By Michael Cramer

Automation technology has swept into the parking industry. While we appreciate the advantages that automation provides, it also means parking managers need new methods to manage facilities.

Earlier this year, we launched an initiative to review our processes to determine which needed modification or could be eliminated. Perhaps we shouldn’t have been surprised at how much work we did simply because “that’s the way we’ve always done it.” Indeed, many 30-year-old processes were still ingrained in the fabric of our operations. These old processes affected operations differently, but in the automated locations, the old practices added needless, inefficient hours to a parking manager’s week.

As technology advances by leaps and bounds in our industry, our key lesson was that control processes need constant review. Most of all, “that’s the way we’ve always done it” should be the key phrase for evaluating the effectiveness of any process.

Michael Cramer is executive vice president of Winpark.