1. A total lack of or very poor systems
in place.
2. Poor purchasing.
3. No performance pay.
4. More employees then the amount
of monthly revenue can justify.
5. No financial metrics.
You must prepare yourself and your
yard for positioning. If you are not ready to position
yourself when a windfall or better yet an opportunity
presents itself, then your windfall or opportunity will
soon be eaten up with the inefficiencies in your yard.
All will be lost and you will be back to square one.
Systems – In order for a system
to be effective, it must be scaleable. This means the
system will work equally well if the monthly sales volume
is $25,000 per month, $150,000 per month, or even $350,000
per month. If your systems are not scaleable, then at
some point they will breakdown under the volume and
stop working. When this occurs, some or all employees
must stop performing their primary function, whether
it be selling, delivering, dismantling, etc. and go
into the special project mode.
In the special project mode, we must
design and implement a new system or worse yet, clean
up and rearrange the old system. This activity almost
always causes a reduced service level, loss of focus
and the end result is a loss in business. When you lose
business, it is always more difficult to get it back
the second time then it was to achieve it in the first
place. Nearly every place I visit I find what I call,
“The Make System,” of placing vehicles in
the yard. Chevrolets are up on the hill, Fords are down
in the valley, Chrysler products are over by the creek,
and so on. This system does not work and is not scaleable.
No matter what size area you designate for a particular
make or model, you will invariably obtain more of that
make or model then will fit in the area, and too few
of another. Next thing you know, all the makes and models
are mixed up again.
I believe this system originates from
either not having a yard management system already in
place or not trusting the information in it. A much
better system would be to label each area with a sign.
For example: YA for yard area A, YB, YC and so on. Then,
make up signs for rows 1, 2, 3 and so on. Place a stock
number on each vehicle, then enter the vehicle and its
location in the yard management system. Know that this
is a scaleable system. No more wasted time, lost sales
or vehicle damage from moving vehicles around to get
all of a particular make or model in a designated area.
You do have a yard management system, don’t you?
If you do not, this is the first system you need to
install. You will find it gradually more difficult to
stay in business during the 21st century without a computerized
yard management system.
If you do these things, you will be
prepared to position yourself to take advantage of any
opportunity or make the most of a windfall if one comes
along.
