Using the Desktop Computer in the Auto Shop

I 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. I 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 | 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 I 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) I write purchase orders. I keep all of them in a file for future reference at budget writing

time. 3) I write my program review. As the data for the various parts become available, | incorporate them into that report. 4) | write all my memos. I find that I get better responses to my requests. 5) | buy software to drill my students in auto terminology, individual- ized for each class. 6) I 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) I 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—cnter 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 spreadsheet to determine the amount of their paycheck if they beat the flat-rate time and if they take twice the flat-rate time to finish the job. Then they see 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. Roueche, Editor

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

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

SF

tium members for $40 per year. Funding

INNOVATION ABSTRACTS is a publication of the National Institute for Stalf and Organizatonal Development (NISOD),

EDB 348, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, (512) 471-7545. Subscriptions are available to nonconsor- in part by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation and the Sid W. Richardson Foundation. Issued weekly when classes are in phe during fall and spring terms and once dunng the summer. ISSN 0199-106X