The challenge for the future of automotive repair lies in the industry's ability to improve its productivity. The auto repair industry has not made the quality improvements that the automotive manufacturing industry has made in the past years. The first step to improve productivity is to identify the areas that have the most impact on productivity. This is the value of a performance audit.
A performance audit identifies the processes that improve productivity. You cannot perform better than the process allows. If the process has problems, it will impair performance despite training efforts or motivation to improve.
In the automotive repair business there are seven key areas that will benefit from a performance audit. They are: technical competence/training, administrative, sales and marketing, customer satisfaction, housekeeping, financial, and environmental and safety. To be more productive requires a knowledge of those items and a follow-up plan for improvement.
The results of one company's performance audit documented the kinds of improvement that can follow a good audit. Such an audit had specific objectives, measurements, and an action plan. The audit information gave the company an understanding of customers' expectations of service and guided them in setting successful performance standards that produced profitable results. It also identified the strengths and areas of development for the technicians so that they could better serve their customers.