About Ken Mills Toyota
Ken Mills Toyota is a leading dealership group serving the Sunshine Coast community, operating in Maroochydore and Nambour. With a strong reputation for customer service and continuous improvement, the business is committed to providing a high-quality ownership experience across vehicle sales, service, and support. Through its partnership with TSSC Australia, Ken Mills Toyota embraced Toyota Production System (TPS) principles to enhance operational performance, improve customer outcomes, and develop its people.
Business Need
The Express Maintenance operation was facing growing demand and capacity constraints, resulting in customer wait times exceeding two weeks. Customer experience performance was also below the target benchmark. In addition, highly skilled technicians were being utilised on routine TSA work, limiting opportunities for higher-value GM and diagnostic activities. Improving process efficiency and removing waste was essential to increase capacity, enhance customer satisfaction, better utilise technician skills, and improve profitability.
Improvement Strategy
The team applied Standardised Work (STW) to observe the Express Maintenance process, identify waste and incidental work, and implement targeted Kaizen improvements to eliminate inefficiencies. Workstations, tools, and parts were organised to ensure technicians had what they needed at the right place and time, maximising value-added activity. Work content was also rebalanced between the two technicians to create a more even workload, minimise interference, and eliminate delays caused by working in the same area of the vehicle. In addition, STW work units were used to drive motion Kaizen, reducing unnecessary movement and improving process efficiency, consistency, and productivity.
Results
Watch the video to see the results and impact of improvements in express maintenance productivity, on-time delivery and customer booking wait time.
