Without a Glitch: Operating Efficiently Greenville NC

By Eileen Benedict
4/1/1998

To be profitable, a body shop needs to operate efficiently.

And many shop owners - when considering how to obtain optimum efficiency - incorrectly concentrate all their efforts on revamping their shop layout and design. While these are important - as is equipment placement - their being overhauled typically isn't going to turnaround a struggling shop.

Why? Because, although layout and design can help to make improvements in a shop's level of efficiency, most shops with gross profit deficiencies also have other problems. In fact, according to Brian Evison - technical director of Bemack Planning Services, a layout and design planning firm - a poorly designed shop only moderately affects gross profit.

For example, if a shop's poor layout and design are impacting efficiency - which, in turn, affects gross profit performance - revamping them probably won't increase efficiency by more than 10 percentage points (not profitability, but efficiency), says Evison. And that, in turn, may increase gross profit performance only by 1 percent, maybe less depending on the situation.

"There's a misconception about just how much can be accomplished in a redesign [of a body shop]," says Evison. "[Body shop owners] who are looking to do more business are looking to be more efficient, and it seems that layout and design or adding more equipment is what most shop owners gravitate toward ... when, actually, there's a lot more to it than that.&q...