A tray of devices and three technicians
Your shop has three technicians. One is excellent at laptops and board work. One is fast on phone screens and batteries. One is newer and still learning. Devices come in all day and go into a tray with their tickets. Whoever finishes a job takes the next one from the top.
The result is predictable. The newer technician picks up a laptop with a complex fault and struggles with it for an hour. A customer promised their phone by three o'clock is still waiting because their ticket was at the bottom of the tray. The laptop specialist spends the morning on screen replacements while two laptops sit untouched.
The tray does not know what matters
A tray, or a list sorted by time of arrival, knows the order devices came in. It does not know when each was promised, whether its part is in, how long it will take or who is best placed to do it. Those things are in the counter's head at check-in, and they are lost when the ticket goes in the tray.
- Jobs are taken in arrival order, not by promised time.
- Technicians' skills are not matched to jobs.
- Jobs are started before anyone checks the part is in stock.
- The counter cannot see which promises are at risk.
- Quick jobs wait behind long ones.
Missed promises and wasted skill
A customer promised their device by a set time who arrives to find it not started is the most common complaint in a repair shop. Skilled technicians doing simple jobs while complex ones wait is expensive in a quieter way. And newer technicians taking on work beyond them risks damaging a device, which costs far more than the repair.
A job queue that knows promises, parts and skills
We build a job queue alongside your repair management system.
- At check-in, each ticket records the promised time, the repair type and whether the part is in stock or on order.
- Each technician has a list of repair types they are trained for, which you maintain.
- The queue orders jobs by promised time, holding back any whose part is not yet in.
- When a technician is free, they see the next suitable jobs for their skills, not just the next in the tray.
- Each repair type has a typical time, so the queue can warn the counter when a promise is at risk.
- The counter sees a screen of every job in progress, its technician and whether it is on track.
| Job | Promised | Part | Suitable technician |
|---|---|---|---|
| Phone screen | 15:00 today | In stock | Any trained on screens |
| Laptop, no power | Tomorrow | Diagnosis first | Laptop specialist |
| Tablet battery | Friday | On order | Held until part arrives |
Technicians can still swap jobs between themselves. The queue is a guide, and it updates when they do.
A bench that keeps its promises
Devices are ready when customers were told they would be, because jobs are worked in promised order. Specialists work on specialist jobs. Newer technicians get jobs they can do, and you can give them harder work deliberately when someone is available to help. And the counter sees problems before the customer does, so a delay becomes a phone call rather than a complaint.
Recorded repair times also show you, over a few months, where your bench is short of skill and which repair types take longer than you price for.
Is your bench working from a pile?
- Technicians take the next device from the tray.
- Devices miss their promised time because they were started late.
- Specialists spend time on simple jobs.
- Jobs are started and then found to need a part that is not in.
- The counter cannot see which jobs are running late.