Moving vehicles in and out of an auto repair shop is part of the automotive repair process. Vehicles must be moved into the shop to be worked on then moved out of the shop when they’re done. The efficiency of this process is impacted by three factors: 1) The bays in the shop; 2) The person moving the vehicles; 3) The amount of parking space outside the shop. If the volume of vehicles exceeds the bay capacity in the shop efficiency will be impacted. If the person moving the vehicles is unable to keep up with the demand for movement – performance will suffer. And if the parking space outside the shop is too small or is not close to the shop – movement will be slowed down. Further if movement in and out of the shop is increased due to parts or other resources not being available overall performance will suffer as more time is spent moving vehicles and latent time between working on vehicles is increased. The main factors in vehicle movement are:
- Shop Bay and Entrance Impact – When moving vehicles in and out of the shop the number of bays in the shop as well as the number of entrances will impact efficiency. If the number of cars that are ready to be worked on exceeds the number of bays then the shop becomes a bottleneck. Also if the number entrances are limited movement of vehicles in and out of the shop will be impacted.
- Personnel and Vehicle Movement – People move vehicles in and out of the repair shop during the course of repair work being performed. If the person moving vehicles in and out of the shop is unable to keep up with the workload then shop performance will suffer.
- Parking Space Outside the Shop – When a vehicle is moved in and out of the shop it must be parked outside. The number of parking spots outside the shop as well as their location will impact performance in this area. If there are not enough spaces then efficiency will be impacted. Likewise if the location of the spaces is not optimal performance will suffer.
