Page 39 - Australasian Paint & Panel Nov-Dec 2018

BODYSHOP PROCESSES
GET OFF THE HAMSTER WHEEL
It’s an inconvenient truth for every smash repairer:
no matter how well the shop floor runs, without efficient administration systems in place, the business won’t make money.
NEVER HAS THIS been truer as costs increase and profit margins tighten says Steve O'Brien of DNS Technology creators of iBodyshop. iBodyshop is designed to eliminate many of the manual processes employed by repairers who, for too long, have been hamstrung by outdated 1980's-era software that fails to meet the needs of a 21st century shop.
Some of the “manual systems” do the job, and you couldn’t survive without their functions. But they consume huge amounts of labour to maintain. Labour that costs lots of money, which impacts
on profitability.
iBodyshop was designed to automate and
eliminate costly manual processes and help
reduce overheads. The mission was to spare
repairers a 'death by a thousand cuts' by
eliminating those annoying repetitive
tasks such as creating and maintaining job
folders, uploading photos, writing up shop
floor whiteboards, etc.It has also sought to
make other daily activities as easy and as
fast as possible, including locating a job
when a customer calls. “This is Tom, how’s my car going?” Receptionist: “What’s your rego?” Tom: “Don’t know.” Receptionist: “What colour car?” Tom: “Silver.” In seconds, iBodyshop can match the customer with the car. The overwhelming feedback from customers is that iBodyshop is easy to use, fast, reliable and dramatically reduces admin time.
Modules such as People Planner, Job Allocator, Departure Display (shop floor 50” LCD screen showing departure and repair stage) and Time Recording (with incentive schemes) are all fully integrated with Estimating. Inputting the data once reduces labour and results in far more accurate reporting. What’s more, the modules are included in Professional and Premium levels.
With expenses reasonably static, bodyshops either make or lose money based on gross profit. And how you crunch the numbers is important. There’s no point setting a monthly paint budget of $20K because paint usage is relative to work turnover. Instead iBodyshop accounting uses “ratios” to monitor performance.
For example, paint usage (sales) should equate to approximately 18-22% of paint purchases – that tells the true story.
Pialba Smash in Hervey Bay, Queensland installed iBodyshop around two years ago. Co-owner and manager Jackie Steinhardt (pictured above) came into the business from a sales background."We tried other management systems but iBodyshop
www.paintandpanel.com.au
breaks every aspect of the workshop flow down and being automated is so easy. It gave me the confidence to run the business, even though I’d never worked in the industry before or fixed a car," Steinhardt said. "It has the ability to manage quotes, staff, parts, and workflow at the touch of a button. But the best part is the staff can manage themselves with the easy phone App.
"The original workshop was very outdated. Staff were reluctant to have their progress measured, resistant to change and not prepared to increase their productivity. But perseverance resulted in new team who happily use the computerised functionality of iBodyshop and are very happy to embrace the new technology resulting in a positive work culture and environment. Because of this our output has doubled.
“The fact that my staff can access jobs on their own phone makes it so easy, everyone knows what needs to be done and enjoy a more productive working environment.”
“Another great thing about iBodyshop is that they listen to their customers. If enough people ask for a new feature, a new button, then they'll create it, so it just keeps getting better and better.
"With the help of my great team and iBodyshop I have achieved a lot over the past two years, I’ve actually been able to step back a little and have a life."
Log on to: iBodyshop.com and sign up for your free 30-day trial.
“With the help of my great team and ibodyshop I have achieved a lot over the past two years, I’ve actually been able to step back a little and have a life.”
November / December 2018 PAINT&PANEL 39