After detailing my findings to the service manager and technician, both saw their need to manage more closely and be accountable for production requirements. The service manager saw the loss in profitability and the technician in compensation. Understanding your shop's underutilized and applied times - and where that underutilized time is coming from -- is so vital a managerial task it MUST be vital to your service manager. I worked with the service manager to devise and implement a bonus productivity pay plan to incentivize greater labor efficiency. Because techs there lacked the production motivation of a flat rate shop, we instituted a bonus schedule based on specific productivity goals. HOW DID THIS HAPPEN? In a modern reconditioning shop, using reconditioning software, production can run 80% faster than manual recon-tracking. When a shop seems to be running smoothly and efficiently (at first glance), it may be masking problems in the details. Such high efficiency can mask time leaks like this example as well as other problems. When I see this happen, it is typically because managers can get lulled by the faster speed-to-sale gains recon workflow software makes possible. Thus, the importance of checking the gauges - performance details tracked and reported by the software. These reports help identify workflow bottlenecks and waste. For example, internal technician efficiency opportunities, which would have alerted the service manager here to problems with internal labor efficiency. MARCH APRIL 2022 || FIXED OPS MAGAZINE 39http://microcatparts.com