Chris CollinsHelping Struggling Dealerships Build Profitable, High-Performing Service Departments | Automotive Coaching Expert | CEO

You Are a Production Manager First

22 Feb 2026 · 1 min

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1:03

In this brief talk, the speaker urges shop foremen to adopt a production‑manager mindset, emphasizing that the primary way they serve clients and drive shop profitability is by getting cars in, fixing them correctly the first time, and getting them out efficiently. The foreman should collaborate with management to set daily and monthly goals for each technician, conduct regular one‑on‑one meetings, and use dispatching standards to monitor whether technicians meet minimum performance thresholds and overall targets. The overall message is that a foreman’s role is fundamentally that of a production manager rather than merely a shop supervisor.

Chapters

You have to be looking at it through the lens of the number one way that you serve clients and the profitability of the company as a shop foreman is to get the cars in and get the cars out and fixed. Right. The first time. Like you're a production manager. That's what it's about. And so it's kind of the first, you know, the first order of business is for you to, to work with your powers that be your bosses, to set goals for every technician for every single day and then for the month as a whole and kind of back into what that looks like for every single tech and then having those one on ones with them. Understanding through dispatching standards. Yep. Where people are at, are they meeting their goals? Are they meeting their minimum standards? But yeah, it's a, it's a production manager. Yeah. More than a shop foreman. Right.