Fast in-bay

[robert roman]

De facto industry standard for exterior carwash is now between three and four minutes.

This convenience is possible at conveyor sites that feature express lane(s) or a site with a fast in-bay automatic machine.

Fast means processing 20 cars an hour or more instead of 12 or less.

Does the ability to produce more cars an hour make a big difference? Absolutely

If customer arrival rate is nine an hour and service rate is 12 cars, there would be 75 percent chance customer will wait in line and time spent in system is twenty minutes.

If ten customers arrive an hour, it gets worse. Probability of waiting increases to 83 percent and expected time in system jumps to 30 minutes. And so forth.

Whereas if arrival rate is nine and service rate 20, probability of waiting drops to 45 percent and time in system drops to five minutes.

If arrival rate is nine and service rate 25, probability is only 36 percent and time is less than four minutes.

So, BOOM. On overage, very low chance of long waiting line.

Eight more cars an hour would also expand production possibilities frontier for in-bay from the 12,000 to 20,000 range to between 30,000 and 40,000.

Greater hourly throughput also makes it easier for operators to offer loyalty rewards and other contemporary marketing strategies.

Just as express and flex-serve platforms are making full-serve obsolete, express in-bay will make slow in-bay obsolete.

Food for thought

 

[soonermajic]

what IBA would you suggest, & what pkgs to offer?

 

[robert roman]

I’m not going to suggest anything. I’m speaking to business idea/concept.

What attracts business away from wands, in-bay, and full-serve? It isn’t free vacuums, its time and money.

Express platform is simply faster and better value.

As for what machine to use, any existing one will work initially. As for packages, I don’t know if anything is wrong with existing ones.

 

[soonermajic]

Not an answer . In 1000s, perhaps more, there are places that absolutely cannot sustain tunnel washes (Express etc.) because of small pop & demographics.
However, some of those places could do as many as 50---75 cpd, with a good IBA. Have you ever seen an IBA that could do 20 cph? I haven't seen any that even come close to that speed, while still putting out a clean dry car.
I ask, because I am bout to acquire a site, in a town w/ 7k pop & next largest town of 25k is 65 miles away, & the current IBA does 38 cpd & I am confident it could easily do 50 cpd. But, I want to get it up to 60 cpd , while still having a clean shiny , dry car. ...

 

[mac]

This has always been a conundrum to me. Most all of the machines available can do a basic wash in the 3 to 4 minute range. The problem is that most of the customers choose the wash package with more features, thus longer washes. Virtually all of my customers get around 60 to 70% of their revenue from the most expensive wash. Here's my solution: put in more automatics. Your thoughts?

 

[Greg Pack]

I agree, a faster automatic that doesn't compromise cleaning would be huge improvement. The only thing that saves me now in long lines is smart phones providing entertainment, but even that has it's limits

 

[Eric H]

Fast means processing 20 cars an hour or more instead of 12 or less.

WEll, here is your PHD in D'uh!
You want to make more money? Just sell more product! Just tell us how to implement this brilliant idea, as I'm sure everyone wants to do it!
All joking aside, It does beg the question is your IBA optimized to wash the greatest number of cars in the least amount of time? According to the manufacurer what is the maximum number of cars their machine can wash in an hour? Can you shave 1 minute off of each of your packages thus producing 1-2 more cars an hour?

 

[loewem]

This has always been a conundrum to me. Most all of the machines available can do a basic wash in the 3 to 4 minute range. The problem is that most of the customers choose the wash package with more features, thus longer washes. Virtually all of my customers get around 60 to 70% of their revenue from the most expensive wash. Here's my solution: put in more automatics. Your thoughts?

I agree. My top package accounts for 60%. Have one IBA and don’t like to see people waiting. Installing a second IBA. If both IBAs get backed up then maybe a 3rd.

From a business perspective I am more concerned about optimizing the quality of the wash than the number of cars washed per hour.

 

[carwashireland]

Is not the oasis typhoon the fastest touchless iba wash? I have a friend in Australia that has installed one and is very impressed with the clean and speed. I think it runs two large cat pumps though, so many sites may not have the power capacity to install it.

 

[robert roman]

Actually, the math is off.

Hourly revenue is a function of price per wash, take rate (sales mix), and service rate.

Assume price is $5/7/9/12, sales mix 0.1/0.1/0.2/0.6, and time is 4/5/6/7 minutes.

Stuff this into macro and average revenue is $10.20, cars per hour 9.5, and sales revenue $97. Reduce number of service rates from four to two and cars per hour is 12.5 and revenue is $127. Use one service rate, cars per hour is 15, revenue $153.

Lengthen wash bay to fit one more car in the system and 20 or more cars an hour is possible.