FYI from MCI™

MCI Service Center puts teamwork first

When Mark Santoyo took over as shop supervisor at the MCI Service Center in Dallas in 2003, he was impressed with the experience of his 14 technicians — together, more than 230 years combined. But that experience didn't always translate into team spirit.

While the atmosphere wasn't negative like Santoyo had seen at other, non-MCI shops where he says mechanics would sometimes stand back and watch a coworker fail, he thought they could do better. And he thought he had the solution.

"I turned the shop over to the technicians," says Santoyo, who first started working for MCI's Dallas shop in 1999. That didn't mean he gave up his supervisory duties. Rather, Santoyo gave the technicians more ownership over their jobs.

Cross-training one-on-one
One of his first tasks was to reorganize and classify people correctly, figuring out who were Tech Ones — MCI's most experienced technicians — and who were Tech Twos and Threes. He also spent a lot of time with individual technicians, figuring out their strengths and weaknesses, and pairing mechanics up on jobs to maximize training opportunities and raise everyone's knowledge level.

"There's no one individual who knows everything," says Santoyo, "but if we utilize each other, then there's nothing we can't tackle."

Perhaps even more importantly, Santoyo gave the technicians the "authority and obligation" to be leaders. On a day-to-day level, that meant, among other things, doing the first walk-around and estimating their own jobs (and then discussing their rough estimates with Santoyo). The purpose was twofold. By making his technicians more aware of how long a repair was supposed to take, they were more likely to adhere to the timeline. And when a technician was way off on an estimate, it gave Santoyo a heads-up that he might need to take a closer look at how the technician is doing the repair so as to eliminate unnecessary steps or help him refine his skills if necessary. Ultimately, repairs get done better and faster.

Technicians are also required to adhere to a high level of professionalism even when it comes to the small things, like keeping shirts tucked in and offering customers a clean hand.

"It gives customers a sense of confidence," says Santoyo.

Wakeup calls
Santoyo also has meetings every morning, both to dispense assignments and information, and to open up the floor for discussion. But that doesn't mean griping. "I tell them, don't just bring a problem to the table, bring a solution."

Santoyo says he is seeing results, both in productivity and satisfaction. "There's a lot of communication. When we first started working this way, people were concerned that it would slow them down. Now it's second nature, and we're more efficient than we've ever been. I think it's ultimately good for the customer. They get a technician who will personalize the repair, who will take better care and possibly catch something before it fails."

Hitting the road to help
The Dallas center's leadership ethos has manifested itself in other ways as well. The shop is always ready to volunteer for special projects, whether it's sending technicians to another MCI shop or offering up help in an emergency — as it did after Hurricane Katrina, when two of the shop's most dedicated technicians went to Louisiana with a truck full of parts in a well-appreciated effort to keep relief evacuation coaches up and running.

Says Santoyo, "Every day is a learning process. When you quit learning, you quit growing."

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