Using the Desktop Computer
in the Auto Shop

[ had been looking for ways to bring the teaching of
community college auto mechanics into the 1990's.
What I discovered was that auto shop students love
using a desktop computer if you, the teacher, will take
the time to get them interested and then guide them
keystroke-by-keystroke until they catch on.

One summer I worked in the VIP program at the
local Pontiac dealership. | saw how they used comput-
ers to prepare bills, inventory parts, and analyze profit
and loss. One night | went home and decided to try to
duplicate their repair order form on my Apple com-
puter. After about two hours of experimenting, I had
reproduced the essential features of their mainframe
computer business form. My form allows the student
to enter the flat-rate times for each job operation and
the number of parts and their unit cost. Then, after two
keystrokes the computer sub-totals the labor charges,
the parts charges, and the sales tax, and calculates a
grand total.

The service manager at the Pontiac dealership talked
about effective labor rates, and I soon learned that a
labor rate was a measure of job effectiveness. That’s
when I created the back side of the repair order form—
which is the part that the customer doesn’t see. On it
the business manager accounts for all of the costs of
running his business so that he knows how much profit
he is making. [Students learn how to use a similar
spreadsheet to calculate their weekly paycheck if they
continue to perform with the same effective labor rate,
to calculate the costs of running the business, and to
calculate the bottom-line profit on each job or series of
jobs. They play “what if” games with the spreadsheet
to determine what happens to paychecks and profits
when operating parameters change (such as pay per
flat-rate hour) in the spreadsheet.]

None of these operations requires specialized
software. All of these jobs are completed on Apple-
works, a combined word processor, database, and
spreadsheet. Once students know how to operate each
of these modules, only their imaginations limit what
they can do.

Here is how | use my computer to enhance my
effectiveness as an auto shop teacher. 1) I write my
workbooks on word processing software. They can be
revised every semester as the technical content of my
course changes. 2) | write purchase orders. | keep all
of them in a file for future reference at budget writing

time. 3) | write my program review. As the data for
the various parts become available, | incorporate them
into that report. 4) I write all my memos. I find that I
get better responses to my requests. 5) I buy software
to drill my students in auto terminology, individual-
ized for each class. 6) | make banners (using Print-
Shop) advertising upcoming classes. 7) I write my
tests. Tests can easily be revised and updated. 8) |
write my lecture notes. The lecture notes are used to
instruct students in using my workbooks. 9) | make
copies of my lecture notes and make them available to
students. They can use the notes to help find correct
answers to the workbook questions. 10) | invented a
course called Computerized Shop Management to
make my auto students computer literate: They write a
letter advertising a sale on lube, oil, and filters at their
place of employment; use a spelling checker to proof-
read their letters; make a banner advertising the sale
item; make a database file listing their customers and
manipulate that file to select only special customers so
they can send a customized letter promoting special
services; and make a spreadsheet to calculate their pay-
check.

Finally, | show them how to use a repair order
spreadsheet—enter the flat rate times the cost and
number of parts; and the computer automatically cal-
culates the total labor and parts bill, adds the tax to the
parts subtotal, and gives a grand total. Students use
the data to calculate the bottom-line profit earned on
that one bill, or they enter all the bills for a week and
find out how much the shop earned. They play “what
if’ with the spreadshect to determine the amount of
their paycheck if (hey beat the flat-rate time and if they
take twice the flat-rate time to finish the job. Then they
sce what happens to bottom-line profits when they
double their salary.

My pilot class included a wide diversity of students.
Their ages ranged from 18 to 55. Some were current
students, some returning students, and some current
managers of small independent garages. The payoff
for a teacher comes when the student tells you that he
used to spend all afternoon performing an operation
that the computer just completed in seconds. That
makes teaching exciting!

Terry Ristig, Auto Mechanics Coordinator
For further information, contact the author at Kankakee

Community College, P.O. Box 888, Kankakee, IL
60901-0888.

 

Suanne D. Rouveche, Editor

April 14, 1989, Vol. XI, No. 13

©The University of Texas at Austin, 1989
Further duplication is permitted by MEMBER
institutions for their own personnel.

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