Module 5, operational processes. We've discussed this earlier in one of the challenges that dealers have with implementing rent-to-rent is the fact that their processes, and it can be everywhere as in the sales department, it can be in the service department, parts department, it can be in transportation, it can be in the credit department. There's all types of things that go into supporting a good rent-to-rent operation and the underlying factor is urgency and efficiency. So we want to take a look at the processes that are required to help you really drive efficiency in your rental business. So let's begin. Process is key. I'd like you to think about maybe like a fast-food restaurant. Fast food restaurants are really defined by their processes inside. They have a place for everything and everything has a place. Information flows through their system and that's how they can have fast food is because they've got monitoring in place, they've got measurements, they've got performance standards, they've got training, all of those things. And so a rent-to-rent fleet, for it to be profitable, has got to be supported by efficient processes. So repetition enables process because basically what we do every day in the equipment business when we rent equipment is for the most part we're renting the same things, it goes out, it comes back, we clean it, we check it, we record information, and it does it again tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day, and the next day. So this fact that we don't have a bunch of one-offs, it's very different than a service department. For instance, every time someone comes in the door, they could be bringing in any number of types of machines for any number of different types of problems. It'd be like the emergency room at a hospital. You don't know what's coming in next. But in our case with rent-to-rent, it's our machines, we know what those models are, we should have standardization, and so repetition enables process. Process drives efficiency. So therefore, we should be able to go faster and maybe with less people if we've got good processes in place. And defined processes enable us to have consistency. This is a breakdown for some dealers today is because they've got a few people that know what to do, but it's never been recorded. It's never been written down. So when they try to add somebody to their team, they don't really have a very good training program, or heaven forbid, that person that knows everything leaves and then they fall back because they really didn't have the processes defined. So if we get defined processes, we can create consistency. Consistency leads to quality. Better quality drives the reliability of our fleet, and that's ultimately what we're trying to achieve, is that customers know us because not only do we have it available, but our equipment is going to run. So reliability creates satisfied customers, and customer satisfaction leads to profitability. They'll keep coming back, and we're very consistent at it. So all of this has to do with process. Internal process is your best friend associated with quality control, good customer satisfaction, and that ultimately leads to profitability. So the main areas for process, and these are pretty big ones. So facilities layout. Does it impact the profitability of your business? You can bet on it. How about taking the rental order? Just being able to communicate to the customer, being able to understand, do we have that machine available? How about the attachments that go with it? Can we do that in a timely manner? Can we verify somebody's account status? Can we open an account quickly? Those types of things, we've gotta have good process or we're gonna lose money, lose opportunity, worst case scenario. Rental returns, when machines come back, do we have a good process for that? Does it get unloaded in the same place? Do we have people that check it in and a certain thing they're supposed to do? How do we document that? Do we have quality control when it comes back to make sure that it is returned the same way it went out? And then lastly, our service procedures in the service department. Do we have processes in place that will allow the equipment to quickly move through our service department, get serviced, document what has happened, and then return to the ready line, ready to go? So our facilities, the layout of your facility, it's gotta have good workflow. What's workflow? It means that step one leads to step two, leads to step two, leads to step three. So if you understand what your processes are, you try to make those things kinda line up in your facility. So the traffic flow, I mean, just can we flow big trucks in one gate and out the other? Or do we have to go into an area and we have to do like we're in a cul de sac or something and turn around? Do we have easy storage space so that we can move equipment around and we know what's over in a defined area? Visibility to the rental fleet. I've been in some dealerships that equipment is just all over the place. There's no defined area. So sometimes people don't trust what the computer says about equipment being available, so they go out and look, and they have to look across a five or 10 acre yard to try to determine if a machine is here or not. So we really do need a very defined area for rental fleet to be staged in that can be seen from the sales area readily. We need to have defined areas for loading and unloading, and they need to be big enough that multiple machines can come back at the same time and we can deal with it. We need to have defined staging areas for equipment that's either coming back or going out, so that we can pull the right one out of the rental fleet, we can put it in the staging area, so when the truck driver comes in, there's little or no chance that he grabs the wrong machine because we've put the right one in the staging area and we know it's ready to go. And then we've got adequate signage to direct the flow. If a contractor sends a truck over to your place or a third party trucking company shows up, do they know where to go? Do they know where to unload at? Because if they unload it in the wrong place, guess who gets to move it? You do. You get to use your labor to move it closer to say, the fuel island, or you may need it to go to the wash pit, the wash rack, and you get to drive it over there. So you get to spend your labor doing that just because you didn't have very good signage. So I would suggest to you that facilities have a lot to do with how well your processes have a chance to work, because if we can't get the facility layout correctly, then the chances of getting the people to work inside the facility become even more remote.

operational processes

rent-to-rent business

efficiency

repetition

facilities layout