It’s Thursday afternoon. Inside the auto body shop, the floor is loud. Bays are full. Techs are tearing down cars. But the delivery lane is empty.
Cars wait outside the paint booth. Finished vehicles sit waiting for calibration. In collision repair and custom shops, everyone is busy. There are more cars than ever, but cash flow has stalled.
The Real Issue: Time Blindness
Most shop owners schedule work by labor hours, but that hides the real problem. Shops fall behind when time is promised before it can actually be delivered.
Every auto body shop has one or two steps that dictate the pace of the production line. When those steps slow down, they do not delay just one job. They steal time from every car behind it. When the delivery dates slip, all the decisions become reactive, and the schedule gets jammed up without improving efficiency.
The Time Limits That Decide Your Schedule
Some limits cannot be compressed. For example:
- Paint: A booth cycle takes 90–120 minutes. One booth supports about five cars per shift.
- Calibration: Static calibration requires a large, clear space. When that space is occupied, completed cars wait, and delivery times slide.
When these areas fill, work in progress grows, and schedules slip.
Control Time by Managing What You Can
Some delays in a shop are unavoidable. The mistake is letting them surprise your schedule.
You cannot control:
- Paint booth cycle time
- Calibration space and setup
- Sublet calibration turnaround
These limits are fixed. Ignoring them creates schedule swings.
You can control:
- When work enters production
- How much work enters at once
- Where waiting cars are allowed to sit
The goal is not to remove delays. The goal is to keep them from disrupting the rest of the shop.
How Owners Reduce Schedule Swings
- Identify the time gate: Find where cars wait the longest. That point controls your schedule.
- Set a daily limit: Calculate how many cars the gate can handle per day. This is your real capacity.
- Release work to the limit: Do not move cars into production unless time is available at the gate.
- Protect the gate: Do not use that space for storage or flexibility. Nearly one out of four repairs requires calibration. That area decides when you get paid.
The Time rule:
You cannot control how fast the gate moves. You control how much work you send to it.
