and your manufacturer's policies and procedures manual certainly has one way in it for you to do so. However, over the years there have been many variations on the traditional and non-traditional systems to accommodate different sized dealerships, with varying skilled technicians, advisors and all the other service support staff.

The basic structure of the traditional system, keeping in mind that it can vary, is one known as the "Tower" or "Central dispatch" in which all of the advisors write repair orders and give them to a dispatcher who distributes the work to the technicians based upon promised times, technician skill levels, current shop workload, parts availability, etc. This system is the typical one seen in approximately 75% of all dealerships in North America. Of course, smaller dealerships, (less than ten techs) often have one of the advisors serving in the role of dispatcher. In large dealerships, (over twenty techs) there may even be two dispatchers working side by side.

Operationally, this system works extremely well for dealerships with no more than fifteen technicians, and only one or two service advisors, plus a dispatcher. Over fifteen technicians, and the workload imposed upon the dispatcher proves to be quite overwhelming. Ultimately, I believe that this is too much responsibility, as well as authority and power, for one individual. The dispatcher, who typically is paid on the production of the entire shop, has the power to put work in and take work out of the shop, obviously maximizing the shop's production. Unfortunately, the dispatcher never has to answer to the customer, the advisor does. The dispatcher never gets a low CSI score, the advisor does. The dispatcher has the power to control the income of every single technician and a lot of control over the advisor’s income and that can prove to be too much power for one person in a large service department.

The basic structure of the team system, again, keeping in mind that it can vary, is ideally designed for larger dealerships, more than fifteen technicians, but can be set up with as little as 4 technician shops. In essence, the role of the dispatcher is eliminated and the technicians are divided into teams. Typically no less than four and no more than six technicians are assigned to one team, who all work specifically with one advisor. The general principle being, it creates small, easily manageable shops within a larger one. The advisor for the team also controls the dispatching to his/her team of technicians only. The advisor is paid primarily on the production of his/her team. In this structure, it puts control of the repair orders written by the advisor in the hands of the advisor. To me, this makes great sense, as he is the one who has to answer to a customer about promised times and is closer to the situation to ensure nothing gets forgotten. It’s almost a more "down home" personal touch.

In a larger shop, this can prove to be more cost-effective as well, as the position of the dispatcher has been eliminated. Also, one working technician is assigned the role of team leader, which in essence serves as shop foreman for his team, also potentially saving the cost of an unproductive shop foreman. There is one BIG factor in team set-ups that cannot be overlooked, and that is the technician's skill factor. Each team ideally has all skills represented somewhere within the team. This way, any RO can be completed by any team. If Team A is missing electrical diagnosis as a skill, no electrical complaints can be assigned to this team, which can prove to be politically unsound amongst the teams.

Whatever the size of your shop, there are many ways you can set up your operations. These are two basic ways and there are many variations on them that we can explore in future articles. Ultimately, you have to determine what works best for you and your department. Please let me know if you would like additional information on any of the above ways, or any other ways of setting up your shop.