Continous Improvement

We are almost to the end of January and I hope everybody has had a chance to reel in their 2011 numbers.  While those numbers are fresh in your mind I encourage you to look them over and pick three that you feel you can improve on.  Then unlike the New Year’s resolutions you made just under a month ago, look at these numbers with some scrutiny and develop a plan to improve them throughout 2012.   What numbers you select will be different from each other but the ones I like to look at every year on the financial side are; Paint Material Sales per Flag Hour, Overhead Expense as a percentage of Sales, and Total Gross Profit, then on the operations side I like to check closing ratios, CSI scores, and Technician Production percentages.  Once you pick your numbers find out what they would be if you increased them by 1%.  Those that know me well have heard me talk about the power of 1, the number is small by itself but when it is used as a multiplier the magic begins. Let’s say your total gross profit is 42%, what would that dollar amount look like it   if your gross profit was 43%?  What would your closing ratio look like if it was 78% instead of 77%?  I think you will find that increasing any number you look at by 1% will improve your bottom line substantially.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!

As we move forward in the New Year I hope all reflect on 2011, bring the good forward, leave the mistakes behind and have a very prosperous 2012.  I believe things are progressing well for our industry and see many good things coming.  NACE and SEMA were both very good shows this year and I only see things getting better for those two venues.  SCRS, CIC and I-CAR as well as several other organizations are constantly working to improve our industry by raising standards, bringing understanding and developing certifications.  I look forward to seeing you somewhere in my travels and appreciate the following as I try to bring information you can use through this blog.  Please be safe this holiday season, we need all of you !

Marketing Tactics

Did you notice how companies changed their marketing for the holidays?  Black Friday - Cyber Monday – Super Saturday, they even had a couple of jingles for the procrastinators = me!  They continually modified their targets to meet a different group of people to create a steady stream of buyers.  Just like the companies working to get their fair share of customers during the holiday season you need to alter your marketing efforts to keep your shop full.  Marketing is an ongoing process, you have to continually market your customer base, you have to explore areas you are not reaching and you have to diversify your tactics over the different media opportunities.  In Michael E. Gerber’s book E Myth Mastery   he discusses six disciplines involving awareness, motivation, acceptance, brand preference, purchase transaction and customer satisfaction.  From this it is evident that you have to ensure you generate awareness of your collision center, motivate potential customers to drive to your facility, create an acceptance of what you offer, identify your brand as unique, explain the processes that makes doing business with you attractive and capitalize on  your customer satisfaction index.  Kelly McDonald, President of McDonald Marketing, book How to Market to People Not Like You gives insight on how to market those areas you are not reaching with your current methods.  She explains how to “Get to Know the Customer You’re Not Getting but Should Be” in chapter two and in chapter five she describes how to “Communicate in Their ‘‘Language’’: Develop Marketing Messages Based on Their Values”.  She continues in discussion about Gen Y’s, X’s and Z’s and how to approach them.  You can find many other books on marketing but I enjoyed these two and believe you will also. 

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas

The Christmas season has rolled around quickly again this year, I hope all are a little more prepared than I.  This is one of my favorite times of year and look forward to the celebrations, my wish to you is that you are able to celebrate this holiday in the method, fashion and style you are accustomed.  It brings great joy to see the number of military members being returned home, and think about the ones remaining in harm’s way protecting us as we gather with family and friends.  Please keep them in your thoughts and reach out to their family members if they are near you.

Operating Lean Saves You Money

I get asked often how lean can save shops money and I always answer "by eliminating waste." Lean management is the theory of eliminating waste by refining processes. As you journey through the lean process you will incorporate the 5S Kaizen philosophy and identify items in your operation that can be eliminated through one of the seven elements of waste. The 5S Kaizen philosophy is based on five Japanese words that begin with S: Seiri – Sort, Seiton – Set in order, Seiso – Shine, Seitetsu – Standardize, and Shitsuke – Sustain. By progressing through the 5S steps you will develop habits that will streamline your operation, remove waste and ultimately save money.
For the complete article visit: http://abrn.search-autoparts.com/abrn/Training/Operating-lean-can-save-your-shop-money/ArticleStandard/Article/detail/749279

Continuous Improvement

I probably read the best quote in a while about Continuous Improvement (Lean) on Don Sweigart’s twitter page @donsweigart where he said “If it doesn’t solve a problem, you don’t need it.”  Think about that quote and then look around your shop and see how much you are holding onto or check out a process that you work through everyday just because…..you have always done it that way.  I think you will find there are tasks being accomplished that do not really serve a purpose or more importantly they mask a process that is not being followed.  To have true continuous improvement each task must stand on its own merit.  Each process should have a Quality-In standard as well as a Quality-Out standard.  Those two standards set the expectations of what comes out of a process as well as what is sent to the next process.  Without measuring those expectations you pass problems downstream until either somebody stops and corrects the defect or the defect stops production.  Either way time is lost correcting the defect.  Look around and if it doesn’t solve a problem, you don’t need it, it is time to get rid of it.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving

I wish all of you a very Happy Thanksgiving.  As I look in the mirror and reflect over the last year I have found many things to be thankful for, most of all I appreciate those that read my blog.  I work to document things that have moved forward in my mind that I think others can learn from, that is the goal of JSE Consulting LLC, to help others grow.  I am thankful that I am in a position to use my company as a tool to make the collision industry better, one person or shop at a time.  Thanks for reading and I hope you find many things to be thankful for in your mirror too.