For established workshops with a tight control on quality, focusing on speed is the next logical step.
Improving your vehicle turnaround is great for your output and revenue. But it’s also a safeguard against the unexpected — delays, complications, and surges in demand.
Here are the optimisations that can quickly add up to dramatically improve your vehicle turnaround times:
Minimise Movement
We’ve talked before about the importance of a streamlined workshop layout — as well as the common layout mistakes we see in some workshops.
The main issue we see repeated is excessive movement: of both the vehicles themselves, and your teams on the shop floor.
So if you’re able to make tweaks to the setup in your shop, you can start by looking at:
- Creating a one-way flow through the shop — to avoid queues and congestion
- Grouping your workstations in clusters — by shared equipment, related services, or jobs that naturally effect each other
- Stacking services in one location — like installing a brake tester over your vehicle pit
- Storing tools and parts close to where they’re needed — to minimise back and forth.
When you minimise vehicle travel, there’s less time wasted on careful positioning. You’re reducing the risk of congestion or queues, and cutting down the time each vehicle spends in the shop.
Fast-Track Quick Services
Some vehicles won’t need the full works every time. But if they’re still being processed in the same way, you’re missing out on an opportunity to improve your average turnaround time.
We see lots of workshops planning with this in mind, with a ‘fast-track’ system for their quick-job vehicles. That usually means:
- Finding the work stations that deal with the quickest jobs (like oil changes or emissions testing)
- Placing those stations next to the workshop entrance (so vehicles can get straight in)
- Creating a lane from these stations directly to the workshop exit (so they can get straight out).
With the quick in-and-out of these fast-track services, you can process certain vehicles much faster than usual. They spend less time on the shop floor causing queues or congestion, and they add up to a faster overall turnaround time.
Cross-Train Your Staff
This is something that’s easy to neglect — and an area where a lot of workshops could see improvements.
In the normal day-to-day, having a specialised team is great for productivity and speed. Each team member can be assigned to the services they excel at, and every job gets done at the fastest pace.
But when things slip into unexpected situations, having an adaptable team can have a huge impact on your turnaround times.
That could look like:
- Rotating staff to struggling departments — when one team has a backlog, and the other is quieter than usual
- Picking up the slack during sickness — if your fastest specialists in one area are absent from work
- Meeting a sudden surge in demand — either seasonal fluctuations, or a batch of failed MOTs.
When you spread training and knowledge across a wider range of staff, you’re creating a balanced team that’s ready for the unexpected — reducing the risk of your workshop being overwhelmed, and keeping a fast flow of vehicles throughout every situation.
Use Automated Equipment
As well as your workshop layout and the skills in your teams, the equipment you use can be a huge time-saver that leads to faster turnarounds.
Modern tech almost always means higher efficiency — and even more so when you switch to equipment that automates some of the time-consuming tasks.
That could mean looking at:
- A drive-through wheel alignment system — with laser scanning to automatically analyse the wheels and tyre tread
- Headlamp testers with automatic positioning and alignment
- Emissions analysers with automatic calibration
- Multi-brand diagnostic equipment — to give your teams instant access to diagrams and instructions for the exact vehicles they’re servicing.
These automated processes help to cut down on the number of manual steps your technicians take with each vehicle — saving them time and energy, and creating a faster turnaround for your vehicles.
Need Tech That Saves Time?
We’ve got a huge range of vehicle workshop equipment using the latest advances in modern equipment — with time-saving features that keeps your teams moving throughout the busiest periods.
You can see our full range in our online shop — or chat with a workshop expert to see the equipment that gives your throughput a boost.
This article was originally published by Totalkare
