Congratulations to the Springfield, Missouri Maintenance Team for being named Republic’s 2019 Top 5-Star Maintenance Shop! To learn how they achieved their 5-Star status and importantly, how they maintain it, we asked Maintenance Manager Troy M. for his insights and advice.
What steps did you take to achieve your 5-Star status?
When we started OneFleet, we tried doing a root cause analysis on every issue. This led to struggles early on, so we took a step back and decided to identify our biggest hurdles and what we could do to make the most impact on our fleet. We looked at trends causing our most frequent door traffic and road calls and put a process in place to reduce the issues. This exercise is what turned the tables and we started showing immediate improvement. Operations and maintenance teams worked together to coach our drivers on procedures and the importance of doing an effective pre-trip and post-trip inspections. Everyone started to buy in to the OneFleet plan at that point, and our technicians appreciated not having the door traffic and road calls. This allowed our maintenance team to focus on more complex projects and not be interrupted throughout the day.
What do you do to maintain your 5-Star status?
We do not cancel the morning daily huddles. We solicit input from both the operations and maintenance teams to come up with solutions for issues and discuss items that could potentially become a problem. We take the time to review every breakdown with operations and maintenance, so we are all on the same page as we move through issues. Once we reach a solution, we communicate with drivers and/or technicians. Planning and scheduling are imperative to maintaining a 5-Star shop which helps stay on top of the 15-day repairs and that is also an absolute. We work as a team and win together.
How have you handled the occasional curveballs that can change your plans for the day?
We stop, take a deep breath and come up with a plan that is going to work best for all, so we are meeting our customers’ needs. Communication, communication and communication is the key to success!
What advice would you give to other shops wanting to achieve 5-Star status?
Surround yourself with the best talent and continue to build a great team. Everyone has to know they have a voice at the table. Never give up! Never stop pushing for excellence!
Troy’s maintenance team excels in executing our OneFleet standards – from ensuring safety, working hand in hand with operations, performing professional repairs, and documenting warranty work – they get it right! They know the value and importance of maintaining a Route Ready fleet. We have one of the largest fleets in the country, and we’re proud of all our maintenance teams working hard every day to either maintain or achieve 5-Star status.
Congratulations to the Springfield team and all our 5-Star shops!