Creating Lean Dealers

A Lean Action Workbook from the Lean Enterprise Academy, a affiliate of the Lean Global Network and the Lean Enterprise Institute

Shingo Research and Professional Publication Award recipient

Car manufacturing has been transformed by Lean over the last 20 years yet car dealerships have remained virtually untouched by Lean. Now that’s changing. Dealerships experimenting with Lean have experienced a doubling of throughput, increases in productivity of 50% or more, and returns on sales several times the industry norm. These are not ‘freak’ results. They occur every time Lean principles are applied in a disciplined way – as has already been proven in sectors as diverse as banking, healthcare and grocery retailing. Creating Lean Dealers is a step-by-step guide to improving dealer operations, starting from service and repair. With 115 ring-bound pages of detailed instructions, it shows you how to create visual images to help remove the many barriers to the smooth flow of work in your dealership. This workbook is the result of almost ten years’research and practical experience with pioneering dealers of all sizes and franchises across Europe – shows how Lean can deliver a step-change improvement across your business in:

• ‘Customer fulfilment’ – the right first time on time experience for customers – leading to greater customer satisfaction, word-of- mouth recommendation and profitability.
• The involvement and commitment of staff – leading to greater job satisfaction, higher staff retention and productivity and better customer service.
• The returns for shareholders – by progressively eliminating non-value-creating activity.

…all without major investment in IT, staff numbers, plant, machinery or buildings.