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When reports were first coming from China in early January regarding the coronavirus, Dave Gunderson, vice president of 3M’s Automotive Aftermarket Division (AAD), said the company saw the writing on the wall.

Having been through previous pandemics, such as SARs, 3M executives realized the need to take action.

“Every day at 3M, we think about improving lives,” said Gunderson. “Those of us working in the automotive aftermarket have been thinking about ways to support collision repairers during the pandemic.”

Operating in more than 240 countries, the company manufactures and sells 52,000 different products and has more than 96,000 employees.

Autobody News recently talked to Gunderson about the state of the industry during COVID-19 and what 3M has been doing over these past few months to show its support.

“We realized that we needed a new operating rhythm and it had to

be simple, yet effective,” said Gunphysically do their jobs from home. derson. “It came down to three overWe also created new rules and trainarching guidelines: people, prioritiing for employees. zation and rebound.” For anyone who travels and meets with customers, we’re going through Q: How has 3M protected peo ple during the COVID-19 re another level of training to ensure employees know how to properly use a strictions? respirator or face covering. It’s called fit testing. Sometimes, you see peoA: First and foremost, the top priority is to make sure that ple with a face covering over their mouths but not their noses. That’s our teams and customers are staying not effective or the proper way to safe. We have stay informed about the wear a face covering. If you wear a guidelines from the Centers respirator, it’s essential that for Disease Control and Preit fits correctly. If you have vention (CDC) and the World a beard, a respirator will not Health Organization (WHO). fit properly because the air

W e took action to limcan come around the sides. it any exposure and ensure In our industry, it’s not just our teams have the right important during COVID-19. measures in place. We also Dave Gunderson, If you are working with any converted all of our support to vice president of industrial application, cerbe handled remotely. Customer support is key for us, but 3M’s Automotive Aftermarket Division (AAD) tain respirators are required. W e are reinforcing that with we need to do it in the safest employees. possible way. From a customer standpoint,

Since June 4, we started bringwe’re learning how to reengage and ing 3M employees back to the 3M “ask before going.” In the past, 3M Center campus who aren’ t able to representatives stopped by multiple body shops on their regular routes. That has changed since COVID-19. Now, we call first and ask how the shop owners and managers want to be served. We’re finding that some request training over the phone while others prefer someone to come in person. Rather than showing up and assuming that’s OK, we are asking their preference. Our customers are very appreciative of this.

Q: In terms of prioritization, what prompted 3M to focus on training, and what training is available?

A: Early on, we confronted the reality that we can’t do it all. Purposeful prioritization is more important than ever before and has been based on customer needs.

We heard from the market about the need for training and have worked very hard to accelerate hands-on training. With the COVID-19 situation, we pivoted our strategy and amplified and stepped up our education, especially in the area of virtual training.

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