Tips for Keeping Your Car Bays Ready For Clients
As a car mechanic, you need to keep your car bays ready to work on client vehicles. Whether you own a shop, or you work for someone else, keeping your equipment together is vital to running your repair shop.
Keeping your repair bays equipped and running smoothly will help you repair client vehicles faster and help you take on more clients. Your need to stay where you can find them. Otherwise, you won’t be able to help your clients when they come in asking for repairs. Your repair bays are the facilities in which work happens.
It doesn’t matter what type of shop you run. Every shop needs processes to run smoothly. Specialty shops like auto-body repair and more general shops can both benefit from using specific processes.
Running a repair shop involves more than working on cars. You have to keep your shop up, you have to deal with clients, and manage fellow mechanics. Here are some tips to keep your car bays running well and ready to work on client vehicles at any moment.
Larger pieces of equipment, like car jacks, battery jumper, and engine hoists, won’t move around. But smaller tools like wrenches, drills, ratchets, and more tend to walk off.
When your transmission jacks, strut compressors, brake lathes, and more have a space to live in, make sure everyone knows where that piece of equipment stays. Let them know that it needs to go back there when your mechanics are finished with it. Then, write down that location in your inventory tracking processes.
Consider using a check-in/check-out procedure to make sure your junior mechanics and assistants aren’t messing with the bigger jobs you need to do. Those jobs require you to have the tools you need, which they may have used earlier in the day.
Do you have steps for resetting your bay in between jobs? Doing a simple run through to make sure everything is in its place will help save you time when you have the car in your bay.
Audits are a useful tool to help you identify things that may be running well and things that need to change. When you identify problem areas, what steps do you take to change them? How do you handle changing policies that aren’t working for your repair shop?
Asset Panda is an excellent choice for implementing an intuitive inventory management system. Our system is customizable and works well with check-in and check-out procedures. Barcode your equipment and create asset fields for them, and Asset Panda will help you automate the process. That way, you don’t have to spend hours on inventory. Instead, you can finish the process in minutes, and go back to helping your clients.
Keeping your repair bays equipped and running smoothly will help you repair client vehicles faster and help you take on more clients. Your need to stay where you can find them. Otherwise, you won’t be able to help your clients when they come in asking for repairs. Your repair bays are the facilities in which work happens.
It doesn’t matter what type of shop you run. Every shop needs processes to run smoothly. Specialty shops like auto-body repair and more general shops can both benefit from using specific processes.
Running a repair shop involves more than working on cars. You have to keep your shop up, you have to deal with clients, and manage fellow mechanics. Here are some tips to keep your car bays running well and ready to work on client vehicles at any moment.
Designate a Space for Each Piece of Equipment
When you use your equipment, if you don’t have a designated space for your air compressors or tools, they’ll end up getting lost quickly.Larger pieces of equipment, like car jacks, battery jumper, and engine hoists, won’t move around. But smaller tools like wrenches, drills, ratchets, and more tend to walk off.
When your transmission jacks, strut compressors, brake lathes, and more have a space to live in, make sure everyone knows where that piece of equipment stays. Let them know that it needs to go back there when your mechanics are finished with it. Then, write down that location in your inventory tracking processes.
Create Processes Mechanics Follow For Using Equipment
You might find it’s most comfortable for mechanics to have free reign over your shop. However, that often results in tools and equipment going missing. That means you have to spend time looking for your tools instead of working on damaged cars.Consider using a check-in/check-out procedure to make sure your junior mechanics and assistants aren’t messing with the bigger jobs you need to do. Those jobs require you to have the tools you need, which they may have used earlier in the day.
Do you have steps for resetting your bay in between jobs? Doing a simple run through to make sure everything is in its place will help save you time when you have the car in your bay.
Run Regular Audits on Your Car Bays
Audits don’t have to be this complicated thing. You can evaluate your system to see if what you’re doing is working or not.Audits are a useful tool to help you identify things that may be running well and things that need to change. When you identify problem areas, what steps do you take to change them? How do you handle changing policies that aren’t working for your repair shop?
Use a Simple Inventory Management System
When you have dozens, if not hundreds, of pieces of equipment in your car bays, you have to use some inventory management system. But it doesn’t have to be complicated.Asset Panda is an excellent choice for implementing an intuitive inventory management system. Our system is customizable and works well with check-in and check-out procedures. Barcode your equipment and create asset fields for them, and Asset Panda will help you automate the process. That way, you don’t have to spend hours on inventory. Instead, you can finish the process in minutes, and go back to helping your clients.
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