8 Top Trends for Collision Center Facility Layout and Design

Featured on ABRN - September 2019 | Fixed Ops July/August 2019
By Judy Folk, Business Consulting Manager, Sherwin-Williams Automotive Finishes

Collision Center Facility Layout and Design

As a collision shop owners you may want to consider many operational factors when building or renovating a facility for maximum layout effectiveness.  Facility layout and design is such an important component of your business's overall operations, both in terms of maximizing the effectiveness of the production process and meeting the needs of employees. The basic objective of the layout is to ensure a smooth flow of work, material, and information through a system. Facility is the space in which a business's activities take place. The layout and design of that space greatly impacts how the work is done—the flow of work, materials, and information through the system.

 A key to good facility layout and design is the integration of the needs of people (customers and technicians), materials (GOM, AP and in process vehicles), and equipment  (frame racks, lifts, spray booth, prep units, capital equipment) in such a way that they create a single, well-functioning system.

Here are some criteria to consider:

Ease of future expansion or change—Your collision facility should be designed so that it can be easily expanded or adjusted to meet changing production needs. Although redesigning a facility is a major, expensive undertaking, there is always room for continuous improvement as the industry changes, a redesign or allocation of space may be necessary so remember any design should allow for flexibility. The goal is to minimize production times for various levels of repairs while still achieving close to assembly line (single-product) production.

Flow of movement—The facility design should reflect the importance of smooth process flow. Ideally, the plan will allow for vehicles entering your facility at one end and the completed vehicle emerging at the other. Your flow may not be a straight line but limit the amount of movement whenever it is an option.  Avoid backtracking whenever possible as this adds redundant steps (waste) to your process.  When parts and materials move against or across the overall flow, personnel and paperwork become confused, parts become lost, and the repair process becomes complicated.

Materials and Parts handling—Collision shop owners should make certain that the facility layout makes it possible to handle inventory of GOM, AP & Parts, in an orderly, efficient—and preferably simple—manner.  Just in time ordering can be a cost effective method for both parts and inventory.  Requiring full blueprinting of a vehicle ensures the correct parts are ordered and the reduction of supplements.  This process will also ensure vehicles that have complete parts available are being worked on inside of your facility.

Space utilization—Utilitizing your available space to maximize production will have a huge impact on your production.  This aspect of facility design includes everything from making sure that traffic lanes are wide enough for turning radius, work bays large enough to accommodate specific repair task as well as making certain that areas utilize as much vertical space as possible as to free up  the production floor for actual production.

Ease of communication and support—Take into account that your collision facility should be laid out so that communication within various areas of the business and interactions with vendors and customers can be done in an easy and effective manner. Keeping communication visual is a great solution as this eliminates wasted time locating paperwork, personnel or authorizations.

Impact on employee morale and job satisfaction—Countless studies have indicated that employee morale has a major impact on productivity. Some ways your shop layout and design can increase morale are obvious, such as providing for the correct tools and equipment for the specific task, the correct amount of space and lighting as well as the proper training so technicians can output consistent quality for each vehicle.

Promotional value—The interior and exterior of your collision center is a reflection of the entire business.  Because your business frequently receives visitors in the form of customers, vendors, investors, etc., the owner may want to make sure that the facility layout is attractive, updated, clean and further enhances the company's reputation. Design factors that can influence the attractiveness of your facility include not only the design of the production area itself, but the office, customer waiting areas, parking lot, signage and exterior of the facility.

Safety—The facility layout should enable your collision facility to effectively operate in accordance with Occupational Safety and Health Administration guidelines and other legal restrictions. Safety for employees should be your primary concern.

The goals in designing the facility are to ensure a minimum amount of materials handling, to avoid bottlenecks, to minimize production interference, to ensure high employee morale and safety, and to ensure flexibility.  Growing businesses face a range of challenges.  As a business grows, different problems and opportunities demand different solutions – what worked a year ago might not be the best approach. It’s an exciting time in the collision repair industry and your business can thrive if planned to embrace future opportunities.