Helpful Tools for Managing your Process Flows

Helpful Tools for Managing your Process Flows

We’re going to take a short departure from our regular column on standards, to talk about techniques for managing your yard better, in the spirit of this issue on Operations. Do you have a process flow that you need to follow, but find that there are a lot of moving...
First Things First

First Things First

It’s no secret that I think systems will help a shop run better – more efficiently, easier to train employees, higher profits.  Systems take time to implement, however. One of the conversations I frequently have is, “OK, I’ll accept your premise that it will make more...
How Logistics Improvements Save Time, Money, and Fuel

How Logistics Improvements Save Time, Money, and Fuel

The trucking industry has changed a lot since the days when I’d ride in the third seat of the family station wagon, facing backwards, and wave at truckers in the hopes they’d toot their big horn back at me.   (TOOT TOOT!) Back then, they drove what they thought was...
Handling Contaminated Automotive Refrigerants

Handling Contaminated Automotive Refrigerants

While researching information for a client on a sister topic of recycling automotive electronics, I came across this article from the EPA.  Rather than paraphrase it, since it was well-written and covers all the points that I would have highlighted in this article,...
The Times, They Are Changin’

The Times, They Are Changin’

Last time we talked about how to start understanding your process through some easy metrics. This time, we’ll talk about what starting may mean. The most comprehensive word to describe this would be change. Change is rarely easy; however, it is a constant (like...