Many people who run a full-service carwash remember that their business is very labor-intensive and therefore they spent a lot of time worrying about management and rightfully so. What kind of management advice can I give to a carwash business after being in the carwash business for 27 years?

Well, I believe it is important to look at the service business of the carwash as a manufacturing type business instead. Consider if you will it is pure production. The more cars you wash, the more efficiently you wash them and a less cost you use while washing them; the more money you make.

What is the difference if you are building a car along the an assembly line or you are taking a car and washing it to remove God's dirt and put back on the ground where God had intended it be? When Henry Ford came along and built a bunch of cars to catch all the dirt, it was only a matter of time until someone used his assembly line approach to wash them. In theory and in this philosophical discussion there is no difference between manufacturing and washing cars.

Carwashes are generally fairly robotic and any full-service carwash there is any assembly line principle. The cars coming in are vacuumed, then they are pre-washed, next they go through the tunnel where they are washed, soaped and rinsed. Next they run thru the air blower to remove most of the water and then a crew or team dries off the car.

My management advice for carwashes is stop thinking of car washing as a service and start thinking of car washing as a manufacturing production line. Now then, you can still think of car washing as a service when dealing with the customer but not while washing the cars. Think of this in 2006.