Planning the workshop layout
The layout and design of the bodyshop will depend
upon the type of work to be undertaken: minor
repair, major crash repair, complete refinishing,
PDI paint rectification, special customizing, the
repair of light commercial vehicles, and any combination
of these. However, efficiency is paramount
in any workshop, and for this reason the
location of tools, equipment, parts and personnel
must be carefully organized. In such an environment,
speedy access to tools and equipment is very
important. Also important is a basic understanding
of work study, which should help to ensure the
smooth running of the workshop.
Planning plays an essential role in the day-to-day
running of a bodyshop and has a dramatic impact
on the overall profitability. In the first instance it is
necessary to determine the number of operatives at
Bodyshop planning 503
the bodyshop, the type of work to be carried out
within the bodyshop, whether the bodyshop is part
of a main dealership or is independent, and any
special considerations. Upon this information can
be determined the number, types and mix of bays
required in the bodyshop.
Allowing two to three bays per productive unit
gives the total number of bays required. From this
it is possible to determine the mix of bays, such as
paint shop or panel shop; add to this an estimating
bay and valeting bays, and the plan takes shape. A
good plan gives a flow of work (flowline system)
and eliminates any possibility of bottleneck problems.
This should allow a vehicle to move from the
stripping area to the repair area, on to the preparation
area, next to the paint area, then into the refit
area, then to the valeting area, and finally into the
inspection area. The routing of vehicles is probably
the most important feature of bodyshop layout.
Workbays should be arranged so that the movement
between them is minimized and major crash
repairs and non-runners do not cause bottle-necks.
The optimum layout should allow vehicles to move
easily from one area to the next in a logical
sequence. The plan should also aim to provide
flexibility between body and paint bays to allow
for trouble-free fluctuations of the repair sequence.
Safety in the bodyshop has become a priority,
with an ever increasing need to ensure a safe
and healthy working environment. To comply
with HASAWA, COSHH and EPA Regulations it is
essential to incorporate such items as purpose-built
mixing rooms, dust extraction, fume extraction,
extracted gun cleaning tanks, and safe solvent handling
procedures.
Various bodyshop plans are shown in Figures
15.1a–d and 15.2a–c.
Basic principles and dimensions
For bodyshops
Entrances
The minimum opening width for entrance and exit
doors should be 4.5 metres for cars and 5.0 metres
for commercials. The minimum height for cars
should be 4 metres, but this must be increased
if commercial work is to be undertaken. Many
bodyshops favour a combined entrance and exit
for ease of control and to allow easier traffic movement,
but often site conditions dictate.
Roof supports
Wherever possible the working area should be clear
with no roof supports (single spans of 30 metres),
and this point should always be taken into consideration
when working on a new workshop layout.
Interior roof heights of 5.5 metres not only give the
height for a mezzanine floor but are more acceptable
to others if the building is subsequently sold.
Workshop floor space
Using all available space in the interests of efficiency
does not mean in any circumstances that
the premises should be so filled with vehicles that
considerable time is taken up with moving and
reparking them. It has been established that a large
percentage of non-productive time can be attributed
to this factor. The ideal is to ensure that every
vehicle is placed so that it can be removed from its
location, without obstructing or interfering with its
neighbour, to any other bay or booth.
1 Panel bays should be 6 metres _ 3.6 metres.
2 Paint preparation bays should be 6 metres _
3 metres.
3 A passenger vehicle undergoing repair on a
fixed jig requires a floor space of approximately
4 metres _ 7 metres. With a mobile jig, repair
can be accommodated in the 6 metres _
3.6 metres floor space of a panel bay.
4 Jigs, lifts and other panel bay movable equipment
should be a minimum of 600 mm from
any fixed obstruction to allow adequate safe
working distances.
5 Gangways between bays should ideally be
4.5 metres.
6 Turning circles should be based on a medium/
large saloon car.
7 Walkways should be a minimum of 1 metre.
Refer to the workshop layout plans in Figures 15.1
and 15.2.
15.2 Planning the areas of the workshop
Reception area Reception facilities for customers
could include toilets, seating accommodation, tea
and coffee facilities, TV.
Administration offices This could include manager’s
office, foreman’s office, accounts office with
secretarial staff, and if possible office space for visiting
insurance engineers.
504Repair of Vehicle Bodies
Parts department for trade and retail This could
include parts manager’s office, parts store area, and
storemen.
Staff facilities These could include toilets, washroom
and showers, rest room, canteen, first aid
room.
Fire fighting equipment This must be approved
by the local fire officer.
Working areas should be tailor-made to suit the
needs of the particular bodyshop. Typical requirements
are as follows:
Figure 15.1Bodyshop layout (ICI Autocolor, Ernest W. Godfrey, Pickles Godfrey Design Partnership)
Bodyshop planning 505
Vehicle damage assessment area This is where the
vehicle is first assessed for the degree of damage in
order that an estimate may be written for customers
and insurance companies.
Stripping area This is where damaged vehicles
are, prior to repair, stripped of body panels, body
trim, electrical and mechanical assemblies.
General body repair area This is where minor
repairs, general repair work, and work not requiring
a jig can be carried out.
Specialist repair area or jig area This is designed
for major accident damage where the vehicle must
be repaired on a jig system.
Preparation area This is for the pretreatment of
the repair in the form of sanding, priming and
masking before painting.
Refinishing area This is where the vehicles are
repainted and baked to original factory condition.
Refit area This is where interior and exterior
trim, as well as mechanical and electrical assemblies,
are refitted after the vehicle has been painted.
Valeting and wax injection area This is designed
for the cleaning of the vehicle’s interior and exterior
back to showroom condition as well as for replacing
the corrosion prevention treatments of undersealing
and injection wax treatment.
Final inspection area This is where the vehicle
can be checked for any minor defects after the
repair process is completed.
Reception area
The reception area is very important. Here customers
get their first impressions by meeting the
receptionist, who represents the company. Reception
staff play a very important part by instilling confidence
into customers through their courteous
approach and knowledge of vehicle repair. The area
should be clearly signed and the customer should
walk into a pleasant, clean and tidy reception office.
Natural colours are probably the best for decorating
the walls, and wall space should be used to promote
the bodyshop by displaying framed certificates of
the staff’s qualifications, association memberships,
and insurance company approvals. The area should
be large enough to accommodate customers and the
reception engineer, and to hold customers’ records,
bodyshop loading display boards, telephone and
workshop intercom systems. Lighting should be
efficient, and floor covering attractive but practical
and easy to clean. Furniture should be serviceable
and comfortable without being elaborate, and sufficient
to seat at least six people. The area must be
sited near an entrance door, and ideally provide
customers’ toilets and a drinks vending machine. A
window installed between the work area and the
reception area allows customers to view tasks being
carried out. Professional technicians at work on
vehicles are a good selling point, as customers are
always interested in seeing work being carried out.
However, if customers can see into the bodyshop, it
must be kept tidy at all times.
Administration offices
The bodyshop manager’s office should also be adjacent
to the reception office for easy access to liaise
with the customers. He or she needs to be easily
accessible to the secretarial staff employed by the
Figure 15.1(continued )
506Repair of Vehicle Bodies
Figure 15.2Bodyshop layouts (Martyn Ferguson, Dana Distribution Ltd )
Bodyshop planning 507
company for the day-to-day clerical administration
of the company. The progress of a vehicle’s path
through the bodyshop should be carefully planned
with control cards from the raising of the job to its
completion and final costing. This process is now
being aided by the use of computerized technology.
The foreman’s office should be situated overlooking
the main bodyshop areas so that he has instant
access to staff as they carry out their individual
repair tasks.
Parts department
Within the vehicle repair industry a considerable
number of parts are received, issued and used every
working day. Main dealerships sell body parts to
outside trade and retail outlets. The receipt and issue
of parts, the stock held and the costs are therefore
very important to any bodyshop. The parts department
is a very valuable item in the profitability and
efficient running of the business. Its function is to
satisfy the needs of all the departments within the
organization, and also both trade and retail customers
when necessary. As with the repair shop and paint
shop, the parts department must be efficient and well
organized. It should be adjacent to and with direct
access to the reception office, in order to control the
flow of paperwork between the two departments and
also to enable the ordering and receipt of the parts
necessary to complete the repairs.
Assessment area
When considering the assessment area in the workshop
plan, this again could be on public view and so
should be designed to impress. It should be kept
clean, tidy and uncluttered at all times. It should
also be efficient, with adequate facilities for detailed
assessment of damage and an accurate method of
estimating repair times needed and parts required.
This is where computerized estimating should be
located, and customers will always be impressed by
a speedy estimate on the screen in front of them.
When a customer calls to have damaged panels
repaired or paintwork rectified, the works manager
or foreman usually completes the estimate for work
to be carried out. A separate estimating area away
from the main workshop area is ideal, as vehicles
will need to be thoroughly inspected all round and
underneath. A vehicle lift and high-quality lighting
are required, especially at ground level, together
with wheel alignment systems which give a quick
check on suspension and alignment of the wheels.
Repair areas
The bodyshop should make the best possible use of
floor space to provide maximum productivity, while
still taking into account health and safety regulations.
The best floor plan is probably to drive the car in at
one door, move it through the bodyshop in stages
and then drive it out at another door, unless stirp and
refit are carried out by the same person.
When building a new workshop it is possible to
plan this, but if remodelling an existing operation
this may not be possible. The rule of the bodyshop
is flexibility. A number of large repair organizations
have adopted flowline systems: these can only be
successful if allowance is made for several lines
accommodating various speeds of work, but must
still retain the facility to move a vehicle easily out
of the line in the event of unexpected hold-ups.
Medium establishments use a series of accessible
working bays from which work can be fed from the
stripping area, to the repair area, to the preparation
area, and on to the paint shop.
To use floor space to its best advantage, it is
important to decide exactly what work will be
carried out, how many employees will be needed,
and what equipment will be needed for all the jobs
anticipated. It is important that the workforce does
not have to wait to use the same piece of equipment;
therefore the location of equipment should be carefully
planned so that a job goes smoothly from stage
to stage without wasting time. The relevance of shop
floor planning is to remember that the bodyshop is a
place of movement and not a static collection of
equipment in a working area. The highest labour
hour drain is caused by the unnecessary movement
of men and work within a badly planned workshop.
As far as possible, no job should be accepted into
the workshop until the parts have been obtained to
complete the repair without holding up the flow of
the work. Stripped body parts should not be left to
clutter the floor but should be labelled for identification
(see BS 5750 description later) and stored in the
main store department or in portable storage bins
which can be moved with the vehicle.
When handling major crash repairs, the computer
linked jig systems can give fast and accurate
readouts before, during and after repair.
508Repair of Vehicle Bodies