Auto Repair Shop Queue Management System

What:
This was a personal project built out for my dad's auto repair business. As a one-man shop, speed and efficiency were the most critical aspects of the tool. This system allows for complete control of the entire service process, from job intake to invoicing, with features like job templating to speed up estimate creation and reduce errors from manual entry.

Why:
As we took over an shop ran by an older man, we were left with outdated systems for work requests, invoices, and workflows. This was a significant operational bottleneck and limited my dad's ability to meaningfully increase service throughput.

How:
I developed the system using Typescript with React as the framework of choice. I utilizied libraries like Material UI and Lucide for components and icons. One of the biggest challenges was how quickly I had to develop this application.
To speed up the UI design process, I utilized AI tools like ChatGPT to help with the UI layout. I've always been bad at art, so this was a huge help.

The Problem

Previously, all jobs were started by handing the customer a clipboard with a work request form and a pen. This led to constant disruptions as he was working since customers would come by and ask for services.

Normally, a traditional pen and paper system works fine for most shops. But, given my dad’s unique situation as a one-man shop, we needed a tool that would minimize disruptions to his work. I proposed the idea of utilizing an electronic self-service system, taking inspiration from the kiosks that are now seemingly everywhere.

Another problem was that my dad was using 3 different tools/websites for a single job. He had one website for searching/ordering parts, another website for looking up vehicle information by plate or VIN, and another website for creating estimates. All of which, had extremely outdated, slow, and cluttered UIs.

I wanted to consolidate everything that he needed into one location so that he wasn’t slowed down by needing to use 3 different tools.

Improvements to Shop Operation

The improvements to shop operations were immediate and noticeable. My dad went from barely being able to service 10 cars per day to completing 20+ jobs per day as he got more used to using the application.

I integrated a license plate to VIN API service which removed the need for one of his websites. I allowed estimates/invoices to be created easily by utilizing job templates, removing another one of his websites. He was now able to see a service job from beginning to end using just this one tool and one website for ordering parts.

The success of my software tool is evident in the number of invoices his shop was able to bill out in the first 2 months of launch. We have 480+ invoices completed in the history (even more if you count the ones before I was able to implement a history page) and over $98,000 in total gross revenue.

All this as a one-man shop. My dad being a great mechanic is the major factor, but all this would not have been possible if he was constantly slowed down by outdated workflows and inefficient tools.

I currently maintain the application, implementing new features that my dad requests (more slowly now). The next planned feature is an Analytics dashboard to easily view shop performance metrics.