Lean Dealer Methods
What is Lean?
The core idea behind lean is to maximize customer value while minimizing organizational waste.
Implemented by the most global equipment OEM’s, the benefits of Lean are now being recognized in distribution.
Dealers who embrace lean have better customer fulfillment and satisfaction, higher involvement and commitment of their staff, and substantially better returns by progressively eliminating waste.
What can Lean Dealer Methods do for your business?
Fighting fires is business as usual
The bottom line? Lean dealers realize up to 3% (points) higher return on sales vs. their non-Lean peers.
If you experience any of these challenges, lean methods can help.
Can't find techs (and have low tech efficiency)
Team frustrated with ineffective processes
Poor customer response time
Disorganized facility, trucks, and workspaces
Too much time spent at The Waiting Place
High employee turnover/low engagement
Low net promoter scores (dissatisfied customers)
Too many repeat service calls
The house always wins.
The dealer House of Lean, similar to the original created by Toyota, identifies the main factors that must be implemented to help transform your business from chaotic and inconsistent to predictable and sustainable.
Like building a house, you need a good foundation: 5S (workplace organization) and standard operating procedures (stable processes).
The 1st pillar of the house is how your business becomes reliable in its delivery via continuous improvement and value stream mapping of your processes.
The 2nd pillar of the house is how you build quality into your business by error-proofing processes (think the consistency of your customer's experience).
The core of the house is your people who run these processes, and it's their involvement determines whether your house stands tall or falls.
The roof is the result. By making big improvements in what your customer expects and receives, you stand to make big gains in how your business performs.
Our approach.
We follow the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle to help you implement the Lean factors most applicable to your business.
But don't sweat it if you can't do it all. While we recommend a full House of Lean approach to maximize the benefit to your business, employees, and customers, significant value can be obtained by implementing just one or two factors (5S is a great place to start).
We start with an assessment (Plan), followed by potential solutions that we test together (Do), followed by evaluating and refining the results of the test (Check), and lastly implementing the full solution (Act) including training your team.
Ready to Lean in? Contact us today.