Before the pandemic, getting a car repaired after a collision in the US took about 12 days on average from when a claim was filed until the car owner got their vehicle back. By 2023, that number had climbed to 23.1 days, according to data from J.D. Power. Things have improved somewhat since then, with keys-to-keys cycle times dropping closer to 14 to 17 days in 2026. But the industry is still running 4 to 5 days slower than it was before the pandemic, and it is not entirely clear that the remaining gap can be closed through the same means that got cycle times this far down.
Many people think that long cycle times are mostly caused by parts shortages and having too few technicians, and those are important issues. However, there is another factor that often goes unnoticed, and that is operational friction. Delays often happen from manual workflows, missed estimate details, late parts orders, and a lack of visibility on the production floor. These are not problems with the supply chain but with the process. The good news is that, unlike with parts shortages, you can solve process problems with the right software.
Why cycle time matters beyond customer satisfaction
The customer satisfaction angle doesn’t need too much explanation. People who have to wait three weeks for a car repair won’t be happy. J.D. Power noted a 7-point decline in auto claims satisfaction in 2022 as cycle times rose to all-time highs.
However, there is a less obvious consequence for shop operators specifically, and that has to do with bay utilization.
Every day a vehicle waits in a bay for parts confirmation, supplement approval, or a technician assignment, the bay cannot be used for the next job. Shops measure how many vehicles they handle per bay each month, and cycle time is the main factor in that calculation. Reducing repair time by two days not only makes one customer happier but also increases the shop’s overall capacity.
Where the days actually go
Many of the slowdowns in recent years are due to the increasing complexity of vehicles. A good example is Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) calibration. In 2017, fewer than 1% of repair appraisals needed calibrations. By the second quarter of 2025, that number increased to over 33% of all Direct Repair Program (DRP) appraisals, according to CCC Intelligent Solutions. When a calibration is found only after the repair has started, rather than during the first estimate, it becomes a supplement. Each supplement causes a delay while the shop waits for approval from the insurer.
Parts are the other, more obvious culprit. A part that arrives late, or gets ordered late in the first place, can stall a repair for days. None of this is a mystery to anyone who has run a shop. The harder question is what to actually do about it.
What auto repair shop software changes
Auto repair shop management software replaces the whiteboard. Instead of having a manager walk around the shop to check on every car, the dashboard displays all the information. It shows when a job is stalled, if a part has arrived but hasn’t been moved to the right bay, or if a technician is sitting idle and could take on another task. These issues don’t magically go away; what changes is that you no longer have to guess.
Saving time on parts ordering
Lost time during collision repairs often happens because of how parts are ordered. In the old method, shops call different suppliers one by one, checking if the parts are available and hoping the needed part is in stock nearby.
Tools like PartsTech and Nexpart (which are a part of Way Repair Tech) help simplify this process. They allow shops to search many suppliers from one screen instead of having to make multiple phone calls.
PartsTech, for instance, reports that shops using its network, which includes over 300 suppliers and more than 30,000 locations, save an average of 15 minutes on each repair order just for sourcing parts.
At first, 15 minutes may not seem like much. However, when you multiply that by the number of repair orders a shop handles in a month, the time adds up quickly. Additionally, searching multiple suppliers at once helps shops avoid ordering from the slowest supplier, since they can see all their options up front.
The takeaway
Investing in auto repair shop management software saves you time and reduces your collision repair cycle time by fixing problems that are easy to solve. You won’t have to wait for a car part that hasn’t been confirmed, miss a supplement that should have been noted earlier, or have a finished job sitting there without getting paid because no one noticed it. Shops that fix these issues aren’t doing anything complicated. They are simply reducing delays that others have accepted as “par for the course.”
The tools are not the difficult part. Most operators who switch to new software find it easy to use. The real challenge is making it a habit to check what the software shows you for every job, every day, until it feels natural and becomes the way your shop operates.
