December 2022 - 18

Using digital tools to reduce
the friction of running a shop
A shop management system is an eclectic mix of tools, processes,
and procedures used to help a service business realize success.
By Scott Brown, Technical Editor
A
shop management system is more than just
a software application used to manage your
daily operations, it's a system consisting of
an eclectic mix of tools, processes, and procedures
used to help a service business realize success.
Success for an automotive service dealer is not always easy to
achieve, but with the right tools, equipment, drive, and mindset,
one can more easily manage challenges standing in the way. In my
opinion, success means more than just the financial bottom line,
as it resonates back to the core values as to why we are in business.
We are an important factor in the transportation segment where
we help people maintain their mobility and independence. And with
the automobile being one of the most complex devices a human
will interact with during their lifetime, it is our duty to always stay
competently proficient and professional. That means managing staff
so that they are maintaining the assets required to bring forward
success. Managing workflow, indeed, is extremely challenging, and
there may be several tangents encountered during a repair process.
For instance, a vehicle arrives with a complaint of X. The vehicle
is one that fits well with one of your technicians. However, they may
be away at training or may be off because of sick leave, etc. Wouldn't
it be great if you could leverage some of the knowledge that your out
of commission technician has and have them share that knowledge
with another technician in the shop remotely?
We've had situations where some preliminary analysis was
performed on a vehicle before it even reached our facility. Some
of that research may include technical service bulletins, industry
knowledge, etc. When we find something relevant to the vehicle in
question, we can easily attach it to the invoice (digital in this case)
where it can be used as a reference for any technicians interacting
with this vehicle and complaint.
Now, keep in mind that these documents can also serve a purpose
later down the road. There may be conditions where you're unable
to duplicate a specific complaint on a vehicle resulting in the shop
placing the vehicle back into service. If the vehicle returns a new
work order can be generated with a link back to that original ticket
containing all the research assets that were used previously. This is
a huge time saver, especially if relevant diagnostic and research data
was attached. What I'm referring to here is things like a full vehicle
18 PTEN DECEMBER 2022 www.VehicleServicePros.com
p Figure 1 - We use Shop-Ware work order communications for jobs.
diagnostic scan, relevant wiring diagrams and other complementary
items such as photos and/or video.
We had a situation recently where we were tasked with performing
an analysis on a vehicle for another shop. The vehicle arrived
with documentation showing the issues they faced and what had
been performed thus far. This vehicle had some strange issues that
we were able to research and reach a conclusion. The wide-band
fuel control sensor was reporting Lambda 1 where an independent
measurement reported 0.84. Further, we determined that the ECU
was commanding the B1S1 wide-band sensor's heater at 100 percent
all the time, regardless of what the ECM data stream command
was. We advised the shop of our findings (replace ECM and front
lambda sensor) and returned the vehicle to them. A few months
later, the vehicle returned to us after the repair stating that the O2
sensor monitor will not complete.
We began our analysis by verifying that our previous recommendations
were performed. A new ECM had been installed and
properly commissioned, and it appeared to have a new B1S1, but
http://www.VehicleServicePros.com
December 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of December 2022
