Education Step 12

Many are talking about the lost generation. That is the current group of people in their late teens to their early twenties. The unemployment rate for this group is almost obscene and I am not really hearing a lot of outrage.

This group of people must be wondering what happened to them. When I was coming into the work force it was also a frustrating time. There were insufficient jobs available – interview after interview being told that you had everything that they wanted in a new employee but didn’t have any openings gets pretty old.

Think about the loss of earnings capacity for the economy. Think about the loss of taxable earnings as a result of delaying the entry to the economy of these talented people. The penalty is not just for the undereducated which has long been a concern of mine but also for the educated. The dilemma with the education received is that it has not delivered marketable skills to the students that the market wants or needs.

Hope is a wonderful emotion and feeling. But take away hope from these younger people and one day this will boil up and cause serious troubles for everyone.

So we have to get serious someday soon don’t you think. Get government out of education. Get unions out of the way. Get anyone who is protecting the status quo out of the way. Get business and parents and students together to determine what is required of the coming generation of workers.

The time is now.

Training Tidbit #5

Those of you who have following this blog know about my concern for education, particularly the trade and vocational schools. Well yesterday in the Sunday paper here was another voice being raised. Morris Beschloss. He is a distinguished economic analyst He references a book in this article written by Edward E Gordon. It is dry reading but I consider it to be critical information. The book is titled “Future Jobs-Solving the Employment Skills Crisis.”

This book highlights how our vocational and technical training has been abandoned in this country. That is such a shame.

I hope you will get the book and read it. Then spread the word. The time is now.

,

Standards of Performance Webinar – March 20th 12:00 Noon Pacific

It is not too late to register at aednet.org/products/seminars.

What does it looks like when it is right? Performance in a Parts Department must maximize productivity, manage assets and satisfy customers.  The first step to understanding and accepting what needs to be done is to have meaningful, measureable and achievable standards. How to develop your own standards and yet continue to reach for excellence is the theme in this webinar.

Individual employees want to do a good job yet many do not know what doing a good job entails. This is a fundamental requirement of good management, communicating performance expectations and measures to the employees. In this webinar we will cover the fundamentals exposed by Patrick Lencioni in his important book “The Three Signs of a Miserable Job.”  Anonymity, Irrelevance and Immeasureability are the three symptoms of this disease which leads to the “Sunday Blues.”

Each employee can also deliver more than they think they are can yet each is fundamentally lazy. Leadership methods to entice or motivate employees to deliver  good performance for coworkers, customers and the Company will be discussed in this extremely important webinar.

The time is now.

,

Parts Best Practices Webinar – March 20th @ 9:00 AM Pacific

Wednesday is when the action is on best practices. Don’t miss it.

With standards of performance we dealt with what it looks like when it is right. With Best Practices we aim for performance excellence. What is it that the most successful dealers are doing to achieve excellence? This is discussed in detail in this webinar to allow dealers to see optional approaches to processes and systems. From using the telephone as a sales tool to inventory turnover; from customer retention to sales/employee everything is discussed.

We cover all aspects of the processes required in a parts business; from dealer business systems to telephone systems to warehousing storage systems. People and system productivity and effectiveness are critical in any business today but this is especially true within the equipment business where the gross margin on the prime products continue to erode. There are many aspects within a parts business that must be covered that can make a significant difference in either cost or market positioning and competitive.

Process manuals, electronic or paper, and procedures as well as training methods to employ become critical to the consistent delivery of excellent customer service. How to measure your success in the area of customer satisfaction as well as all operational processes becomes part of this webinar. Anyone interested in achieving the best possible level of performance within the parts business will gain insight from this webinar.

Register now at aednet.org/products/seminars.

The time is now.

,

Purchasing & Expediting Webinar – March 19th @ 12:00 PM Noon Pacific

It is not too late to registyer for tomorrows dynamic webinar.

When you have the part in stock you are the same as everyone else. The only part that matters is the one you don’t have in stock. The equipment and parts suppliers have made the ordering process so simple we have lost sight of expediting and the purchasing function. If a machine is down the customer wants the part now.

The first rule for a successful parts business is that the employees will not go home until every part that every customer, or mechanic, ordered is either supplied or the location from which it can be shipped is located. That doesn’t mean leaving it with a supplier that does not have the part on hand. This is expediting with a purpose and we deal with what to do’s and how to do it to satisfy “Rule #1.”

Purchasing becomes the court of last resort as we will deal with the prospect that the part is not available in your supply chain. Finding alternate sources is not easy. Communicating with the customer on their options and penalties is even more challenging. All of the “in’s and out’s” of purchasing and the liabilities associated with supplying a part which is not from your original equipment manufacturer is discussed in detail.

Learn new methods to solve this age old problem of finding every part that every customer or mechanic wants to have – the same day they want it – and doing that before you go home EVERY night – that is what is at stake in this important webinar.

Go to aednet.org/products/seminars to register.

The time is now.

,

Instore Merchanidising Webinar – March 19th @ 9:00 AM Pacific

Don’t miss this lively event.

The days of your customers walking into your business have long since passed. This is truly a shame. Some thirty to forty years ago we taught our customers that our inventory management meant that those parts that the customer wanted would not all be available when they came to our store. So they started to use the telephone and we didn’t see the customer on our store very much at all.

Yet it still continues to be true that you have an opportunity to create an interesting and successful retail store. This is the first step in becoming a retail operation. From Harley-Davidson to Ski-doo to Artic Cat there are specialty suppliers that have made merchandising an art form. We will look into the successes in other Industries and how we can learn from them. The layout of your merchandising area, the methods to keep it fresh and appealing, will go a long way to determining your success. All of this and much more will be covered in this fast paced webinar.

Others dealerships and other Industries have turned this into a customer convenience and money making proposition. This is much more than just setting up shelves and displays. They have made the store a pleasing environment for both employees and customers. Learn the ins and outs of successful Instore Merchandising with this comprehensive webinar.

You can register at aednet.org search products and then seminars to register.

The time is now.

,

Service Webinars

The final webinars for February are coming up this week. Go to aednet.org to register. There are two on Tuesday and two on Wednesday. Don’t miss them.

The time is now…

 

Shameless Promotion

Don’t miss the parts webinars and service webinars coming up.

Parts next week February 12th and 13th.

Service the following week February 19th and 20th.

The time is now.

,

Service Organization February 20th 12:00 Noon Pacific

The organization of a service department is about more than technicians and clerks and management. Designing the structures is about facts and not feelings. The time for shop and field jobs starts the design. The technology, tooling and processes used take us the rest of the way. Exploring the service department organization from a factual foundation is the goal of this webinar.

The density of supervision to technician has long been in dispute in this Industry. This webinar aims to put that dispute to rest by providing definitive measures of labor efficiency and quality in the forefront and not having “cost” drive decisions about those two fundamental elements of a service department.. From Roman times to the current US Army supervision has been a constant and defining attribute of high performance. We discuss the appropriate levels of supervision and provide a model for the participants to use for their business.

The clerical support in a Service Department covers all aspects of record management as well as labor controls, job controls, job process and work in process, as well as everything to do with warranty and technical documentation, either in printed or electronic format. The dealer business system is critical in supporting this function. This webinar will be of benefit to everyone in management and supervision of the service function.

 

 

,

Service Labor Rates February 20th 9:00 AM Pacific

Too often dealerships call around to the neighboring dealers and ask for their service pricing. While it is understandable to know what the pricing is in your territory it is more important to develop a price structure that is required to attract the business and also produce the profit necessary to operate a dealership.

We will expose the “peanut butter” labor pricing for what it is – an over simplified unrealistic pricing mechanism – and provide an alternative to consider. It all starts from the skills of the men and the degree of difficulty of the work involved. That requires we must know the skills of the men we employ and then use their skills on jobs that match that skill. Consider that the wage that is paid to the men is a direct reflection of the skills that the men have and we have a starting point to determine labor rates. It is called a “wage multiple.

This methodology has been in use for a long time but not by sufficiently large numbers of dealerships; currently most of us over price low skill work and under price high skill work. We will define and describe the wage multiple so that upon the completion of this webinar the participants will be able to return to work and recalculate their labor rates with this new method and evaluate whether or not they should apply it in their Service Department.