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Manage Labor Inventory

The following training series will teach you how to effectively manage your shops labor inventory with AutoVitals.

Part 1 – Getting Started

Part 2 – How to Communicate with Technicians

Part 3 – Canned Messages

Part 4 – Communicating Inspection Progress

 

Part 5 – Shop Total Labor Inventory

Part 6 – Technician Labor Inventory

Part 7 – Next Steps

Part 1 – Getting Started

Effectively managing your shops labor inventory will allow you to increase your shop’s efficiency and productivity. In this training series you will learn how to use the chat feature, how to update jobs on the tablet and how to create canned messages.

For today’s training you will need: 

  • Your Today’s Vehicle Page (TVP) open
  • Your Point of Sale (POS) open
  • A tablet with your SmartFlow app open, logged onto your shop and assigned to a technician of your choice
  • Test vehicle “Blue Steel” created 

To begin the training series create a new work order in your Point-of-Sale and

  • Set the customer name to “Blue Steel”
  • Put your cell phone number for the phone number
  • Copy and paste WMWSU3C50CT541264 and use this as the VIN #
  • Create a labor line: inspection
  • Do not assign a technician in your point of sale

 

Part 2 – How to Communicate with Technicians

Everyday technicians waste time walking between the vehicle they are working on and the Service Advisor to ask questions. This wasted time results in lost revenue for your shop. In part 2, learn how the service advisor and technicians can easily and effectively communicate with each other.  

How to chat between the technician tablet and the service advisor:

  1. Go to your tech view
  2. Click on the chat bubble icon for test vehicle “Blue Steel”
  3. Write a short chat and click send
    1. You should see a chat appear and hear an audible alert on the tablet
  4. Now chat back from the tablet to the Service Advisor.
    1. The chat bubble will animate on your tech view

Part 3 – Canned Messages

Learn to how to configure canned messages to speed up communication in your shop.   

How to configure canned messages:

  • Click on the gear icon in the toolbar on your Today’s Vehicle Page (TVP)
  • Click on the “Inspection” tab
  • Click on the “Shop Mgmt” tab
  • Click on “Configure canned message for technician” link
  • Type a new canned message
  • Click “add canned message”

Part 4 – Communicating Inspection Progress

To manage Te-E Times:

  1. Click on the gear icon in the toolbar on your Today’s Vehicle Page
  2. Click on the “Inspection” tab
  3. Click on the “TeE-Times” tab
  4. Click on the blue plus button to add a new TeE-Time for your technician  

Part 5 – Shop Total Labor Inventory

In Part 5, learn how to create Te-E Time selections for a technician to track lost time and how to use Te-E Times to manage walk-ins and unexpected vehicles. 

To edit the Te-E Times for a technician:

  1. Click on the gear icon in the toolbar of your Today’s Vehicle Page
  2. Click on the “Inspection” tab
  3. Click on the “Technicians” tab
  4. Click “Edit” next to the technician whose hours you want to edit

Part 6 – Technician Labor Inventory

Learn how to effectively use technicians available hours to better manage the labor inventory.

To access the Te-E Times Report for your technicians:

  1. Click on the reports icon from the hamburger menu
  2. Click on the “Te-E Times Report” tab
  3. Select a technician and a previous pay period
  4. Select “Show RO + Te-E Times” to show time spend on jobs and TeE-Times  

Part 7 – Next Steps

After this training be sure that your technicians know how to update job lines on the tablet, that your service advisors know how to use the Te-E Time markers on the TVP in Tech view and that that the Service Advisor knows how to chat with the technicians on their tablets from the TVP. These actions will improve your shop’s productivity and efficiency!

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