been a regular columnist and
conference presenter with
Dealer Magazine and Digital
Dealer since 1995. EMAIL:
Ed@NetProﬁtGroup.com.
http://www.DIGITALDEALER.COM
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Digital Dealer - March 2018
