IBA Adjustments to decrease time per wash.

[bigleo48]

All,

When the sun is shinning and I have lineups at my touchless roll over IBA (PDQ M5), I feel like I should have built two. That's not going to happen for now at least, so I want to squeeze as many cars though as I can. To this end, here are some ideas.

First, I reduced the dry time of my stand alone dryers. Although its a separate thing to the IBA wash, some people will not enter the wash when someone is drying. I was at 90 seconds, I reduced to 75 seconds without complaints. Don't know how much it saves me per wash...perhaps only a few seconds and 15 seconds of four 3 phase motors of power.

Next, I adjust the speed of the machine depending on the time of year and the difficulty in cleaning. Saves me as much as 15 seconds per wash in the winter.

I am considering going from two Alkaline passes to one slower and stronger one and more dwell time. This should save me most of one machine cycle (20 to 25 seconds) and machine wear.

I will also install a spot-free rain arch. All my packages end with a SF rinse cycle out of the M5 arch. The SF rain arch should be sufficient. I calculated that it should save me 15 seconds per wash.

Shortening my under carriage blast from 20 seconds to 15. 5 second subtraction.

So in the winter high season, I should be able to squeeze about 60 seconds per wash. Currently I max out at about 13 to 14 washes per hour. I should be able to then squeeze 1.5 more washes per hour. At $10 per wash avg, that's $15/hr gross increase.

What do you guys think and do you have any ideas on squeezing more out of it?

 

[MEP001]

We've always run the dryer for 60 seconds (plus an extra 7 for the motors to spin up to full power). I'd say about a third of the customers leave with it still running.

 

[Waxman]

I installed photo eyes on my stand alone dryer arch. If customers leave before the alotted 60 sec., blowers shut down via the eyes.

We couldn't figure out how to cue another wash until 60 sec. was up, but maybe you can figure that out on your M5?

An added bonus if they leave the blowers early is less energy consumption.

 

[bigleo48]

I installed photo eyes on my stand alone dryer arch. If customers leave before the alotted 60 sec., blowers shut down via the eyes.

We couldn't figure out how to cue another wash until 60 sec. was up, but maybe you can figure that out on your M5?

An added bonus if they leave the blowers early is less energy consumption.

Waxman,

The M5 allows for this and I have implemented it.

Mep...I plan to get down to 60 sec eventually.

Big

 

[robert roman]

In waiting lines, the service time for an in-bay includes time between cars and time necessary to complete one car.

So, service time is measured starting when a customer arrives at the pay station and ending when the customer exits the bay.

If you measure service time in this manner, you will find it is not consistent.

You mentioned one common problem that affects in-bay service time; “people will not enter the wash when someone is drying.”

Another variable is time it takes people to use the pay station.

Similarly, there is variability in time customers take to enter the bay (undercarriage) as well as time it takes customers to drive under the dryer.

So, if you decrease machine time (a constant) only slightly, say, one car an hour but make no improvement in bottlenecks, you may not realize a meaningful change in the average service time.

Your efforts may become like trying to drop a deer with a flyswatter.

Adding another bay would Increase capacity to 26 or 28 washes but this carries a high incremental cost.

Another alternative would be to evaluate benefit/cost of upgrading to express in-bay by installing a faster machine or using the existing machine and installing a moving flat belt.

 

[robert roman]

So, if you decrease machine time (a constant) only slightly, say, INCREASING CAPACITY BY one car an hour but make no improvement in bottlenecks, you may not realize a meaningful change in the average service time.

 

[MEP001]

Another variable is time it takes people to use the pay station.

I rarely see a customer wait to pay for their wash until the one in front of them is done, so I wouldn't consider that part of the time per wash.

 

[gearhead]

decrease time

Not sure how you are set up, But I have a HP rinse after my tri foam on the top 2 packages. My chem rep said he has set some M5s up to where they eliminate that pass and go straight into the CC/DA with water saver and had good success. I plan on experimenting with this myself. That is a good 30 secs. +/-.

 

[bigleo48]

I rarely see a customer wait to pay for their wash until the one in front of them is done, so I wouldn't consider that part of the time per wash.

Yes, I would agree. When I'm lined up, people are anxious to get in and some even try to pay before the car ahead has entered. So I don't see that as a huge issue. Plus I can't do much at this point about the pay station.

 

[bigleo48]

Not sure how you are set up, But I have a HP rinse after my tri foam on the top 2 packages. My chem rep said he has set some M5s up to where they eliminate that pass and go straight into the CC/DA with water saver and had good success. I plan on experimenting with this myself. That is a good 30 secs. +/-.

Gearhead,

Not exactly sure what your saying, but I'm setup to presoak, productivity rinse (arch rinse) back and trifoam to the front, then HP, CC and SF rinse.

 

[gearhead]

Gearhead,

Not exactly sure what your saying, but I'm setup to presoak, productivity rinse (arch rinse) back and trifoam to the front, then HP, CC and SF rinse.

I dont have a Produtivity arch like you do. But it still may be applicable. Were you have your HP rinse to remove tri foam, he claims you can remove that pass all together(mine is a 360 degree pass) and use the CC pass(if applied w/hp,watersaver active,360 degree pass)to do both rinse the tri foam and apply the CC at the same time. I would imagine which chemical and how much you are applying should be taken into consideration. Again, I havent tested this procedure myself yet but plan to soon. It sounds like you are already ahead of the game with the 1st rinse pass and tri foam being only one direction. Im not so lucky.

 

[bigleo48]

So I've made most of the changes I discussed. Today I finally finished installing my homemade rain arch (10' X 1" PVC with small holes every inch). Got it rigged and tested.

So I saved about 15 seconds per car and two trolley passes with the rain arch and I think it will do a better job getting the little bits of trifoam I leave on truck mirrors.

So here's my total;

-One Presoak pass with twice the soap...25 seconds
-Rain Arch SF rinse...15 seconds (no start delay needed for SF water to start raining out).
Shorter dryer times may not help with every wash, but some people will not enter when someone is drying, so I figure perhaps one or two seconds per wash average.

Total...42 seconds. That buys me about 2 washes an hour in my busiest hours! Avg gross per wash is $10...so $20 and hour. Total cost $120 in hose, wire and fittings.

Also, I will be reducing my bridge and trolley cycles by over 30,000! That will save in wear/tear along with power and chemical heating (which is electric).

Total savings...$8500 to $9500 per annum.

 

[bigleo48]

So we're now in the busy winter season with spring like weather. Lines all day at the IBA.

I am averaging 14 to 19 more cars a day...at an my average IBA sale is just above $10 per car. So than's an extra $170/day for a total cost of $120 and a couple of hours of labor.

Me likes!

 

[RykoPro]

All Ryko dryers come with photo eyes to turn off the dryer if the person leaves early AND they have an option to leave the dryer on if the next person in line arms for a dry. Leaving the dryer on between cars actually reduces cost because the "in-rush" current is much higher than the dryer just running.

 

[Waxman]

I have been thinking of doing what Bigleo did in boosting up the presoak strength and eliminating one presoak pass. I wonder if the dwell time of one cycle of soap (10 sec after it's applied) will be adequate.

Also I have thought of 'stacking the chemicals' like high ph soap then low ph foam polish follwed by hp rinse, hp wax and spot free.

This would cut my wash time down but at the expense of quality? Is my thinking off regarding the chemistry? Quality is dialed in now to my liking, but speed is very slow. I could eliminate passes, boost chemicals and slow the gantry speed, perhaps.

Currently my wash is 8+ min. long; 2 presoak passes, 10 sec of dwell after each, hp rinse, foam polish, hp rinse, hp wax and spot free.
thoughts?

 

[RykoPro]

Presoak should have an optimum setting that should always be adhered to or at least a great starting point to fine tune by close observation. Just turning up the presoak will do nothing if the proper dilution rate is already being used. Do you use titration to set your presoak? Are people leaving because they dont want to wait or will they think they are getting ripped off when they notice they only received one pass of presoak when they used to get two?

 

[Waxman]

Yes I have titrated my soaps but admit I don't do it as often as I should. Cars are coming out good (I see them every day while on-site) and I'm using a reasonable amount of chemical, so I leave it alone.

My first p.s. pass is heavy and the next one very light. I get very good results with things set 'as is'.

I know I would make customers happy with a quicker wash, as long as quality is high.

I can explain fewer passes as long as quality is where I feel it should be.

Customers do leave on peak days if there are 4 or more in line.

Bigleo brought up a good point of fewer passes saving on all utilities as well as allowing him to add $190 to his gross on busy days.


I can titrate as well as experiment with the wash 'recipes'. However, does anyone else load a car with high ph soap and low ph polish then rinse with hp? Is this done in carwashing?

 

[bigleo48]

My first p.s. pass is heavy and the next one very light. I get very good results with things set 'as is'.

I know I would make customers happy with a quicker wash, as long as quality is high.

I can explain fewer passes as long as quality is where I feel it should be.

Customers do leave on peak days if there are 4 or more in line.

Your second pass doesn't likely do much aside from adding dwell time. I did some experimenting too and got the presoak strength to its most effective.

Never got a single complaint, but a couple of customers asked. I change my sign from "Two Presoak Passes" to "Double Strength Soap" which is actually correct. I explained to customers that making the soap stronger on one pass was more effective than two weaker passes and said they are getting the same amount of product, just applied different. With the extra time I saved, I made adjustments to areas the customers notice, like added to the undercarriage blast time, added an additional HP bug pass to my second most expensive wash and two more HP bug passes to my top wash.

Besides adding to the bottom line with more washes per hour, I reduced the wear and tear on my machine and get a better wash. The customers also feel we are do a more thorough wash.

 

[gearhead]

Time savers

Also I have thought of 'stacking the chemicals' like high ph soap then low ph foam polish follwed by hp rinse, hp wax and spot free.

I have been doing this for 6 months now and I am very happy with the results. I am rinsing my tri foam with the CC/DA thus eliminating 1 HP rinse pass. I also like Big Leos single presoak pass idea. May experiment with that this winter.

 

[JIMT]

I have found that adding air to the presoak causes it to stick on the car so I use less presoak and get better coverage.
JIMT