Even if reading is not your main hobby, I would bet you have heard some noise about a book called “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen Covey. The book goes over the author’s ideas on how to spur and nurture personal change. The book also explores the concept of effectiveness in achieving results, the need for focus on character rather than personality, and ethics in selecting value systems. As named, this book is laid out through seven habits the author has identified as conducive to personal growth.
Here, I will begin to present the 7 Habits of an Effective Lube Manager using Covey’s system. These may not all be for you, but you might find bits and pieces that will improve what you do in your own shop.
Be Proactive
The first section of Covey’s book is titled “Be Proactive.” Proactivity is about taking responsibility for one's reaction to one's own experiences and taking the initiative to respond positively and improve the situation. Many of us operate as reactive managers in this industry. How do we handle a warranty claim? What do we do when someone calls out or we get an unexpected rush of business? We want to improve proactive management. Proactive management is a leadership style that emphasizes strategic planning and risk management rather than taking a reactive approach to situations and business goals. Proactive management can be applied to any industry through leadership that puts an emphasis on planning and forward thinking. Managers who use a proactive approach try to identify and solve problems before they escalate and sometimes before they even happen. They analyze risks and then take action to encourage business growth.
So, how can we be proactive? Let us talk about three things that we react on. The first is warranty issues. Many of the things that we do have a risk of mistake. The ways that we can be proactive in avoiding these are many, but pretty simple.
Training would be the biggest preventive option that you can take. How many of you put someone into a position for which they are not quite ready? We can take advantage of a four-step training process to improve our team’s knowledge in each position. Take your best technician in that position; I will use lower bay as an example. We take the new hire or the trainee into the lower bay with them. On the first car, the lead tech does all the work with the trainee watching. The trainer tells them exactly what they are doing and why. The next car, the trainer does the work, but the trainee tells him what he is supposed to do. This is designed to be the second car, but it may take a few for them to catch all the steps. On the third car, the trainee is handed the tools and goes hands-on with the trainer assisting in the steps. When the fourth car comes in, the trainee is on their own with the trainer watching and only stepping in if there is an issue with the procedures.
Once they can show that they can complete the procedures that you have in place for a few cars, the trainer can sign off on the trainee as ready to go. You will still monitor them on certain cars, but you will no longer have to stand over them. If you do this weekly with different employees and they can be cross trained easily.
Use Your Tools on Hand
Another way that you can avoid claims is with the tools that you have in hand. How many of you have had a Hyundai or Kia oil pan issue or plug back out? There is a known issue that is out there, and it has not been corrected, but rather defended by the manufacturer of the vehicle. For these cars, I use an oil extractor, which can be found at your preferred vendor for machines or even on Amazon. The good ones can be found for around $500, but to justify the cost, how much is an engine claim?
Using this machine, we never touch the plug and we remove the oil from the dipstick. This can be used for multiple models, and we use them on Kia and Hyundai, as well as most European vehicles. Our claims were reduced to next to nothing upon putting these in place.
Another simple tool is a torque wrench in the lower bay. They can be set to the torque setting for that model and stop you from over- or under-torquing the plug. Look into these tools and be proactive, and you will be less likely to have to be reactive to an issue.
Cross-Train Employees
Remember that issue with the employee calling out? Circle back to that training I explained. When you have multiple employees cross-trained, they can move into a needed position and keep your operations moving. The same goes for that problem with getting an unexpected rush of customers. Now that you have multiple people trained in multiple areas, you can put your aces in their places and get through the rush quickly and efficiently.
Be proactive in all that you do. Look for ways to eliminate issues in advance. Look for the next talented employee and train them up. These are the best ways to stay ahead of issues and become more effective in proactive management and less reliant on reactive situations. This is the first step in the 7 Habits of an Effective Lube Manager. Next time we will discuss the second, Begin with the End in Mind.
