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New shop foreman needs organization help

Seans problems

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 14, 2018
Messages
94
Location
Washington
Hi everyone,
I was just put into a pretty good position but it will be a tough one. I'm taking over for a guy that never kept records of services or parts in or out and I was wondering if you guys had pdf's of service sheets for different intervals.

Any advice on how to run the shop efficiently and effectively would be appreciated as well.

Thanks,
Sean
 

funwithfuel

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 7, 2017
Messages
5,518
Location
Will county Illinois
Occupation
Mechanic
What product are you peddling? Are you trying to sell service and repairs? If you are a dealer service intervals for each piece of equipment are printed in the operations manual. I would start there
 

Seans problems

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 14, 2018
Messages
94
Location
Washington
I work for a small construction outfit. Lot of 1999-2002 f350's and 450's, takeuchi excavators and skidsteers, and other smaller equipment.
I don't have any good templates for that and i'm terrible on the computer.
 

kshansen

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 11, 2012
Messages
11,127
Location
Central New York, USA
Occupation
Retired Mechanic in Stone Quarry
I work for a small construction outfit. Lot of 1999-2002 f350's and 450's, takeuchi excavators and skidsteers, and other smaller equipment.
I don't have any good templates for that and i'm terrible on the computer.

Along with many other suggestions you might get I would suggest seeing if a local school has a night school course on computers. Maybe one where they teach how to set up and use spreadsheets and databases. Does not have to be real high level stuff like a major corporation would use to track thousands of things just basic stuff.

A couple snips out of what I had set up where I worked. The first one was the main opening page where I could enter the current hours off a machine and it would calculate the hours since the first of the year. It would also automatically flip those hours over to the second page and calculate the hours since last service and if those hours were getting close to the predetermined service interval it would show up in text at the upper part. This was just my first attempt at using a spread sheet and I'm sure if I was to set something new up I would do somethings different but it was a learn as you go thing. The company I worked for was one of the biggest aggregate companies in the world but everything was done for the most part on a local level and if you didn't have a computer savvy boss you just did with what you had!
spread sheet01.png
spread sheet02.png
 

Junkyard

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 5, 2016
Messages
3,621
Location
Claremore, OK
Occupation
Field Mechanic
Getting a course or some help on excel would be a HUGE help. Spreadsheets are so helpful and once you get good at building them and entering formulas you’ll use them for all kinds of stuff. Absolutely worth the effort to learn. Plus they’re all but free other than the program cost, which is negligible. You can build one and as your experience grows add to it, import the info into another or whatever. Truly unlimited possibilities.
 

Seans problems

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 14, 2018
Messages
94
Location
Washington
I'll see what my options are for classes on excel and word docs.
Do you guys have pdf's of service sheets where I can fill in filter numbers and quantities too?
That'd be a big help in the mean time.
Thanks for the suggestions.
 

Birken Vogt

Charter Member
Joined
Nov 30, 2003
Messages
5,305
Location
Grass Valley, Ca
I have been using spreadsheets since a green screen Apple II e and they are pretty much the same now as then.

Great for figuring out any kind of formula, dates, times, financial information quick and dirty.

Learn them and use them, they will make you look like a whiz.
 

Delmer

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 3, 2013
Messages
8,863
Location
WI
Anything you want to learn is on Youtube, and if you don't like the presenter, then you just click a different one.

I'd only take an in person course if that specific course and specific instructor was recommended by somebody who had taken it and who knew you well. It's just not worth your time to chance on the quality of tech schools.

There's nothing wrong with paper if you're talking about a dozen pieces of equipment. A three ring binder is a lot handier than a computer in some situations.
 

kshansen

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 11, 2012
Messages
11,127
Location
Central New York, USA
Occupation
Retired Mechanic in Stone Quarry
I have been using spreadsheets since a green screen Apple II e and they are pretty much the same now as then.

Great for figuring out any kind of formula, dates, times, financial information quick and dirty.

Learn them and use them, they will make you look like a whiz.

One "problem" I found once I got up to speed using the spreadsheets was every fall my boss would hand me a stack of paper with notes on it for me to do up a spreadsheet for the various parts of the quarry's winter work list that he would then turn in to his boss.

I did get the feeling that sometimes no one really pays too much attention to what is in those boxes on the spread sheet other than the totals in the last column. See for one front end loader I inserted one line item that was for "Painting and Pin-Stripping". Not one question or remark was ever made bout that one!
 

Raildudes dad

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 29, 2007
Messages
411
Location
Grand Rapids MI
I guess I'm old school (born in 1950 lol) but I use pencil and paper for tracking lots of things. Takes less time to write it down than to type it in.
Back in early 90's I was managing 125 employees in a county road department. We had 5 garages/ districts and tracked lots of work types and had to prepare a budget every year. Excel spread sheets were just coming into use by us. Finance guy gave me and other department heads draft budgets (mine was the largest and most broke down. So the big boss wanted the maintenance activaties increased by 6 or 7% something like that. I asked the fiance guy to do it for me - it's easy in a excel spreadsheet. He got all pissy with me and insisted in no uncertain terms that it was my job not his.
I was a novice with spreadsheets at that time, had never used them. But I googled a bit and discovered his spread sheets didn't have a single formula, every cell was typed in. The rest of the supervisors and the top dog were real impressed by his "spread sheet skills", but I wasn't.
 

RBMcCloskey

Senior Member
Joined
May 4, 2011
Messages
399
Location
New Jersey
Occupation
Heavy Construction Contractor
Hi everyone,
I was just put into a pretty good position but it will be a tough one. I'm taking over for a guy that never kept records of services or parts in or out and I was wondering if you guys had pdf's of service sheets for different intervals.

Any advice on how to run the shop efficiently and effectively would be appreciated as well.

Thanks,
Sean
I suggest you contact HCSS (Heavy Construction Software Systems) at HCSS.com
They have a excellent Repair and Maintenance software system, from work orders to final cost to own and operate.
 
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