AT THE HEART OF THE ROAD TRANSPORT INDUSTRY.

Call our Sales Team on 0208 912 2120

Keep computer buffs away from workshop

28th April 1988, Page 138
28th April 1988
Page 138
Page 139
Page 140
Page 138, 28th April 1988 — Keep computer buffs away from workshop
Close
Noticed an error?
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.

Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

Spending money can get out of hand and too few workshops know where all the money goes. If you do buy a computer make sure it can be tailored to your needs and don't let enthusiasts play with it rather than do real work

• More money goes down the drain unnoticed in a workshop operation than almost any other part of an organisation. Part of the reason is that the work is clearly necessary, because things break down, and can be seen to have broken down, and must be put right. Many managers feel that there is little they can do about the costs.

This head in the sand attitude has been encouraged by the extraordinary attempts to save money in some government and council workshops, which has merely shifted the cost burden somewhere else — into a different budget.

Worse, somecost-cutting exercises, in both public and private industry, have been successful in the short term in reducing cash outrun, but have in the longer term produced higher total costs. Yet the workshop manager is still expected to provide a service which does not deteriorate. No wonder the general reaction to cost-saving proposals is often cynical.

Enlightened management can see that sometimes spending money on new equipment, or on a computer system, say, will provide better value for money as a whole, but even then it can get out ot hand if not carefully monitored. Sometimes a little lateral thinking is required, such as asking why the workshop is where it is, or indeed whether you need it at all.

The most common waste of money is, however, a simple matter of not knowing where the money is going to.

Successful cost control does not depend on masses of computers or armies of accountants, although small quantities of both can help. The crucial set-up is to know where the money is going to before you even try to spend less of it. The sad fact is that far too few workshops have the first idea where it all goes.

Staff costs at first may seem the greatest outlay, and one that you can do little about. Wrong on both counts. The cost of staff in most workshops is much less than is spent on parts, fuel, oil and the building costs, which includes the oftforgotten notional rent — the money you could get for the land if there was not a workshop on it.

Any chartered accountant (you can look them up in the yellow pages) will be able to identify a few hidden cost areas you hadn't thought of, and top of this list is often the loss of interest on the value of the stuff kept in the stores. Both parts Above: The computer can be a boon in a workshop, or a liability, depending entirely on how well the system was designed. A simplest headset here enables tht Tyreservices operator to use the telephone az well as run through a parts list on screen.

and tools are costing you money when they are not in use — just like the staff.

Until recently no one cared much about parts in the store because with high inflation, parts you had in stock cost far less than parts you had to buy, so it was worth having a full store. With some accounting regimes beloved of head offices, the value of your stock was adjusted upwards as well, so your operation made money just by having parts in a store.

Just-in-time stocks

Today all that has changed and accountants will press you to keep the minimum possible stock on hand — the just-in-time concept. You let someone else take the storage costs, and the fire and theft risks. If you can work out a reliable supply system which really does work on demand this method can save huge sums on the Left and above: Make sure the outline system description you get is sufficiently detailed and that it will do what you want. Ask for a demonstration of each sub heading. These examples are from Fleetplan by Fletcher Computer Services.

books, even though it may not be obvious to an observer that you have done anything different. Stockholdings can be halved this way.

If you are looking for ways to save money, sooner or later someone will suggest a computer, or if you have one already, a bigger/better one. Only two things should you remember. First, don't be a pioneer unless your system is really unique. Second, do not expect miracles from day one.

The right computer system for a workshop does two things. It takes away all the boring and repetitive tasks to free local management to see the larger picture, and it identifies trends that would be near to impossible for ordinary mortals to notice.

Unfortunately the average workshop computer system absorbs capital and service visit costs with abandon, deluges the management with piles of unintelligible print-outs, antagonises the workforce and sometimes gets things wrong, which nobody notices. All this is avoidable, if you are determined. Over the past five years the costs and complexity of computer hardware have come crashing down, yet performance for a given sized box has shot up. The same can not be said about the software — the programming bit — which gets steadily more expensive. Many computer companies make as much if not more profit from the software than from the hardware.

The user is in a very strong position as a purchaser of a given amount of computing power, but when it comes to running a system he is completely in the hands of his supplier. Anyone buying a system must be able to understand what it does, and largely how, and get the supplier's assurance that certain performance standards will be met. You do it with vehicles, so there is no reason not to do it with computers.

Ask for reference sites

For the sake of £1,000, say, spent on a good consultant you can save ten times that amount on not buying a useless system. Nearly all computer consultants will do a good unbiased job for you, even if they are part of a computer company. Ask for a list of previous clients if you want to be sure, most of them are proud of their successes.

Your computer supplier should also be able to give reference sites. Most work shop, stores and bodyshop operations are much the same in concept, so a completely special-to-you system should be quite unnecessary.

You must ensure that the system you are offered has the facility to be tailored to your own needs, and not to make you its slave. Don't take no for an answer; if that system won't do, try another. Above all, don't hurry this decision for once you have the system running it is much harder to get rid of it without losing continuity of information.

Always opt for "exception reporting", instead of masses of paper.

Even a simple accounting package can save on stores ordering procedures, without the tiresome necessity of writing numbers on bin cards. You must, however, have an integrated system which will enable a part used in a job and recorded on a job card to be automatically struck off the stores ledger and — if necessary notify the stores of the re-order quantity.

The numbers game

Take the utmost care that the computer system does not require the same information to be written down, or entered, several times, like a long part number. The inability of the human animal to write down something as simple as the numbers on an odometer is legendary in motor trade computer circles, and some sophisticated and expensive programs have been written to prevent vehicles in the fleet appearing to run backwards.

Better to minimise the problem in the first place by good system design, which means the user understanding what he wants to do, which ought not to be to merely make the computer mirror the previous manual system.

Whatever the size of workshop, bring in a computer system with care. Involve the staff at all levels, who sometimes have some bright ideas to contribute. Set up a training programme, too, before the big switch over, so that the staff understand what they are trying to do from the beginning.

And a warning ...

Which system should you choose? This is an impossible question since every application will be different in detail, but you could start by approaching six of the well known names in this part of the computer industry. They are Allied Aims, Ego, Fletcher Computer Systems, Kerridge, Carter Parratt, and Warwick Systems each of which will be sure to understand the problems.

One warning. Do not let anyone in the workshop turn into a computer buff and spend all their time playing with the machine, instead of doing real work.

Perhaps the main benefit of a computer in cost control was aptly described by the Milton Keynes City Bus company — a Warwick Systems site. "We knew we were changing a lot of brake shoes, we could see them. But the computer told us at once how much that was costing us in time and spares — and that the cost vs still rising."

Allied Aims Turbo 76 Ego Turbo 77 Fletcher Turbo 78 Kermidge Turbo 79 Carter Parratt Turbo 80 Warwick Turbo 81

Tags

People: Carter Parratt

comments powered by Disqus