By: George Nenni, Vice President of Operations

Now that you know what your reconditioning process looks like, we’ll discuss how holding your teams accountable for slow-downs can help improve the process at your dealership.

Peter Drucker is credited with one of the most important quotes in business management – “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.”  Who is Peter Drucker? He is recognized as the man who invented modern business management practices and wrote 30 plus books on the subject.

Let’s apply this quote to the reconditioning process in today’s automotive dealerships. Dealers have a pretty good idea of how many days on average it takes to get vehicles from purchase to front-line ready. But what is the exact number? Is there a process mapped out with each step defined? Do dealers measure each of these steps from start to finish to understand exactly how much time it takes? Are there benchmarks set for each step and the total process? Where are the breakdowns in hand-offs? Dealers that cannot answer each of these questions aren’t measuring, and therefore can’t improve.

Define the Process

Define the reconditioning process step by step. Measure how long each step takes for a vehicle and provide that data to each team involved to immediately create accountability. There it is in black and white for all to see. Everyone knows how each area is performing. This exposure pushes teams to look at their portion of the process and compete to attain the top of the list for performance. Ultimately, this improves dealers’ bottom lines.

Continue to Monitor

The long term gain of gathering data over time is the ability to develop benchmarks for each step, as well as the overall process. Benchmarks can be built into each teams’ goals in order to provide ongoing accountability. After the initial clean up, there will be opportunities to continue to monitor and create small cross-functional teams to improve areas that aren’t meeting the set benchmarks.

A dealership can’t fix what isn’t measured. So measure it!  Provide transparency and accountability to dealership staff that will result in better processes and a shorter turnaround time to front-line ready. Most importantly, quicker turns equal more money for the dealership.

Ready to start maximizing profits from the reconditioning process? Read on for a convenient solution that provides visibility, control and accountability throughout the process.

Results-Driven Solution

Now there is a simple and convenient way to manage used vehicle reconditioning and speed up the front-line ready process. Dominion Recon, available in Dominion Inventory Manager, provides dealers with clear visibility into the entire process and the ability to manage the workflow from a smartphone. Working with the established reconditioning process, Dominion inventory Manager helps identify bottlenecks that are costing dealers’ money. Shedding even one day off the process can significantly improve ROI, especially when considering the savings across the entire used vehicle inventory.

Dominion Recon makes it easy to:

•         Track flow and accountability
•         Alert and deploy resources at the right time
•         Streamline the process, reduce days in service and drive gross margins

Dominion Recon helps dealers establish the most efficient reconditioning process to improve vehicle margins. For more information about how Reconditioning in Dominion Inventory Manager can help streamline the reconditioning process, visit our website, or contact us at 877-421-1040.