The formula
Productivity equals hours worked on jobs divided by hours available, times 100.
- Hours worked are the hours the technician was clocked onto repair orders.
- Hours available are the hours the technician was at work and paid.
Ratchet+Wrench describes productivity as hours worked divided by hours available, and says tracking it shows whether the shop has enough work for technicians and whether that work is ready for them when they are available.
Example only
Illustrative numbers: a technician is paid for 40 hours and clocked onto jobs for 32 of them. Productivity is 32 divided by 40, or 80 percent. These figures are examples, not targets.
Productivity versus efficiency
Technician efficiency is hours produced, such as flat-rate or billed hours, divided by hours worked. Efficiency shows speed on the job. Productivity shows whether the technician had work to do. The two together explain where labor revenue goes. See technician efficiency vs productivity.
What lowers productivity
- Waiting for parts that were not staged.
- Waiting for customer approval of an estimate. See estimate approval.
- Gaps in the schedule or slow dispatch.
- Unbilled travel between mobile calls.
- Shop cleanup, meetings and training, which are necessary but not billable.
Most of these are management issues. Faster approvals, parts staging and better dispatch usually raise productivity more than pressure on technicians.
Mobile businesses
For mobile technicians, travel time is a big factor. If drive time is not billed through a service call fee or mileage charge, it lowers productivity. Grouping calls by area helps.
Using it well
Measure weekly, use accurate time clock data, and look at the reasons for unworked time, not just the percentage.
Related: billable hours, effective labor rate.
MetaFleet supports the technician time clock, dispatch and reports. Get a walkthrough.