Collision Repair Analytics: How to Reduce Cycle Time with Scheduling Data

Blog post by Willis Colpitts |Senior Manager, Collision Solutions Training

One of the most important administrative pieces of a repair is the dates of the repair. The dates should drive production, and the measurement of cycle times for your shop. We all also know that insurance carriers look at Length of Rental (LOR) as a measure of your shop’s performance.

So how are you managing dates today? Do you drive the production based on the Out Date or the date you told the customer you would complete the repairs? Or maybe you use an Internal out Date to drive production? Or do you simply not enter dates?

How do you measure your Cycle time – Keys to Keys?


Manage Cycle Time at Every Stage of the Repair Process to Improve Performance 

RepairCenter Repair Analytics gives you the ability to automatically generate Due In and Due Out Dates. You can also auto populate your Start and Completed dates based on production status. This only leaves the Arrived and Delivered dates, which are normally entered by the CSR when the vehicle drops and delivery is made. Closed dates are generated and controlled by the accounting department normally.

So, using the dates we have, the calculations are pretty simple. Within each of these stages, there is room to improve cycle time.

• From Arrived to Start is controlled by your intake process. A good teardown or discovery process will help shorten this time.
• Start to Complete is the actual time spent working on the vehicle up until detail. A good process teardown process as well as ensuring that supplements are a priority will help reduce time in production
• Complete to Delivered is a product of cleaning and delivering the vehicle. Customer communication is key to get the customer into the shop in a timely manner.
  
  Delivered to Closed, or simply put, was the file completed and did you have the paperwork ahead of the repair process? If you have done the discovery and made supplements a priority this time should be reduced.
  
  Remember that all of these measures and suggestions will help you reduce your Keys to Keys time and help with LOR.

How to Pull Actionable Data from Production Reports

RepairCenter Standard Analytics:
Sort the Job Listing by Date Range report (Report #2) and apply the Due Out, Not Completed filter. This will give you a list of the most urgent jobs to review with the production staff and technicians on a daily basis. Doing this will help you deliver the vehicles on the date promised to the customer and identify areas that need immediate attention.

RepairCenter Standard Analytics, Production Report

RepairCenter Premium Analytics: 

If you are using RepairCenter Premiere, you can find this data under Analytics > Performance Indicators > Cycle Times. Filter the screen by Date type, normally Closed and Carrier, and apply the filter. Now select the date range to look at the data in summary for all repairs. You will also have the ability to see each individual job and remove jobs like Total Loss.

RepairCenter Premium Analytics, Production Report

Getting control of your production dates allows you to improve production, drive a sense of urgency on repairs, and reduce cycle times.

You may also be interested in…

• Learn more about RepairCenter, Mitchell’s Shop Management Solution
• Which RepairCenter Package is right for you? 
• What does RepairCenter Analytics offer for shop owners, production managers, and technicians? 
• New Research for Insurance and Collision Repair: Industry Trends Report Q1 2015