Using mounting and balancing to process more cars

Follow the Five S's and convert to one-piece flow

By: Mike Manges

Once you’ve stabilized your mounting and balancing process “and have made it repeatable, you can measure it,” says Kevin Keefe, vice president of marketing for Hennessy Industries Inc.

Here’s your dilemma: due to the ongoing recession, your budget for capital improvements is the same as last year — nil. That means no new service bays or machinery for your garage.

You’re also working with a very limited advertising budget.

On the labor front, things are just as tough. In fact, to trim costs, you’re even thinking about paring down your roster of tire and auto service techs.

Meanwhile, you still have to hit your targets.

To get there, you need to increase the number of cars your shop processes — and not just by a few.

According to Kevin Keefe, vice president of marketing for Hennessy Industries Inc., one of the quickest ways to boost your car count is to streamline your dealership’s mounting and balancing process.

Five S concept

During mounting and balancing, you want to keep wasted motion and energy to a minimum, says Keefe. To achieve this, he recommends that tire dealers and technicians implement  the “Five S’s”:

1. simplify,

2. straighten,

3. scrub,

4. stabilize,

5. sustain.

To simplify and straighten, “go through all of your tools and equipment — anything in your tire bays. If you don’t use it, get rid of it. If you do use it, make sure it’s in good working order.”

There’s a tendency for bays to attract clutter, he says. “Find a place for (your tools) and identify that place, whether it’s a tool caddy or a wall rack. Find a home for the tool and make sure everybody can clearly see where that home is. It should be as close to the point of use as possible.”

Scrub, he says, is self-explanatory: make sure your shop equipment is clean.

“Stabilize and sustain means developing a process to make sure the first three S’s are maintained.”

Use checklists. On a daily basis, make sure your wheel weight bins are full and you’ve replenished your valve stem stock “at the location they’re going to be used. Also make sure your repair materials have been replenished.

“Sweep your floors every night. Get rid of whatever clutter might be lying around, including tires. Get them out of your bay.

“A weekly checklist might entail cleaning your balancing cones, cleaning your tire changer table-top, and lubricating your clamps,” says Keefe.

A monthly checklist might consist of adding oil to your tire changer.

“The whole Five S process says, ‘I only have what I need to perform the operation in the most convenient, productive place possible, and I have created a safe, clean environment.’ That’s the foundation of everything else you do.”