While on a recent conference call with a dealer group president, he asked the following question: “What is the single most important factor in successfully managing time-to-market (TTM) in a dealership?” My answer was, “The commitment and active involvement of the general manager”. At the
When is it the right time for your dealership to move to a workflow architecture to manage your recon process? When the mandate is, “Recon needs to get fixed.” Here are three principal reasons to support the change. Lack of accountability Cars not getting to
Ideally, every dealership should be able to manage used car reconditioning at a four- to five-day level, independent of volume. Some exceptional stores are able to operate in a three-day range by keeping service at a four-hour average and detail/photos to an eight-hour average. To
A typical reconditioning workflow installation has a minimum of three principal stakeholders: the used car manager, the fixed operations manager and the general manager. In the early days of reconditioning workflow, starting around 2010, the scenario was a bit different than today. At that time, the used
How do I get my Recon Process under control? The simple answer is, “Start at the end and work back.” But, to accomplish this feat, you need to connect all your processes with anyone who touches your cars — including subs and vendors — and
Are you measuring your Average Days in Recon? If the answer is “no,” then your actual all-inclusive number is probably double what you would like everyone to believe it is. And even worse, you may not even know what your recon team already knows about
Workflow automation is an area of process improvement in which businesses benefit from high efficiency, better time management and a higher level of performance all around. Automation eliminates errors in routing, completion and delivery. And, it creates an environment where the processes can be completed
Notes from Operations Manager to GM… From time to time a real gem crosses my desk that simply tells it like it is. The following are excepts from an email sent from an operations manager to his GM. The operations manager make a compelling case
Workflow technology measures and manages, in real-time, every step of the process, from purchase or trade to front-line ready or funded, so your employees are individually accountable. In addition, it is flexible enough to change quickly for any process or people changes. The following three
Time to market (TTM) is the monthly average time from purchase or trade to the time sales are funded. You can think about it as the average time your cash is invested until it can be reinvested. Most dealerships begin with the logical subset of
