Work mix can mean two different things. The first is the quantity of work you take from one source and the second is the type of work you bring in to your shop.
The first one is controlled by marketing. Working arrangements with insurance companies has weakened our industry because some have forgotten how to market and have let insurance companies control their shops. When the flow of work from that insurance company slows down the shop dies. I always recommend holding work flow from any entity at 22%. If work from any source exceeds that amount you need to market to increase the work flow from your other sources, ie; fleet accounts, customer pay work or other profit centers. Once you let any source overtake your shop you become a slave to the entity and they have captured your business.
The second is controlled by scheduling. Using the workload scheduling program within most management systems will allow you to schedule the type of work you need to keep your technicians busy. I have shop managers and owners tell me they have a full slate of hard hits but not much light work to fill in the gaps. My first question is "How did you schedule it?" Most take work as it comes and I completely agree that you need to "grab keys" but effective scheduling will eliminate the peaks and valleys.
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)