March 2021

Above: Martyn Hetherington keeps it lean barrels, because they haven’t put the right amount down, they’ve guessed it, or they have put the right amount down, but it’s a different oil that is cheaper than the one they have put in. Where do you draw the line? That is the hardest bit. They are not children, they are adults. “It should be easier now I’ve got an extra member of staff in the office. Like I say though, things like this, the system is there, they haven’t got to write the full system, you just have to put a ‘B’ in the part number, which we could say is ‘499’ for a bulb. It’s not like it’s hard to do, or hard to remember. I know it’s not just us, it’s everywhere. It is exactly the same for many little businesses. “ While technology helps identify the issue, it will be human nature that helps solve the problem: “You always find it, as for the guys in their workshop, it’s not their money that they are losing is it? If you make it their money, they will help stop it.” Silver lining playbook Everybody is trying to reduce outgoings currently. We wondered if Rebecca thought is this a silver lining situation: “Garage Hive helped us save with parts we buy in regularly, and now I know I’ve got to do more stock taking. Hopefully if they know I am counting it they will think about it more. It’s also about reading the job cards. If I see a job car that says ‘replace bulb’ and then there is a bulb down, I am actually going to ask the question now. “We used to have GA4, but we never used to put the stock on it. It was just for the invoicing, The team needed paper job cards. We couldn’t didn’t keep a track of the parts coming in apart from the invoices we received. Then it was a case of finding out we are losing a lot of money because they accidentally forgot to put on what they had done. You would pick up if the discs and pads were not there – it’s the little things that get overlooked. Things like warning wires, and it’s those things that add up, and occasionally a big thing that gets missed.” Rebecca added: “Now, for specific jobs we are losing less money on parts, as every job is given an order number for those parts. Of course, for things like bulbs and oil, you don’t have order numbers on. You don’t know what bulbs you are going to need until you’ve actually got them in. It’s the same with oil as you don’t know which oil you are going to need until the technician checks. In the past it was paper. Now it’s on the system, it’s already there for them.” In the middle Considering the scale and reach of factors today, why keep more than bare minimum stock in your garage at all? If you need parts or consumables, you can get them within the hour in most cases, so why not lean on your suppliers, and go lean in the workshop? The Garage Inspector himself, Andy Savva, touched on this in his article in the May 2019 issue of Aftermarket. If you don’t have the hard copy any more, go to the digital library of back- issues on www.aftermarketonline.net Some are already going lean, and more are trying it. An example of a garage looking to go down this route is Westmoor MOT Centre, based in Newcastle upon Tyne. Manager Martyn Hetherington commented: “I am right in the middle of what I am calling a lean-and-clean reduction in stock levels, taking it right down to the minimum. This really helps the finances, which is a must considering the current state of our economy. “I always say stock is dead money lying around the business. It’s waiting to be sold, it’s not confirmed sold until they have actually gone and the customer has bought it. If you are looking at bulbs, it’s more the case that you have the bulbs, then the bulbs go missing, or you forget to book them out.” This was, of course, the problem that Yardley’s Garage seemed to be having. “I am quite OCD about stock. I see it in the workshop. It’s just money sitting there which could be used elsewhere." Just-in-time We were wondering when he started thinking this way: “I was speaking with Andy Savva, and it was when just-in-time had really caught up with the sector. He was saying, if a car needs a bulb, when it comes into the workshop, the supplier is only 30 minutes away. Order the bulb, fit the bulb, send it back out. That way, got no stock, no wasted space. Now, it’s all about that just-in-time for me too.” Martyn and the guys have put their money where their mouth is, or more accurately didn’t put their money anywhere it shouldn’t be, as that’s the point, depending on how you look at it, and are now running the garage on lean principles. “We are trialing it now, to see how we get on. We started in January and so far it is going very well. When you’re not wasting stuff, the technicians are also more savvy with what they are doing and they take more care. It’s interesting.” Including Martin, and his father David who is the owner, there are six people in the business. We wondered how the new approach was being taken, and if the team was on board with lean and clean: “To be honest, 10 AFTERMARKET MARCH 2021 BIG ISSUE www.aftermarketonline.net