Keep Your Shop Organized and Productive With These 5 Steps

Is your fleet operation’s productivity slipping? While many factors can influence this, one element that can affect your shop’s productivity is its overall organization. Do you have parts scattered around the shop? Are there tools everywhere? These can impact how much work your employees are able to get done throughout the day.

To make your shop more organized – and more productive – follow the five steps of sort, set in order, shine, standardize and sustain. Fleet industry expert Steve Saltzgiver of Mercury Associates shared these tips on a recent webinar with RTA.

Sort

Identify what is needed and what can be allocated out of the area. Group items into categories.

If you look around your shop and you see tools and parts in random places, this can add to the time a technician spends on a job as he or she is trying to locate tools. To eliminate this wasted time, organize items that need to be accessed quickly. Group them into categories and put them in a central, convenient location.

Set in Order

Create and implement a clearly identifiable system and work stream, using the most efficient methods possible.

Once you have your shop organized, you want to make sure it stays that way. Create a work flow for how employees can get their work done while still keeping everything in its place and keeping the shop organized so all staff members know where to find tools, parts and other items necessary to performing their jobs.

Shine

Clean, paint, label and post signs and directions for use in the area.

Post physical reminders of where items are supposed to go and how they should be used to ensure employees are following the processes to keep the shop organized. When a shop looks clean and organized it can help motivate employees to be more productive.

Standardize

Use checklists and visual maps to ensure the right practices, procedures, and activities are executed consistently. This will ensure that sorting, setting in order, and shine are maintained.

Creating physical documentation on the new processes employees should follow to keep the shop organized and productive can help keep all staff members on the same page and promote long-term success with the changes.

Sustain

Continually check the area to ensure it is being maintained according to your expectations of standardization.

Once new processes and new organization methods are rolled out, it’s important to follow-up to make sure they are being used. Failure to follow the new processes can result in the shop slipping back into an unorganized state.

To learn how RTA Fleet Management Software can help your fleet operation increase its productivity, contact us today to schedule a demo or start a free trial!