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This idea was submitted by:
Fisher Motors
Minot, North Dakota
At Fisher Motors our service department used the team concept. We have four teams of which three are customer pay and one is internal. Each team has five technicians for a total of twenty. The problem is that often, especially during vacation months when tourist business is at a peak, we are left short-handed. This becomes costly in loss of labor hours and is an inconvenience to customers. We have a place for a technician, but not one there. Problem: Gross Inefficiency.
The solution to this labor hour loss was to hire the Rover. His purpose is to fill in when a team member is missing, such as school, sickness or vacation days. The Rover moves from team to team keeping efficiency to the maximum. The teams welcome him because he can do the maintenance and trivial jobs that all teams are burdened with., plus we guarantee the team a full 8 hours a day with the incentive that any hours over 8 the Rover produces can be added to the team's total at the end of the day. With this plan, the advisor and team members want to keep him busy all day. The team gets more total hours and the customer is not inconvenienced.
We selected a young man 20 years old who is ambitious and has a strong desire to learn. He has had a year of vocational training and a year at a small town dealer.
He really enjoys the opportunity to work with a variety of cars and experienced technicians and, in turn, we have the opportunity to evaluate a future technician. This has to be the best way to train a young technician.
We started him at our normal $5.75 guarantee per hour and a commission rate of $6.00 per hour to keep his interest up. If we ever have a time when all team members are present, the Rover goes to the busiest team that has the most work as the 6th man.
This system has worked out very well and will result in improved efficiency in labor hours and customer satisfaction.
