Whether you are building a new automotive body shop or renovating your current shop, determining the proper layout can be a very daunting, even overwhelming task.
There are so many different opinions and options that it can be confusing. Most body shop owners do not know where to start. The good news is that there are people who can assist you, and there are basic things to keep in mind that can simplify the process.
In this article, I will share some of those things and hopefully arm you with valuable information to help get you started. Remember, there are several correct and very different ways to lay out a shop. The methods I cover in this article are ones that have been successful for myself and the shops I have worked with.
Think small
The first thing I tell people is to think small. If you try to lay out every part of your shop at the same time, it is easy to overlook key things or get lost in the hundreds of decisions you need to make. When you break your shop layout down into basic elements, the number of choices you need to make will significantly shrink and things will start to fall into place.
You should initially focus on two key things — your production goals and your paint shop. Why these two things first? Your production goals will tell you exactly how much work needs to go through your shop. Almost every one of those cars will have to go through the paint booth, which is typically a shop’s biggest bottleneck. So, if you set up your paint shop to handle your production, the rest of your shop layout will simply be figuring out the best ways to get those vehicles into the paint booth.
Calculating your daily production goal
You want to break your production numbers down into a piece of useable layout information. The key piece of information you are trying to calculate is how many cars per day need to go through your shop — your daily production goal.
The average U.S. work order is a little over $3,000. Most shops have 50 weeks a year they are open for business, accounting for downtime such as holidays and shutdowns for maintenance. Most shops are open five days a week, giving you about 250 working days a year. To figure out how many cars per day you need to hit your gross sales goal, divide your gross sales by $3,000 (average work order), then divide again by 250 days in a year. Here is an example:
Gross sales goal: $3 million
$3 million ÷ $3,000 = 1,000 cars per year
1,000 cars per year ÷ 250 working days per year = Daily production goal of 4 cars per day
If you get four cars through your shop every day and maintain an average $3,000 work order, you will hit your gross sales goal of $3 million. If your shop had a goal of $10 million in gross sales, you would need to get at least 13 cars through your shop every day. You can substitute your actual average work order price for a more accurate production number. Just make sure you follow the formula of annual gross sales divided by average work order divided by 250 days.
Determining whether you need a second paint booth
Knowing your daily production goal will help you make most of your layout decisions. If your shop achieves $3 million a year in gross sales and your goal is to reach $4.5 million a year, the formula described above ($4.5 million ÷ 3,000 ÷ 250) shows you need to get six cars through your shop every day to hit your goal.
When determining how to accomplish this goal, you should start by looking at your paint shop. The average painter can run four to six paint booth cycles per day in a standard downdraft booth. You should be able to hit your daily production goal of six cars with one paint booth and one prep booth (for priming). However, the paint booth and your painter both need to operate at maximum efficiency every day. If your painter can get only four cars through the booth a day, you will need to get your painter some help in the form of a prepper or train the painter to become more efficient.
A second paint booth will give your shop the potential to grow beyond your hypothetical future goal of $4.5 million. However, it may not be the best option if your second booth runs at only 50 percent efficiency. If you think your shop will eventually grow beyond $4.5 million a year, you should lay out your equipment so there is space to add a second booth down the road when you need it.
Another option is to add technology to make your paint booth easier to run at maximum efficiency. This could include a side-load system. By eliminating the need to mask cars in the paint booth, a side-load system saves a lot of time and can add one more car a day to your production. You could also use some of the newer clear coats that have shorter bake times, enabling your painter to get cars out of the booth quicker.
Assessing the need for additional body technicians
If you need to get six cars a day to the paint shop, look at your body technicians and the type of work they do. This is where the most variation exists from shop to shop, so make sure you crunch your actual numbers. Look at how many cars per day move from the body department to the paint department and divide that by how many body technicians your shop has on staff.
If your shop has five body technicians who have four cars ready for paint each day on average, that means one body technician produces 0.8 cars per day (4 cars ÷ 5 technicians = 0.8 cars per technician). If you are getting four cars a day to the paint department and need to increase that to six cars a day to hit your new daily production goal, you need an increase of two cars a day (2 cars per day ÷ 0.8 = 2.5 additional technicians). To hit your new goal, you may need to start by adding two additional technicians, and you may eventually need to add a third.
Before adding a technician, there are a few factors you should consider. Is the current size and layout limiting how much your technicians can produce? If your shop had more space or slightly larger stalls, perhaps the existing five technicians could get their production up to five or six cars a day. Make sure you take time to talk to your technicians to see what challenges they are facing and what input they have to help increase production. You may save yourself overhead by having these conversations.
The type of work you do also will help you determine how many body stalls your shop needs. Technicians working on medium to large repairs may need two stalls each, so they can be reassembling one vehicle while body filler or primer is drying or while the AC machine is running. Light repair technicians probably require only one stall, as there is minimal R&I (remove and install) to perform and they are cycling through cars quickly. There is a lot of variation on the body side, so it is important to identify what your shop really needs.
By taking a calculated approach to your body shop’s layout, you can set your shop up for consistent, long-term growth. This starts with knowing the number of cars you need to get through your shop each day to meet your gross sales goal. Once your daily production goal is established, you can more easily determine whether your shop needs to add a second paint booth or incorporate technology to maximize efficiency, and whether your volume of body technicians is suitable for your operation.
When it comes to figuring out exactly how to position your equipment, be sure to get your paint booth company involved. Global Finishing Solutions (GFS) can show body shop owners examples of the most efficient shop layouts. You can pick the one that best fits your needs and building dimensions or GFS can customize one specifically to your exact circumstances.
