Recon Time vs Time-to-Line

 

“What is the difference between managing Reconditioning time and Time-to-Line? The active involvement of the GM.  If you are still trying to hold people accountable for the reconditioning cycle instead of TTL then I have some great news.

Recon is of course a vital part of getting cars to the front line ready but it is only a subset of the Time-to-Line.  At one time, GM’s were happy to have the UCM, Service Manager, Inventory Manager looking a spreadsheet for accountability and metrics.  But now, there are three strategic reasons for the GM and/or Dealer Principal to take an active role in Time-to-Line that make it easier to stay on top of the real metrics with less effort.

 

  1. Holding cost is real and is quite easy to calculate.  We have found that even where the dealership thought they were doing a good job getting cars through recon, once they went to workflow and automated their processes metrics, the actual Time-to-Line was substantially different that what they assumed. In fact,  so far with hundreds of systems installed,  we have found no exceptions and the difference in Gross rages from $200,000 to $800,000.
  2. Inventory Turns – whether you have a Velocity strategy or a Time-to-Line strategy or both they are really about the same point. Getting cars to the front-line to increase selling days.
  3. Recall liability is no longer something that the GM/DP can assume it being handled. There must be a policy in place and it must be monitored.

In all these, the GM/DP should be able to set goals based on best practices recommendations and dealership specific Time-to-Line metrics.  We do know that when the GM is setting the targets and monitoring results, everyone’s attention to accountability goes way up.

Steps to make this work:

  • Get a good look at what other dealerships are doing who have made the move to Time-to-Line.
  • Work with RR to map your processes into a workflow that makes the most of best practices, your current staff, resource limitations, physical constraints and your vendors.
  • A dealership specific workflow system is built with the flexibility and expectation that processes, people and responsibilities are going to change.
  • Training/Launch/30/and 60 day reviews
  • 120 day Performance Progress Report with the GM and RR Executive (daily TTL/Recall Report to GM Started) “

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