FEATURE BY DUSTIN JONES SALE-READY SPEED Recon Workflow is a Major Indicator I f you manage a reconditioning operation, how you structure the flow of cars through that process makes a significant difference in recon's contribution to sales. The objective here is to get used cars to sale-ready quality status quicker and to sell more of your vehicles within the first 30 days you own them. Used car experts say that the window is now closer to 14 days! Know that dealers consistently meeting these objectives have achieved a recon time-to-line turn of three to five days. These principles apply to both manually operated and software-based reconditioning. Either system works best where the workflow is structured by well-defined action steps. This article looks at the importance of these steps and why. OIL THE ASSEMBLY LINE In reconditioning, the idea is to move newly acquired vehicles to sale-ready status through a minimally dis34 rupted continuum - think of an assembly line. There needs to be a series of checks and balances in this process, without having so many that it slows down the line. If the line slows, time-to-line and the critical metric it supports, speed to sale, both stumble. When your line stumbles, vehicle output dribbles rather than flows. Dribbling outputs create problems. You