How do you get a grip on your workshop’s available capacity?

Not every available technician can be assigned to every job. Good workshop scheduling therefore takes account of technicians’ competences, experience and authorisations. The right pair of hands has to be matched to the right job.

A full workshop does not automatically mean that the available capacity is being used to best effect. When every technician is booked solid, there is little room to absorb unexpected additional work, walk-in customers or jobs that overrun. At the same time, a schedule that looks less full can in fact leave enough room to adjust as the day unfolds.

Getting a grip on capacity therefore does not begin with the number of available hours alone. What matters most is knowing which capacity can genuinely be deployed, which jobs it suits, and how much room you need to cope with the realities of day-to-day work.

Schedule by competence, not just by capacity

Not every available technician can be assigned to every job. Good workshop scheduling therefore takes account of technicians’ competences, experience and authorisations. The right pair of hands has to be matched to the right job.

This is becoming more important all the time. Take work on electric vehicles, which may call for specific knowledge and authorisations. The same principle applies to MOT testing, diagnostics and other work that requires particular skills or experience. The question is therefore not only how many technicians are available, but above all which technician is available for which job.

The person in charge of the workshop plays an important part here. The workshop manager knows how the technicians work, where there is room to take on more and when extra hours are needed. That knowledge needs to be reflected in the scheduling.

Leave room for additional work and walk-ins

Every workshop gets work arriving unannounced. A customer turns up unexpectedly, a technician finds additional work during a service, or a repair takes longer than anticipated. If you book the schedule completely solid, you have little scope to deal with any of this.

It is therefore sensible to leave room in the schedule deliberately. How much room you need varies from workshop to workshop. Location, type of customer, season, how predictable the work is and the way service advisers make appointments all play a part. A fixed buffer percentage for every workshop is therefore not the answer.

A buffer is not only there for walk-ins, either. Additional work that comes to light during a scheduled job also has to be absorbed somewhere. You can anticipate this earlier in the process by asking the right questions when the appointment is made, by including cross-selling, and by adding recommended work to the job card straight away.

Looking ahead makes capacity usable

Making good use of capacity does not mean filling every available minute in advance. It means looking ahead and knowing where room will arise, where capacity is likely to fall short, and which work you can responsibly schedule there.

Cooperation between scheduling and the workshop is essential here. When the workshop manager sees that hours are running short, that needs to be flagged in good time. Conversely, it is important to look ahead when the volume of work is falling, so that the available capacity can be redeployed in time.

From available hours to deployable capacity

Good workshop scheduling therefore gives you more insight than an overview of booked and free hours alone. You want to know which technician is available, which competences and authorisations go with them, what work is scheduled and how much room is needed to absorb the unexpected.

The focus thus shifts from scheduling by capacity to scheduling with the right technician, the right skills and the capacity available. The aim is not to make the schedule as full as possible, but to deploy the available capacity in a way that suits the work and leaves room for the reality of every workshop.