Document 3J6J5eYg4KMdXQMGQQ1VaeBVD

with the capability to handle machining work on everything from a small lawn mower engine to the largest Caterpillar engine made. The shop performs any kind of resurfacing, reworking seats and guides, grinding valves, crankshafts, magnafluxing, welding up the journals on a crankshaft and then grinding them back down, reconditioning rods and blocks, honing, resurfacing and aligning bores, flywheel grinding, making drive lines... Name the job and the Brooks' newly equipped shop can handle it. The Reputation of the Shop Personnel is the Reputation of the Shop In reassessing its previous machine shop operation, the Brooks organization realized that much of a shop's success depends on the reputation of the shop manager and his machinists. Therefore, the first priority became finding the right shop manager: someone who knew the business inside and out, and could thus provide additional hires with the best possi ble training; and secondly, someone who's reputation in the business would not only draw customers to the shop, but would also attract the best machinists in to work for him. Brooks found such a man in shop man ager Billy Tuten. Tuten shares the philo sophy that a good shop is imperative to the future of a jobber's success in the business -- so much so that, in addition to running training programs for his own shop employ ees, Tuten also conducts training programs for other NAPA Jobbers' machine shop personnel. Once Tuten was in place, top caliber ma chinists wanted the opportunity of working for him. They knew what type of shop man Tuten was, and they wanted to work for him -- especially in such a clean, state-of-theart machine shop. By August of 1982, the machine shop personnel at Brooks Auto Parts were in place: five top-notch machinists and one parts and inventory control man. The shop was ready to open for business. Advertising To kick-off the opening of their machine shop, the Brooks organization decided to run local television commercials. They chose to run their spots on the night of the local election returns, a good night for high television viewership, which they feel gen erated a lot of initial recognition. Since that time, Brooks Auto Parts has consistently promoted its machine shop via local newspaper ads, ads placed in local "trade and sell" publications and, of course, on radio. But they still feel that perhaps the best advertising the shop receives is word-ofmouth -- due to the quality of their machinists and the scope of services offered.. The Results Brooks Auto Parts' machine shop opened in August of 1982. By December, it had already surpassed its projected volume. According to Jerry Rogers, Brooks' divi sion manager, the shop is currently averag ing, about $25,000 a month in labor and parts. By the end of 1983, he feels they'll hit the $50,000 a month figure. At present, the majority of the business comes through traditional channels, with the bulk of the work consisting of head work on domestic passenger cars (the shop averages 16 heads a day). At the same time, the outside salespeo ple for each of the seven stores served by the one machine shop are actively pursu ing additional fleet business. One tool they've used quite effectively to generate added business -- both at the fleet and dealer levels -- is to hold numerous tech nical clinics in the shop itself. This way, fleet mechanics and local dealers not only benefit from the clinic material but also get to see the shop first hand. And according to Jerry Rogers, once these customers see the types of equipment and the variety of services offered, the shop sells itself right then and there! Make the Decision . . . Then Do It Right! What advice would the Brooks people give to other jobbers contemplating getting in machine shop work? First of all, to real ize how vital a shop is to the future of your business. Whether you start out big or small, you've got to start somewhere and the sooner the better. Once you make the decision to expand into machine shop work, give this new phase of your business the attention, in volvement and planning it deserves. If you're willing to make it work, it will. Based on its own experience, the Brooks organization knows it takes a lot of dedica tion to make a shop investment work. They also realize that it's an on-going proposi tion -- once established, you have to work to maintain the reputation you've gained. But they made their decision to "do it right" -- and they'll continue to do so to make sure their shop keeps on growing as a top quality, profitable operation. CHOOL computer terminals. The entire five-day program is offered to NAPA Jobber machinists free of charge. Students need only to pay for their trans portation to Toledo and lodging. Class size in the new Engine Block Machine Shop School Is limited to assure personalized instruction. Enrollment is on a first-come, first-served basis. For additional information, NAPA Job bers should contact their NAPA Engine Parts sales representative. A special feature of the hands-on NAPA Engine Block Machine Shop School is the use of "user friendly" Apple computers. 19 5