Use a maintenance schedule, inventory management to reach higher KPIs

Feb. 27, 2019
Whenever I’m in a shop struggling with die-back, especially on horizontal vehicle panels, I immediately make a beeline for the spray booth to examine the floor filter. Chances are, it’s filled with sandpaper, dirt and razor blades, so I know it wasn’t changed as recently as it should have been.

In some previous columns (“Use a paint list, right vehicle prep to boost throughput,” February 2019; “Maximize your paint shop performance,” January 2019; and “Track and improve these numbers in your refinish department,” December 2018) I outlined some of the factors that can have an impact on your paint shop’s performance. Here are a couple more.

Create and follow a maintenance schedule

Whenever I’m in a shop struggling with die-back, especially on horizontal vehicle panels, I immediately make a beeline for the spray booth to examine the floor filter. Chances are, it’s filled with sandpaper, dirt and razor blades, so I know it wasn’t changed as recently as it should have been.

That’s a shop that needs a clearly defined maintenance schedule that designates, for example, how often that filter must be changed, who is responsible for doing it and when it was last done.

Booth filter changes are a key element of such a schedule. The floor filter in particular impacts air flow, curing time and dirt issues. How often filters need to be changed can be based in part on volume, but make sure the booth manufacturer recommendations for filter changes are followed.

The maintenance list should also include things like draining the compressor water. “Oh, the automatic release valve does that,” shops sometimes tell me. Yeah, but when was the last time you checked to make sure that was working?

Checking and replacing compressed air lines should be done on a scheduled basis. Any airline in the spray booth during the bake cycle, for example, will start to deteriorate earlier than most others and will need to be replaced more frequently.

Cleaning lighting fixtures and replacing bulbs is another maintenance issue I often see neglected.

So work with your team to create and post a maintenance schedule that enables this important work to be managed.

Manage your inventory

Materials profit and paint shop production can be significantly impacted by something as mundane seeming as good inventory management.

One example: If your shop is located in the Northeast or in other parts of the country with significant seasonal changes, the reducers and hardeners you use will vary throughout the year. Making sure you have the right products on-hand ahead of those changes will help prevent ruining that first job of the new season just because the temperature or humidity has changed but the products the paint team uses didn’t.

All of the major paint companies offer training and programs that assist with inventory management. One key part of it is working with your employees and suppliers to develop a list of the approved products your shop will use. Materials are too costly today to have multiple employees purchasing or using different grits of sandpaper or multiple brands of seam-sealer. Clearcoats can be $300 a gallon; you can’t have every painter selecting the one they prefer. Again, turn to the experts at your jobber or paint manufacturer to select the products that work best in your shop’s environment.

Your goal also should be minimize the number and quantity of products you have on-hand. You don’t want to become an extension of your supplier’s warehouse. The ideal is moving toward a just-in-time basis. That doesn’t mean the needed product shows up only when the car is in the booth. It means a very planned-out delivery system, like the kanban system in the Toyota lean manufacturing model. If you’re always ordering a day late and requiring hot-shot runs from your jobber, that may be why they push you to stock more than you actually need.

It’s an unpleasant topic, but theft of materials is obviously another factor that can have a negative impact on materials profit. Again, good inventory management can help ferret out any such problem. If you see a spike in your paint and materials costs, you need to consider all the potential influencers.

In a future column, I’ll discuss the last few factors that I see can be adjusted to improve your paint shop performance, including better estimates and proper paint shop equipment.

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