Stop Working In Your Business. Start Working On It.

By Kelly Adam.

Why systems, processes and procedures are the difference between owning a business and owning a job, and how to build them in your automotive workshop.

If you stopped working in your business tomorrow, would it still function? Would the right jobs get booked, prepared and delivered on time? Would your team know what to do, in what order and to what standard?

If the honest answer is no, then what you have is a job, not a business. The good news is the gap between the two is bridgeable, and it is built with systems.

What Is a System, Really?

At its simplest, a system is any combination of procedure, tools and energy that produces a repeatable result. The purpose of a well designed system is leverage: taking the resources and expertise you already have and producing more or better outcomes with them. Not just volume and revenue, but the quality of the experience for your customers, your team and yourself.

A system cannot diagnose a noise, feel a brake pedal or decide whether a handbrake needs further adjustment. That is what expertise is for. The goal is to systemise up to the point where expertise takes over. The system provides the structure and the guardrails. Your team’s skill fills in everything the system cannot predict.

“Systems are like medicine, they only work when used at the right time in the right dose.”

The Four Ps of an Optimised System

A well functioning system has four components, and skipping any one of them tends to undermine the whole:

• Policy. The non negotiables. We do what we say we’re going to do.
• Process. The big steps. A bird’s eye view of how the work moves from start to finish.
• Procedure. The detail within each step. The specifics a trained person needs to execute consistently.
• Props. The visual tools that support the procedure, checklists, signs, videos, forms and job cards.

Where to Start: The ACDC Model

The ACDC model offers a practical map for knowing where to begin:

• Attract. How you generate new customers. Marketing, referrals, your website and online presence.
• Convert. Everything between the first enquiry and the car entering the workshop. Booking, quoting, communication and drop off procedures.
• Deliver. The actual work. Job cards, service notes, quality control and parts preparation.
• Collect. Getting paid and following through on commitments made during the job.

Behind the ACDC model sit your support systems, staff management, inventory, software and tools, the infrastructure that keeps the four pillars standing.

Where to Begin

Pay attention to what already has your attention. Rework, complaints, repetitive questions and team members who don’t know something they should, these are not just annoyances. They are system failures pointing directly at where to start.

You probably already have systems. They are just in your head, or your head technician’s head. The task is not to build from scratch, but to capture what exists, transfer it, refine it and make it consistently followable by anyone in the role.

Short videos, flowcharts, simple checklists and a living workshop manual your team reviews regularly, these are the building blocks. You are not writing a textbook. You are building a scaffold that lets your people do their best work, every single day, whether you are there or not.

For more information head to: automotivebusinesscoach.com.au