How do you build up organizational routines?

On my previous post I tried to highlight the importance of engaging Technicians on performing the Maintenance jobs. And I presented you a question list which could help you to map the current situation in your Workshop. I did it because this is the first step of building a success routine: understanding the current one. On his excellent book The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business Charles Duhigg talks about habits and how to change them.

Basically a habit has three elements: a cue, the trigger, a routine, the way we act and a reward, the concrete result or the state we achieve by performing the routine. (see Charles Duhigg )

Let’s dig a bit on how the habit loop works on a Maintenance job. In my opinion in a customer centric organization the cue is the customer maintenance planning board, the routine is what all involved people are doing in order to get the vehicle in the Workshop and to return it in a reliable state to the customer and the reward is the customer satisfaction.

How it works in your own Workshop? Who initiates the Maintenance appointment? How well is defined the work to be performed before the vehicle pops in the workshop? How do the reception people work with the warehouse ones? What is the Technician’s main focus: finish the job in the standard time or vehicle reliability until the next maintenance occasion? Does the customer receive all explanations about the performed jobs, including a hard copy of the Maintenance protocol and about the invoice? Is the customer asked about his satisfaction level?

How do you want to be perceived by your customer? What objectives do you have?

What image fits more with your operations?

A way to achieve the wanted destination is to find the answers of the above questions by mapping the maintenance process. The routine can be changed when you understand the cue and the reward.  Next post I’ll present you a case study and ask for your help: what would you do to change the organizational routine? By then I invite you to share your own experiences: on a scale from 1 to 10 where 1 is organization centric and 10 is customer centric, how would you rate the Workshop you are working for?

 

Next in series: The 3 key performance indicators that tell you how healthy is your automotive business