Cody, WY – November 1st, 2016: BEI is proud to announce a new level of leadership training. REACH Leadership Development Academy. Based on the principals of REACH Leadership training and BEI’s exclusive management tools. REACH is an acronym that stands for Respect, Expectations, Accountability, Coaching and Humility. These principals will help your leaders develop the people skill set necessary to implement the specific tools they will be taught to use during these classes.
The Academy consists of three specific courses:
• Level One is designed for those managers and supervisors who are directly responsible for field service technicians
• Level Two is for those managers whose responsibility is at a departmental level up to and including P&L responsibilities
• Inventory and Logistics , designed to help those managing the parts and warehouse facilities improve their hold for parts rates, improve their inventory turns and decrease obsolescence
What sets the Reach LDA apart from other training efforts?
• Courses are developed by our Director of REACH LDA with over 40 years managing service technicians in operations from small to large in addition to consulting with dealerships across the country and working for one of the largest manufacturers
• Topics covered are based on real world experience and geared to the attendee’s area of responsibility in your organization
• Benchmarks?
o Benchmarks have been in use in our industry for many years and are indeed the measurement for a dealership’s level of success
o Because of the availability of this information, only a limited amount of time will be spent on Benchmarking
• Statistical Data
o The first phase of statistics begins with the ERP system in use by the dealership and proper setup is vital
Callbacks, Mean Time & Copies to Failure etc. MUST be based on a standard in order to truly measure a technician’s performance
o Once this data is passed to BEI Services it can be processed and comparisons made with other dealerships to develop the National Standards used in many of the available tools inside the BEI Program
o We must remember however that the data is NOT WHY we do what we do, it is a BYPRODUCT of what we have done giving us the ability to measure successes and failures areas of opportunity
• Service Technicians – truly the heart of the Service Organization
o Since the quality and expertise of the field technician really is the one that drives profits through the equipment they service, they should be the first place we look in our efforts to increase profit by controlling costs
Profits do not trickle down from the top, they are driven up from the machine level controlled by the cost of operating the equipment – in other words, THE TECH
o What do they look for in a company?
o What gives them job Satisfaction?
A career path – where can I go from here and how can I move up?
Performance Appraisals – How am I doing and how can I make more money?
• What are my strengths and weaknesses and where can I improve?
• Am I the right person for this job?
• Do I have to be a BEI Customer to attend these courses?
o The answer is no; you will simply need to gather the necessary information (CSF’s) from your ERP system, or submit your data to BEI for a no obligation free trial, and you can use these tools during your training
These courses are not another Benchmarking endeavor, but are instead developed specifically for those involved “Where the Rubber Meets the Road”
Some details about the courses themselves:
• REACH Level One – Field Supervisors & Managers
o The real job of these individuals is to develop the members of their team to their fullest potential in order to produce the highest level of customer satisfaction & retention while doing so at the lowest cost of operation
REACH Level One is specifically designed to help these individuals become not only better managers but also Business Coaches assisting each technician to run a more profitable small business inside the service organization using the principals of REACH
Critical components:
• The first and main component must be the National Standards compiled by BEI Services to gauge performance as compared to hundreds of other operations – how else do we know what Good really looks like?
• Critical Success Factors – CSF’s
o What are they?
o What should we be looking at?
o What is good – not good?
o How often do we need them?
• Using Technician Grade cards – stepping away from numbers techs do not understand
o Grouping techs, setting parameters
• Technician Assessment Program – another critical component assisting people who manage technicians to really know how well they are doing and where improvements can be made
o Expectations inside the TA program can be set for each technician as we simply cannot hold people Accountable if they do not know what is expected of them
o Goals set inside the program are used to track progress in order to achieve PCR – Probable Call Reduction resulting in increased profits
Technical Training
Ride Days and Field Audits
• Inspect what you Expect
• Is Total Call being performed, or just putting out the fire?
Trending – are improvements being made or is performance declining?
Addressing “Suspect List” machines – Pro Active service
• BEI Data and National Standards
o Analyzing the information in order to identify areas of opportunity
o Where do we start – what gives us the most impact?
• BEI Effective Workload Distribution – Service Territories
o Proper Workload per territory – 143 Productive Hours per Tech
Contributing factors
Specialization
o Using EWD Information to build car stocks
Importing into ERP
• Tricks & Tips
• Developing an Action Plan for the individual’s Team
• Reach Level Two – Service Managers and those with Departmental Responsibility
o The job of these individuals is to manage those managing field technicians as well as cost containment, customer satisfaction and profitability – among other things
Reach Level Two also begins with the principals of REACH along with other topics including:
• P&L Basics
o Revenue & COGS
o Creating reserves for obsolescence
• Benchmark Basics
• Contract Profitability
o Analysis
o “Right Sizing Equipment”
o Supply Monitoring
o Price escalations
o Identifying excessive costs
• Call Types, Problem and Repair codes in the ERP system
o Setting up the ERP system to be able to harvest meaningful information – “Begin with the End in mind”
BEI Suggested settings
• Burden Rate
o How can we impact it and what drives it?
• Manpower calculation
o How many technicians do we need?
o What if we improve performance?
• Creating Career Paths for service technicians
• Job Descriptions
• Performance Appraisals for technicians
o Is the technician making progress?
o When and how to “Let Go”
• “Coaching the Coaches” using BEI’s Accountability Module
• Hiring and Recruiting
o Right person, Right Job
o Where do we find them?
• Developing an Action Plan for Departmental Improvement
Inventory & Logistics
o We begin with the relationship between the Warehouse (Parts & Supplies) and the Service Department which are actually joined at the hip
Service Department can’t succeed without the right inventory in the right place at the right time
Hold for Parts – too little or too much
• The “Pendulum Effect”
o Inventory Turns
What are they and how are they calculated?
What are the goals?
• Overall
• Car Stocks
o What about OVERSTOCKED techs?
How do we get it back?
How can we improve our turns?
How often do we (should we) reorder from vendors and restock technicians?
o Emergency Orders
What is the REAL cost of a part ordered overnight?
Did it get installed the day it came in – or 3 days later?
o AIM – Advanced Inventory Management
What’s in the bucket?
Using BEI’s Effective Workload Distribution project (EWD) to obtain proper car stock levels
Incorporating that into our ERP system
• Min – Max levels – auto adjust or manual
o Obsolescence
What is an acceptable level?
How can we avoid it?
Reserving for it on the books
Using OPN
o Physical Inventory
Proper procedures for taking inventories
How often should they be taken?
o “Ship in” parts
Typically, in managed print, many vendors supply the parts & toner for equipment so the dealership does not have to maintain an inventory of those items
• How do we process those items?
o Should we?
• How does it impact car stocks & hold for parts calls?
o Harvesting parts
Cost effective – should we or should we not?
Is this different from just robbing a part?
Processes for handing the cost of harvested items
• Financial impact
To inventory – or not to inventory – harvested items
• Why?