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I’ll start by saying that I’m writing this by request, posting publicly hoping to help out whoever I can as usual. I’m also likely to edit this multiple times, it’s tough to sum up all at once. Anyone who can add more of these kind of tips is encouraged to post, I’m certainly not the authority on this subject.
I am not a particularly fast tech, but I’m a substantially reformed slow tech. I learned my trade doing hobbyist work on my VW for 6 years at home. Even a brake job would be dragged out to at least a day of cleaning, polishing, lubing, painting, etc to make everything perfect. Getting into professional repair, I had to spend years learning what I corners I could cut to finish the work fast enough, and then how to speed up what I still do. To this day, I cannot bring myself to install a fastener that squeaks or doesn’t thread in easily. My personal wire wheel bench grinder is one of my best tools for keeping fast while being anal like that.
Wasted motion is a big time sucker, as is disorganization. Refining these areas is of great importance to speeding up.
When I’m taking a transmission out for example, I have a few ways I save time by not wasting motion. First is removing fasteners in such a way that minimizes tool changes, going around the whole job and removing all the bolts that the tool in my hand fits. The point is to avoid focusing on taking one thing apart at a time, picking up and putting down the same 5 tools for each part you take off. Second is taking apart/loosening everything on top so when I lift the car I will not have to lower it back down until the transmission is back in and everything on the bottom is fully installed. Raising and lowering to go back and forth between top and bottom wastes major time.
A time saving technique on any large jobs is removing assemblies as large as possible when you’re just taking parts out of the way to get to the repair. Perfect example is a engine job where you need the radiator/condenser/intercooler/oil cooler all to come out. Removing the whole cooling cassette (BMW terminology) as an assembly as opposed to taking out each part individually saves a lot of time. Thermostat housings/coolant manifolds made up of multiple aluminum pieces and tons of hoses are another common example.
On that Evo engine job I posted up about recently, I needed the power steering pump, lines, and reservoir out of the way to remove the head. Quickest route there is to unbolt that stuff, leave it all attached to each other, and flop it all up out of the way. I’ve seen other guys take the lines of the pump and then take the pump off and set it aside. They spend more time taking it apart, have a oil mess that doesn’t need to be there, and then have to get fluid from parts and bleed air from the system when they’re done. Lots of wasted time saved.
Another way to save wasted motion is to have a service cart/tray available to work off of. Just a simple $50 flat surface with no drawers that can be easily rolled around and most importantly, is clean and ready when you start a job (not used for storage). Then you can pile the tools you figure you’ll need on, and roll it over next to where you’re working and try to stay there. Walking back and forth to your toolbox is wasted motion.
Having a wide array of parts trays to keep your removed fasteners and sockets in their places. On big jobs this helps fight the tendency to be wasting time looking for small tools you have out and have picked up an put down endless times. Keep it all laid out on that cheap, simple service tray. Spend the 1 or 2 min/hour keeping it in order during a 9 hour job.
Have fluids draining and AC machines doing their thing while you are doing other work. Have your own personal drain pans designated for oil based fluid and water based fluid. A lot of shops will have them laying around to share, but keeping them clean and where they’re supposed to be is pissing up a rope. That brings me to a golden rule in this line of work:
A shared tool is an abused tool.
Screwing around with shop tool sets that are broken or missing pieces is one of the most aggravating wastes of time for me.
Another side of speeding up comes from spending money of expensive tools that save you time. That is a whole other side to this discussion although there are a couple specific tools I credit with productivity:
1) The aforementioned service tray that is clean and ready to work at moment’s notice
2) A Snap-On 3/8″ 14.4v or lithium cordless impact. The fastest guy I’ve ever seen uses one all day long, so I bought one. Guess who sped up.
3) The current generation Snap-On lithium 1/4″ cordless impact, 1/4″ impact swivel joint
4) A Power Probe
5) Duplicates of common wrenches and sockets. It saves massive time if you have a duplicate of that wrench you NEED RIGHT NOW but cannot find right now.
I also have to admit that the Mercedes payment tool storage I’ve upgraded to over the last couple years does directly speed up just about everything I do by a small percentage. I do still feel that tool storage should be multiple cheap units until you have all tools you need and then some. You also need to have a developed work style you’re well aware of in order to configure an effective workstation for yourself.
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Definitely if you can avoiding taking something apart that will take longer to put back together than reassembling it, you save a ton of time. This morning I was doing a starter on a Pilot, as I’ve never done one on a Pilot I quickly checked ProDemand for anything silly to be aware of. Sure enough under installation after re-installing the battery they want you to relearn the power windows and of course it’s a Honda so the radio would be locked out. Nutz to that I figured and just left the battery hooked up, took a few minutes in the middle and still got it done under book time.
As far as things ling Power steering pumps and A/C compressors, bungee cords are your friends.
I’ve worked with a few “newer to the industry” types over the last few evers and my best advise is to do everything the exact same way every single time. It’s more for quick service type functions, but it makes it easier to put the pedal down when you’re busy and need to pump out some volume.
One of the things I always due, not so much production based, is I remove the hoist arms as I torque the lugs. Hoist arms are under the car, then I haven’t torqued the lugs. Good way to not forget.
Something that I have had for a long time and increases productivity is something I call the hybrid tray. My mentor or sage if you will has one but, I built upon it changing a few things here and there and it saves me a large quantity of time everyday. The hybrid tray is simply that a tray with all the sockets I use everyday and the ones I normally use on once in a while repairs. Here is a video of it:
The tray is a Mac Tools SH4448 and Vim makes it for them and can be found under Vim V444.
I’ve been salivating at the mouth waiting to respond to this.
On Wednesday we got a brake job. We had a guy take the tire off, switch the air tools, do the pads and caliper, put the tire back on, switch back to the impact and tighten up the lugs. Then move on to the next tire. Total time was 45 minutes.
Today we had another brake job, same type of car. We had a tech use a 1/2 Air Impact, and battery powered 3/8. We had the tech take all four tires off, starting with one and then moving to another. Then take the calipers off, first wheel, then second, then third. On the third rotation pads and rotors came off. Fourth rotation rotors, pads, calipers on and bolted up. After all four were bolted up, tires went on lugs finger tight. Then another rotation to tighten them down. Total time was a legit 30 minutes.
We did another job that was just a brake service. We had about four today. This time is was basically cart/no cart. Using a cart sped the process up literally 20 minutes.
I know this sounds crazy, but the times were legit.
We threw out some results because the guy that did the timer smoked a bowl on his lunch break. So we kicked him off the team and made him sweep floors.
[quote=”Pitt” post=122280]Today we had another brake job, same type of car. We had a tech use a 1/2 Air Impact, and battery powered 3/8. We had the tech take all four tires off, starting with one and then moving to another. Then take the calipers off, first wheel, then second, then third. On the third rotation pads and rotors came off. Fourth rotation rotors, pads, calipers on and bolted up. After all four were bolted up, tires went on lugs finger tight. Then another rotation to tighten them down.[/quote]
This is a great example of reducing wasted motion and service cart use really saving tons of time. It’s exactly how I do brake jobs.
I also wanted to post up a specific example of saving time by removing assemblies. It took me a total of one extra minute to snap these pics for this during a clutch job I’m finishing up.
Those 2 assemblies pictured and the small parts on the wiper cowl is everything that was removed, aside from tying the wires back out of the way on either side.
I was excited to share my results because your post is a lot of work, and I really appreciated you sharing it. So I wanted to show you the positive impact its had on me. After reading it, it mades things click at work. I’ve sped up faster and after our experiment 3 techs started using carts.
I explained to the tech training me about removing whole assemblies to get to a part he didnt realize the extra time he was spending trying to remove very little, thinking it would save him time.
Now instead of taking off 5 bolts and working slower in a cramped spot he just take out 10 bolts, removes a large assembly and gets the job done quicker.
[quote=”STLNik” post=122597]I always found minding your own business and focusing what you’re doing helps flag more time.[/quote]
Its amazing how many people I work with do, and do not get this. The best techs we have are quiet to the point of almost being snobs, but they are focusing on what they are doing. Our hack techs work on a car, bs for a few minutes then work on the car some more. Slow prod times and a lot of returns.
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