Efficiency focus helps turn tech's 15 hours into 45

Ask Dave Eschbaugh about the value of the Matrix Trade Institute and its unconventional training methods, and the service manager at Porsche Beachwood thinks of Nico Grolimund, an hourly technician.

Grolimund, 20, has taken four of the two-week "boot camp" specialty training sessions at Matrix, located in suburban Cleveland. And the results are striking, Eschbaugh says.

"Nico went from turning 15 flat-rate hours a week to 45 flat-rate hours a week — a 200 percent increase," Eschbaugh says. "Plus his abilities and his confidence are way up."

Moreover, the technician is generating $4,500 more in gross revenue per pay period. "That's no small thing," Eschbaugh points out.

Porsche Beachwood offers reimbursement for the $3,000 cost of the training, with some conditions, and the dealership is getting its investment back, Eschbaugh says.

"And we get a happier, more confident technician ... who knows he's valuable because we're investing in him."

Grolimund concurs, noting the institute's emphasis on efficiency and repetition made him more capable. He cites alignment training, which included time challenges to see who could do the fastest wheel alignment. "I learned to do all the steps in the most efficient way, which allows me to do alignments faster," he says.

Even the simplest strategies can be big timesavers. Take training for oil changes and multipoint inspections, in which Matrix instructors emphasize step-reducing strategies.

"We were taught to walk around a vehicle only once so we don't waste time walking around it multiple times," Grolimund says. "All those trips around a car add up, so if you can reduce them, you might save enough time to do an extra oil change and multipoint inspection per day."

Grolimund, who was hired in October 2018, also liked the institute's half-day classes, which allowed him to work part time while attending. He also says he now works more independently, as opposed to posing a lot of questions to technicians who supervised him.

Eschbaugh concedes that at first he was skeptical about Matrix. But any misgivings disappeared after he visited the facility, located a couple blocks away from the dealership, owned by Penske Automotive Group.

"It was more like a college environment than a shop environment — very professional," he says. "And they're teaching things that no one else teaches, in my opinion. Right now, we're so jammed, it's difficult to lose a technician. But I absolutely will send more technicians to Matrix when time permits."