Automotive News - October 25, 2021 - S21

OctOber 25, 2021 | 21
ROMAIN AUTOMOTIVE GROUP, INDIANA
Systematic problem-solving pays off
Employee teams help
spur group's growth
Published in Automotive News May 3, 2021
David Muller
dmuller@crain.com
R
omain Automotive Group of Indiana
has drastically reduced its employee
turnover rate while increasing
productivity.
But Romain President Mike Mintline acknowledged
that the retailer's method for
achieving this feat may not be for everyone -
at least not at first blush.
" Really, it's hard to implement, " he said.
" Most guys like to operate by the seat of their
pants. And we don't. "
Since 2003, the three-store group has used
what it calls the quality education systems
management philosophy, adopted from the
teachings of entrepreneur
Philip Crosby, who is noted
for improving
large
corporations' efficiency. It
includes a series of
team-driven
processes
Mintline: Higher
retention
that have led to Romain
employees being more engaged
by giving them a
voice in dealership operations.
It's created a work
force of problem-solving,
longer-term employees, Mintline said.
In this system, a quality improvement team is
installed at each store. The teams - made up of
senior store leaders such as general managers,
fixed operations directors, finance directors and
business development center managers - essentially
call the shots for the stores.
That differs from having all orders flow from
the general manager and is " more consensus-driven, "
Mintline said.
Offer a solution
To address issues with store operations, employees
are encouraged to submit error
cause-removal forms. The forms must identify
a problem but also offer a solution. The store's
quality improvement team is mandated to answer
every form.
Once a form is submitted, a corrective action
team, made up of a handful of relevant store employees,
is formed to fix the problem, which must
get the quality improvement team's blessing.
Taken together, here's how the team-driven
process can work: An employee might submit
a form that says customers wait too long to get
into the finance and insurance office to complete
paperwork and that they'll know the
problem is solved when customers don't have
to wait 10 minutes to get into F&I.
The quality improvement team then asks
that employee to form a corrective action
team, which could include an F&I manager, a
sales manager, a salesperson and a service department
employee. They will meet to find a
solution.
In this real instance from the Romain group,
the corrective action team recommended an
additional
finance manager, fax machines
and scanners in the offices and an online
schedule that all salespeople could access to
schedule their appointments. After those recommendations
were implemented, customer
feedback improved markedly, Mintline said.
" And we don't have anybody waiting for F&I
around here, " he said.
There also are permanent teams, such as a
facilities team that may make suggestions for
Romain Automotive Group of Indiana
uses a management philosophy that
puts employee teams in place to
solve problems. It has led to
employees being more engaged
because they have an effective voice
in dealership operations.
Romain Automotive's
team approach is " more
consensus-driven. "
how a store is decorated and a safety one that
monitors potential hazards on dealership
grounds.
Along with the ruling- by-committee setup,
Romain has awards programs for employees.
And it has adopted Six Sigma process improvement
tools traditionally aimed at eliminating
waste in manufacturing. Mintline said
it has improved the sales process, leading to
more sales per employee and a drastically
higher retention rate for the group.
Started with Saturn
Romain's Saturn roots helped the retailer
adopt these different approaches, Mintline
said, as the defunct General Motors brand's
personnel typically were more open to nontraditional
processes.
Two Romain stores in Evansville and Terre
Haute, Ind., are former Saturn dealerships.
Mintline was running Saturn of Plymouth in
Michigan when group CEO Ron Romain
bought that store along with a Saturn dealership
in Farmington Hills, Mich., in 2003. The
teams approach began at the Michigan Saturn
stores that year and soon migrated to the rest
of the group, which sold 4,000 vehicles last
year, up from about 3,700 in 2019.
Mintline stressed that more formal processes
have been key to a successful, growing
dealership group. While they may sound
daunting or tedious, they make things
smoother in the long run.
" It might be an hour more work now, " he
said, " saving you 10 hours next month. " n
Automotive News - October 25, 2021

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