Duo, I've read through your comments and understand where you are coming from.
We put an inccentive program in place to give the techs a reason to want to stay within an alotted timeline or quote which relates to more $$$ for them.
We also included the techs in the meetings for what is acceptable when rebuilding a unit for resale or quoting on a customer unit and actually had some real positive results with coming to an acceptable medium. If they feel included in the decision process the techs seem to be more personally acountable and brings managers down a notch or two so things go smoother.
I'm a road tech turned service manager so I'm not playing one side against the other here.
This is only an example of what we did, what you do with it is up to you.

cheers.