PALO ALTO, Calif. -

Dealership GMs wishing to run World Series-style reconditioning centers can borrow a few winning lessons from Joe Maddon, most recently of 2016 Chicago Cubs World Series championship fame.

During an interview at Tropicana Field when Madden managed the Tampa Bay Rays, Men’s Journal writer Pat Jordan noted how the future Chicago Cub’s World Series skipper tweaked a dish being cooked up at in the ballpark’s commercial kitchen. “Joe Maddon,” he wrote, “stirs the sauce, sprinkles in brown sugar … ”

If there were six better words for building winning reconditioning center teamwork too, I can’t think of any. A great dealership GM who wants to build and manage highly productive recon operations learns how to change things up — and sweeten the mix to get everyone’s buy-in.

It’s a strategy Maddon brought to the Cubs when he took that job in early 2015. In a video interview with the Chicago Tribune, he talked briefly about orienting the team. “I couldn’t break my tradition of talking to the team on the field,” he said. “I got them up and walking around and improving their concentration skills.”

All those philosophies and “concentration skills” were evident during the World Series and especially during the nail-biter Game 7!

Dealers have been playing recon for many long innings now. Frankly, their teams are not looking too good. Their processes are costing them too many errors, and they’re not putting runs on the board as they should.

I am suggesting the coaches reconsider the teams they field, work on their fastball and get better at performing the basics.

In recon, it’s the team that generates the highest profit per vehicle and does so at the lowest reconditioning cost that wins at this game.

Improve the basics

Put a stopwatch to old game films — your old recon processes — and be prepared to be shocked. Most everyone believes they are moving vehicles through recon in five days or less, but the clock does not lie.

Dealers using recon workflow software to manage, track, and report on recon’s many individual steps learn their shop’s actual efficiency is more often eight to 10 days — or greater! You can’t manage what you can’t measure, whether in reconditioning or baseball.

To get better, focus on skills development. Better understand recon’s flow from vehicle acquisition to a vehicle’s reconditioned placement on the retail used-car lot. Establish rules for the time you allow for each phase of reconditioning flow of work.

Reconditioning, fine-tuned this way, moves from being a cost center to a profit center. Highly productive workflow — achieving a consistent three-to-five-day cycle — looks like this when applied to reconditioning:

Acquisition and Onboarding > Parts > Mechanical > Paint-Body-PDR > Detail & Photos > Frontline Ready

Reconditioning workflow organizes, structures, and accelerates the many reconditioning steps, managing all according to strict clock times to achieve a three-to-five-day input to output goal.

The right lineup

For this strategy to bear these results, it is critical teammates are at the right positions and know the rules of the game.  This table summarizes these positions and their output requirements; you may need to adjust resources to achieve these best practices:

Advisor & Technician
Task: Inspection/RO/mechnical
Time: 4 hours 

Used-Car Manager 
Task: Approval 
Time: Under 15 minutes 

Dispatch-Advisor
Task: Shop loading/project management
1 hour

Detail
Task: Cosmetic detail/delivery prep
Time: 4 hours 

Digital Specialist 
Task: Online photos/web upload 
Time: 4 hours 

Every action in the game must support time-to-market objectives. Time-to-market defines the clock time required to get inventory on-boarded into the reconditioning department, reconditioned through all phases, and ready for the retail lot.

Time-to-market software provides clarity and transparency into each step in the recon process. When you can clearly see where productivity, dollars, and time leak from your processes, you can address and fix them faster.

Relevancy for the future of the game

Processes run and managed by recon workflow software build a rhythm that creates happier teammates. More satisfied workers stay put longer.

By achieving and consistently holding to improved time-to-market, these benefits typically flow out:

  • Reduced Holding Costs
  • Improved Gross Margins
  • Increased Inventory Turns
  • Fewer Units Wholesaled
  • More Engaged Players
  • A More Competitive Dealership

Both time and cost can be taken out of the normal reconditioning process when they’re managed by workflow software’s accountability clock. 

Dealers who put this discipline into their shops enjoy increased volume and productivity, converting their reconditioning departments into profit centers for their dealerships.

One aspect of Joe Maddon’s performance especially on display during the Series was his command of himself. He was calm — on the outside, at least — watchful, appreciative, and carefully studying his playbook.

Your team will respond well to your particular recipe of stir the sauce, sprinkle in the sugar.

Dennis McGinn is founder and chief executive officer of Rapid Recon.