At first glance, it's hard to fathom what Eliyahu Goldratt, a 58-year-old Israel-born physicist, has to offer the collision industry. But more than 20 years after Goldratt authored (along with Jeff Cox) a "business novel" entitled "The Goal," his theory of process improvement is increasingly being discussed within many shop "20 groups" and implemented by a growing number of collision repair businesses. 

The "theory of constraints," as described in the form of a fast-paced novel in "The Goal," has obvious relevance to manufacturing facilities and assembly line factories. But Kent Carlson, co-owner of Collision Resources, a Midwest-based industry consulting firm, and others in this industry say it can be just as relevant and helpful in improving collision repair production.

"The goal that Goldratt writes about is the same for any business: making money," Carlson said. "Profit is like oxygen for your business. If you go without oxygen very long, you'll die. And if your business goes without profits for very long, it will die."

The most effective way to generate those profits, Goldratt believes, is by increasing sales and production (or what he calls "throughput") while inventory and operating expenses are held steady or even reduced. Accomplishing that requires finding and fixing the "constraints" on production, those bottlenecks that limit, in the case of a collision repair shop, the amount of production the shop is able to move through the shop. Goldratt sees it as a 5-step process.

Finding the constraints

The first step, naturally, is focusing on identifying the constraints in your business. Just as brake lights and stopped vehicles signal a constraint in the flow of traffic (a.k.a. a traffic jam), a back-up of vehicles not being worked on at some point in the production process in your shop signals a constraint.

You may know (or think you know) where that point is in your shop, but Carlson said it may be helpful to make some measurements to ensure you are correct. Twice a day for the next two weeks, take a walk through your shop and note how many vehicles are in each stage of the process: body, prep, paint, buff, re-assemble, sublet and detail. Note how many of those vehicles are actually being worked on at the time, and how many are sitting untouched. For each department, calculate what percentage of the vehicles are not actually being worked on, and if possible, note the reason why - for example, waiting for supplements or parts.

This process can be helpful, Carlson said, because it can help you differentiate what he calls a "self-inflicted" bottleneck from a genuine "constraint." If you bring most of the week's work in on Monday, for example, this creates a "wave" of work rolling through your shop, first in the front office and metal department early in the week, hitting the paint shop in mid-week, and crashing into the detail and delivery process late in the week.

"Just knowing where a bottleneck is doesn't tell you its cause, and in this case, your scheduling may be what is creating what looks like a bottleneck in various parts of the shop," Carlson said. "In that case, you'll want to control your workflow better, trying to bring in and deliver about the same number of vehicles every day."

A genuine constraint, however, is generally signaled by a regular backlog or inventory of work-in-progress just in front of the constraint. Too many vehicles ready but waiting to go into production may signal a constraint in the body department, for example. Too many idle vehicles in the paint prep department may mean the booth is the constraint - or that the prep department is the constraint, a good example of why identifying constraints is not always a quick process.

"You need to keep digging, asking yourself where the problem is and if people, equipment or procedures are causing the back-up," Carlson said.