One fix at a time

It seems to me, that if a car needs several items done, it is better come to
dealership ant do one item at a time than all together. Reason: when car
comes for service, all is done by one mechanic, who may not be the best in
each separate task. Separately, each task may be assigned to the mechanic
who specializes in this task. Comments?

"vmkng" <vmkng@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:ACULe.180627$HI.119906@edtnps84...[color=blue]
> It seems to me, that if a car needs several items done, it is better come
> to
> dealership ant do one item at a time than all together. Reason: when car
> comes for service, all is done by one mechanic, who may not be the best in
> each separate task. Separately, each task may be assigned to the mechanic
> who specializes in this task. Comments?
>[/color]

As someone who used to advise dealerships on how to dispatch work, I can
tell you that work is not necessarily assigned by who is best in any
particular task. Work is assigned to the technician who is available to do
the work and who has the necessary skills to perform the task. Any
competent technician can do routine maintenance work. For example, you
don't need the world's best wheel balancer to do a wheel balance because
even an average one can do a good enough job.

If a task is difficult or requires special skills, it will be assigned to a
technician with those skills. some shops have people assigned to alignments
and oil changes if they do a large enough volume of that work. A TEAMS shop
will assign the work to a team and then you could have a team of techs
working on the car. An apprentice would do the oil change, a journeyman
might do a timing belt replacement, and a master tech might fix that odd
drivability problem.
--
Ray O
correct the return address punctuation to reply

Thanks for a great reply, Ray. My observation was based on my
experience with my local Toyota dealership. It has about ten bays, and
every time I bring car for multy service including oil change, it is
always done by one technician. But when I came for service other than
oil change, it was done by different technician. Other dealerships and
shops could be quite different, of course.

Ray O wrote:[color=blue]
> "vmkng" <vmkng@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:ACULe.180627$HI.119906@edtnps84...[color=green]
> > It seems to me, that if a car needs several items done, it is better come
> > to
> > dealership ant do one item at a time than all together. Reason: when car
> > comes for service, all is done by one mechanic, who may not be the best in
> > each separate task. Separately, each task may be assigned to the mechanic
> > who specializes in this task. Comments?
> >[/color]
>
> As someone who used to advise dealerships on how to dispatch work, I can
> tell you that work is not necessarily assigned by who is best in any
> particular task. Work is assigned to the technician who is available to do
> the work and who has the necessary skills to perform the task. Any
> competent technician can do routine maintenance work. For example, you
> don't need the world's best wheel balancer to do a wheel balance because
> even an average one can do a good enough job.
>
> If a task is difficult or requires special skills, it will be assigned to a
> technician with those skills. some shops have people assigned to alignments
> and oil changes if they do a large enough volume of that work. A TEAMS shop
> will assign the work to a team and then you could have a team of techs
> working on the car. An apprentice would do the oil change, a journeyman
> might do a timing belt replacement, and a master tech might fix that odd
> drivability problem.
> --
> Ray O
> correct the return address punctuation to reply[/color]

"vmkng" <vmkng@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1125290160.463272.113560@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...[color=blue]
> Thanks for a great reply, Ray. My observation was based on my
> experience with my local Toyota dealership. It has about ten bays, and
> every time I bring car for multy service including oil change, it is
> always done by one technician. But when I came for service other than
> oil change, it was done by different technician. Other dealerships and
> shops could be quite different, of course.[/color]

I have visited a lot of different dealerships, well over 100. Some are very
large and service several hundred vehicles a day, and some are small,
servicing a dozen vehicles.

A shop with 10 bays that is well-run probably services 50 to 75 vehicles per
day with somewhere between 7 and 10 technicians. Ideally, there are 1.5
bays per technician, and each technician services an average of 5 vehicles
per day. A tech assigned purely to oil changes would service a lot more,
probably 20 or so.

It sounds like the dealership is practicing what you are looking for, that
is, having a qualified technician service your vehicle. On the trips where
all you have done is an oil change, the tech doing the oil change is
probably an apprentice because it doesn't take a master tech to do one. On
the trips where you have several things done, the work is assigned to a
technician who is capable of doing everything on the list.

All the work done in a shop can be divided into 2 basic categories:
maintenance and repair. Maintenance work is stuff like oil changes, battery
replacements, brake jobs, muffler replacements, shock absorbers and strut
replacements, and periodic maintenance like tune-ups. Maintenance work is
the most profitable work for a shop because little diagnosis time is needed
and few problems are encountered when doing the work. Repair work is
diagnosing and repairing a transmission or driveability problem, hard start,
broken sunroof, etc.

--
Ray O
correct the return address punctuation to reply




Ray O wrote:[color=blue][color=green]
>> "vmkng" <vmkng@yahoo.com> wrote in message
>> news:ACULe.180627$HI.119906@edtnps84...[color=darkred]
>> > It seems to me, that if a car needs several items done, it is better
>> > come
>> > to
>> > dealership ant do one item at a time than all together. Reason: when
>> > car
>> > comes for service, all is done by one mechanic, who may not be the best
>> > in
>> > each separate task. Separately, each task may be assigned to the
>> > mechanic
>> > who specializes in this task. Comments?
>> >[/color]
>>
>> As someone who used to advise dealerships on how to dispatch work, I can
>> tell you that work is not necessarily assigned by who is best in any
>> particular task. Work is assigned to the technician who is available to
>> do
>> the work and who has the necessary skills to perform the task. Any
>> competent technician can do routine maintenance work. For example, you
>> don't need the world's best wheel balancer to do a wheel balance because
>> even an average one can do a good enough job.
>>
>> If a task is difficult or requires special skills, it will be assigned to
>> a
>> technician with those skills. some shops have people assigned to
>> alignments
>> and oil changes if they do a large enough volume of that work. A TEAMS
>> shop
>> will assign the work to a team and then you could have a team of techs
>> working on the car. An apprentice would do the oil change, a journeyman
>> might do a timing belt replacement, and a master tech might fix that odd
>> drivability problem.
>> --
>> Ray O
>> correct the return address punctuation to reply[/color]
>[/color]