DETROIT — Bill Brown Ford in Livonia, Mich., began an extensive, $2 million renovation to its body shop shortly after Ford Motor Co. introduced its aluminum-bodied F-150 pickup in 2014.

The plan was to create 20 more repair bays, a clean-room area for aluminum repairs and two paint booths, one large enough to handle Transit vans.

The only downside was that, during the renovation, the shop was squeezed for space. So to help keep the vehicles rolling through in a timely manner, body shop manager Joe Hershey instituted a unique practice: an overnight shift.

A 10 p.m.-to-6 a.m. shift focused on the paint side and was relatively small: a three-person team consisting of a painter, painter's helper and a body shop worker.

"It was slightly inefficient, in that you have to move some cars around to accommodate the next shift, but it was quite productive," Hershey told Automotive News .

"I did see multiple occasions where we were able to speed up the repair by a half day, sometimes a full day, due to the fact we were able to capitalize on people working on the vehicle subsequent to the body being worked on."