RECENT PROJECTS
Over the past 10 years, I have been able to make my mark on several workshops of varying sizes. The owner has allowed me to put into place processes and procedures that have made the job easier for all and improved the customer experiences.
PROJECT // 01
I inherited a workshop of 12 technicians that was, dysfunctional. It was the norm for between 2 & 4 techs were each day because 'they could not be bothered to come in.".
Revenue was also an issue, re-work was an issue. I asked for help from one of the directors, nothing transpired.
I listened to the technicians, I got reamed by some customers, and sought feedback from the other departments. Quite basically the tail was wagging the dog.
Historically, the service department was a consistent performer during hard and good times. The team needed to hear this and some lost boundaries re-established.
We had a workshop meeting where I literally put a line in the sand and gave them what was later referred to as Phil's 10 commandments. These were only things that you would expect any employee to do, such as start work on time, fill out your paperwork when the job is completed, no smoking in the workshop.
This was met with, that is what we are supposed to do. During the next few months, I lost three techs (they were helped on their way) and replaced them with two new people.
They were the bad apples that were tarnishing things, the workshop started to improve then.
During this time I also made many changes to the administration processes. We introduced an electronic booking system (this was already part of our software programme) and we streamlined how we did our invoicing to stop double/treble handling of job cards.
I changed the roles of all the admin staff and gave them new roles and position descriptions to ensure all the tasks were being carried out correctly. We were starting to take shape.
I promote two techs to become supervisors. This turned out to be a mistake. Instead of supervising they became lazy and antagonistic.
COVID hit and we all had to take a good look at ourselves. During the lockdown, I completely caught up with all the admin and rewrote what and how it should be done. I also looked at our staffing and where were the issues. I had to reduce numbers. We lost three people (two were the supervisors). Since that day the department increased revenue with fewer people.
PROJECT // 02
On my first day in a new position, one of the technicians resigned. He was leaving to go and work for a workshop that had been set up, literally across the road.
A week later I was sat in the tea room and watched two of the techs looking out the window at the newly formed workshop in disgust. I quizzed my foreman as to what was the problem. He informed me that the previous workshop manager & foremen had taken the majority of the customers and set up next door. To further add to the dilemma. The owner of our building and the one across the road had sold our business to a group of dealers and took the software and given it to our rivals with all the previous customer data on it, great!
I then found out that we had lost a lot of work to these people who knew all the customers and had been servicing them for several years, so the customers did not really know any difference. Their company name was similar to that of the old company name, whereas our name had changed
I had to act fast and hard to make something good out of a bad hand. I informed the director I was going to talk to the boys on Monday, he was cautious. I prepared my talk to the boys and set the meeting for 07:00 on Monday morning.
I sat there opposite them in the tea room and looked them straight in the eye and said: I can not change the past, what is done is done; however, I can change the future. You have three choices, 1 - put up and shut up, 2 - leave and find another job, or 3 - do something about it, I paused, what do you want to do?
I had only prepared for one answer. After a short time, they all said "do something". I said OK, all in the board room.
I laid out my plan. We had 4 mobile technicians that were not very busy. I gave them an area each and said they would spend two days a week in these areas work or no work showing a presence in the area and calling on the farmers that were next door to the jobs they had done.
The workshop-based techs would carry out their repairs and if possible deliver the machines after repair and talk to the customers at length.
Within 6 months the mobile techs were fully employed in their areas and the workshop had enough work to keep them busy.