Gross Motors of Black River Falls, Wisconsin reached out to Tool Organization Service in December of 2023. They were looking to have their service tools inventoried and organized for a Chevrolet and GMC dealership due to a lot of tools amassed over the years.
The next step was to gather information about their dealership, layout & tweak the design of the tool room and price it out based on this data. This was presented to the Gross Motors team and in late October 2024 we received the go-ahead to organize their tool room.
In December, our team Woody & Dawn were onsite fired up to setup the Tool Organization System. For this dealership, the system included:
- Pivot Panels (the main attraction)
- Shelves
- a 10-tote rack system, and
- a cart to hold a large EV Battery tool
Black River Falls CDJR Tool System Gallery
What goes into setting up a efficient, productive tool system?
Each project is different and has its own challenges and time to completion. This project was a big project which took nine (9) full days of hard work to finish. Once our team is onsite, they hit the ground running (literally) and work to accomplish the following:
- Identify all tools in the existing tool room
- Inventory all tools
- Sort all tools
- Organize tools onto panels, shelves, kits, and carts (if needed)
- Install, setup and migrate tool inventory & location info to Toolsguard Mobile App
The ToolsGuard App simplifies tool retrieval and return
This dealership has eight (8) technicians working in the service department. It is imperative they can quickly, easily and without wasting time locate and replace tools needed to accomplish a repair.
Once the Toolsguard App is ready, our team goes to work to assign a license and train the technicians on how to use the mobile app, which includes:
- Check status of tools
- Check availability of tools
- Check tools in/out of tool room
- Mark broken tools
- Print out labels/tags for new tools as received and checked in
The ToolsGuard App simplifies tool retrieval and return
The service department tool room is secured with a Wi-Fi lock installed on the door and synced with the ToolsGuard app and can only be opened by those with the app installed.
At the completion of this project, Gross Motors receives the Tool Inventory Report which lists the current tools in stock and essential tools that were not found.
This was a great project for us and was very successful. We want to thank Gross Motors for allowing us to organize their tool room and create a more efficient and productive system for their tool management.
Five more projects for Gross Motors
Mr. Gross reached out to us again, stating his team liked the new tool organization system processes, including the Toolsguard Mobile App, and he needed five (5) more of his dealerships setup with the same solution for their special service tools.
We went to work gathering the details for each dealership, engineering the systems for each service department and providing proposals. In July 2025, Woody & Dawn went to work implementing the TOS system for each dealership, which included:
- Gross Motors Buick in Marshfield, Wisconsin
- Gross Motors Chevrolet in Neillsville, Wisconsin
- Gross Motors CDJR (new building) in Neillsville, Wisconsin
- Gross Motors Ford (new building) in Neillsville, Wisconsin, and
- Gross Motors CDJR in Black River Falls, Wisconsin
The ToolsGuard App simplifies tool retrieval and return
Tools are a never-ending challenge. New tools are received as new vehicles are produced. It is imperative that there is a system in place to manage the tools, and procedures to follow so the tool inventory is managed and maintained.
Gross Motors utilized the expertise of Tool Organization Service for the design and implementation of Tool Organization System in all 6 stores and are now benefiting from increased efficiency and productivity in the service department. And the tool rooms look good. They are a source of pride for the Service Team.
