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January 2014//Vol. 33 No.1
What Keeps You Up At Night? We asked several repairers, and their answers may (or may not) surprise you.
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Inside
January January 2014
Vol. 33 No. 1
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ON THE COVER What Keeps You Up At Night? We asked several body shop owners what industry issues are keeping them from getting a good night’s rest…and the answers may (or may not) surprise you.
FEATURES
38 One Step Forward, Two Steps Back BUSINESS
After five months of trying to implement kaizen at a highproduction shop, I’m back to the beginning, fighting fires non-stop. What did I do wrong?
52 Sand Scratches and Pinholes PROFIT IN THE PAINT SHOP
By identifying and understanding some of the causes of redos, we can minimize their frequency and stop losing money.
SHOP TALK Editor’s Notes
8 12 Detours 16 Clark’s Corner 22 Web Presence Management Owning the customer.
Butler County Ford is like a trip down memory lane. Short life spans on coatings once gave rise to “used car dippers.” Beware calls from Google promising to boost your Web ranking.
BODYSHOP BUSINESS (ISSN 0730-7241) (January 2014, Volume 33, Number 1): Published monthly by Babcox Media, Inc., 3550 Embassy Parkway, Akron, OH 44333 U.S.A. Phone (330) 670-1234, FAX (330) 670-0874. Copyright 2014 Babcox Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Periodical postage paid at Akron, OH 44333 and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to BODYSHOP BUSINESS, P.O. Box 13260, Akron, OH 44334-3912. Member, BPA Worldwide
DEPARTMENTS Guess the Car ....................................................................................4 e-Buzz ..............................................................................................6 Industry Update ..............................................................................14 NASCAR Performance ......................................................................23 Tech Tips ........................................................................................60 Product Showcase............................................................................64 The Shop ........................................................................................68
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Guess
the Car
SOLVED!
Reader Contest! Win $50! What vehicle MODEL does this picture represent? Fax your guess to (330) 670-0874. Include name, title, shop name, city, state and phone number. Or submit your guess with our online contest form by visiting bodyshopbusiness.com/guessthecar. The winner will be randomly selected from correct entries and awarded $50. Entries must be received by Jan. 31.
#129
Spark = (Chevrolet) Spark #128
!
WINNER
*Only one winner will be selected. Chances of winning are dependent upon the number of correct entries received. Employees of Babcox, industry manufacturers and BSB advertisers are not eligible to enter.
“I’m still waiting for him!”
#130
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See the February issue for winner of Guess the Car #129.
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Jeremy Tiller, shop manager, Alexandria Auto Center, Alexandria, Ala.
Waiting for the rabbit = (Volkswagen) Rabbit
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They Said It On
e-Buzz
The latest online content from BodyShop Business
December 12 — At the Sherwin-Williams A-Plus Vision Conference in Palm Springs, Calif. Theme? "It comes from within."
Like • Comment • Share
BodyShop Business Readers Group
Read on about how one #collision shop successfully improved its cycle time and efficiency:
What business concern keeps you up at night? We'd like to know! PartsTrader and State Farm making it mandatory for shops to use this obviously undeveloped platform. And the biggest issue is how are they still getting away with it? It’s obviously an antitrade violation to require repairers to purchase through this and vendors to subscribe to it to be allowed to do business
with their own customers! Why hasn’t the legal system put a stop to this crap yet? Robert Alexander Truck sales and body shop manager Brown Isuzu Truck/Brown Body & Paint Centre
Find 1,000’s of BodyShop Business articles online at www.bodyshopbusiness.com 6
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Ft. Wayne, Ind., Shops Voicing Opposition to PartsTrader Comment by M. Ansari: “Other shops said that State Farm is telling their customers they are no longer on the program and can’t explain why other than [the shop] didn’t meet their criteria.” DRPs getting a taste of their own medicine! It was OK if they were the shop that State Farm was steering to, but now they’re the ones that are being steered from. So now you’re going to sue State Farm for steering? What do you have to say to all of the shops that for years got the same treatment that you’re now getting? They lost hundreds if not thousands of jobs that were steered to you, and now you’re crying foul? State Farm DRP shops are the biggest hypocrites I have ever seen. DRP shops, don’t go away mad – just go away. Louisiana Collision Meeting Has Strong Turnout
: @BSBMagazine:
bodyshopbusiness.com
Comment by Big Red: “He made the observation that the collision repair industry has become one that’s controlled by fear.” Well, almost correct. It’s controlled by greed. Becoming a DRP shop and agreeing to do the work for next to nothing just so an insurance company will recommend you and badmouth the competition is based purely on greed. It can’t even be construed as a viable business decision anymore. Just look at what State Farm shops have become: sniveling, groveling shells of their former selves, crying endlessly about PartsTrader yet the vast majority will not dare say a word to State Farm in fear of retaliation and chalk it up as just another concession that must be given to an insurance company in order to receive work from them and X-out the competition. If shops want to spend all of their time sitting around doing the insurance companies’ paperwork for free and running estimates through PartsTrader, then it’s still legal to do so. Hopefully, the Louisiana Collision Repair Association will have the fortitude to see and admit that DRPs are the root cause of the problem and work from there. Merely just putting on a BandAid when an overhaul is needed is just a waste of time and money.
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Editor’s
Notes
Publisher
S. Scott Shriber, ext. 229 sshriber@babcox.com Editor
Jason Stahl, ext. 226 jstahl@babcox.com
Owning the Customer t’s now January, and memories of the balmy temperatures of Palm Springs, Calif., where I attended the Sherwin-Williams A-Plus Network Vision Conference on Dec. 12, have been frozen out of me by the cold, harsh reality of Akron, Ohio. A white-knuckled hour-and-ahalf drive home the other day had me once again wondering what I had done wrong to have been born on this patch of the planet where a 20degree day in January feels like a day at Club Med. But in fear of sounding like I want a pity party thrown for me (complete with icicle lights, how appropriate!), let me get to the point.
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At the conference, one of the speakers talked about “owning the customer.” You’ve undoubtedly heard of this concept before, and it sounds great, but we all know we could improve in this area. But it reminded me of the age-old argument in the collision industry: Who is the customer? There are those who say it is the vehicle owner. And then there are those who say it is both the insurance company and the vehicle owner.
I’m inclined to believe it is the vehicle owner; I don’t think you can serve two masters. In so doing, I believe that one or the other gets shortchanged. Then again, I understand the reality of doing DRP insurance work. It’s a business decision, and one for which you have to accept the consequences, good or bad. I had one shop owner tell me at the conference that when he heard this “owning the customer” talk, he thought a more apt title would have been “owning the insurer.” Because he believes those who own the insurers will get the referrals. How do you own insurers? Stellar KPIs. Of course, there is a caution here as sometimes not even that guarantees the insurer won’t drop you. How do you own vehicle owners? Great customer service! Of course, that’s too vague. I suggest you visit www.bodyshopbusiness. com and read Hank Nunn’s article, “The Secret to Great CSI,” for more on that.
Jason Stahl, Editor Email comments to jstahl@babcox.com
Associate Editor
Gina Kuzmick, ext. 244 gkuzmick@babcox.com Contributing Editors
Charlie Barone, Mitch Becker, Mark Clark, Mark Claypool, Erica Eversman, Tom Ferry, Curt Harler, John D. Lyman Sr., Hank Nunn, Carl Wilson Graphic Designer
Lisa DiPaolo, ext. 281 ldipaolo@babcox.com Advertising Services
Kelly McAleese, ext. 284 kmcaleese@babcox.com Director of Circulation
Pat Robinson, ext. 276 probinson@babcox.com Director of eMedia & Audience Development
Brad Mitchell, ext. 277 bmitchell@babcox.com Subscription Services
Ellen Mays, ext. 275 emays@babcox.com Tel: (330) 670-1234 Fax: (330) 670-0874 Website: bodyshopbusiness.com Corporate
Bill Babcox, President Gregory Cira, Vice President, Chief Financial Officer Jeff Stankard, Vice President Beth Scheetz, Controller A limited number of complimentary subscriptions are available to those who qualify. Call (330) 670-1234, ext. 288, or fax us at (330) 6705335. Paid subscriptions are available for nonqualified subscribers at: U.S.: $69 for one year. Canada/Mexico: $89 for one year. Canadian rates include GST. Ohio residents add current county sales tax. Other foreign rates/via air mail: $129 for one year. Payable in advance in U.S. funds. Mail payment to BodyShop Business, P.O. Box 75692, Cleveland, OH 44101-4755. VISA, MasterCard or American Express accepted.
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Detours
By S. Scott Shriber, Publisher
Welcome to 2014 hope by the time you read this that you’re off to a flying start in the New Year. In 2014, I’m going to try something a little different with my column. In this job, I’m asked to travel a fair amount, and I often find myself in different locations around our great nation. So I thought, why not take advantage of this and bring some of the interesting shops I come across to all of you? I hope you’ll find this a refreshing change on what I write about. All the shops will be very different, and by no means will this be an endorsement of how they go to market. It will simply be an informative read from around the country. This month’s destination is Butler, Pa. Butler is an old steel town located in the eastern part of the state. It’s a nice little town with a still active downtown. Right in the middle of town is
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Butler County Ford. Like many smaller town dealers, Butler has stayed in town because that’s where most of the community is. The unique part about this dealer and its body shop is that it has four floors. This facility was a reassembly point for Ford back in the day. Built in 1918, partial cars came into the dealership by rail and would
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move through the building and be assembled on overhead conveyors that are still in place. There are only a handful of these unique buildings still in operation. The body shop is on the third floor and has three to five employees. Chuck Reeseman is the manager, and he still works on vehicles during busy times. Every vehicle that’s worked on has to make the trip to the third
floor via the elevator. Think about that from a logistical point of view! As you can see from the picture of the elevator, there’s no room on there for a wrecker. Still, Chuck says they manage 10 to 15 vehicles a week and are profitable. They shoot PPG waterborne products and have no downdraft booth (12-inch cement floors won’t allow it). It’s like a trip down memory lane to visit this shop. Cars used to be built at this facility, and new ones and repaired ones still roll off the elevator and into customers’ hands. It’s definitely something to see if you’re in the area. If you know of a unique shop in your area, drop me a line and I’ll put it on the list. See you on the road! BSB
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Industry
Update
Sherwin-Williams Holds Successful A-Plus Vision Conference ore than 150 collision repairers were treated to sun, fun and learning Dec. 11-13 at the Sherwin-Williams A-Plus Network Vision Conference at the LaQuinta Resort & Club and PGA West in La Quinta, Calif. The event kicked off with a golf outing at the Greg Norman Course at PGA West, followed by a welcome reception. On Thursday, Tom Hablitzel, president and general manager of Sherwin-Williams Automotive, along with Troy Neuerburg, director of sales excellence, and Elainna Sachire of Square One Systems, provided the welcome address. The keynote presentation was provided by John Lusardi of The Ken
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Blanchard Company, who emphasized that motivation is a skill that can be taught, learned, developed and nurtured. Optimal motivation, he said, helps leaders build strong, caring and supportive organization community and culture. Another special pres-
entation titled, “Brand: It Ain’t the Logo” was given by Ted Matthews. Matthews’ key point was that your brand is what people think of you, and is formed from everything your organization says and does. A roundtable discussion featuring John Gagliano, owner of
Collex Collision Experts, and SherwinWilliams managers of business consulting services Lee Rush, Steve Feltovich and Dave Dewalt, centered around some of Collex’s standard operating procedures and what other shops can learn from them.
North Carolina Body Shop Files Six Lawsuits Against Multiple Insurance Companies Michael Bradshaw, VP of operations of K & M Collision in Hickory, N.C., has filed six lawsuits against several insurance companies on behalf of his customers. The named defendants in the lawsuits are Nationwide, GEICO and Allstate. The lawsuits include claims for breach of contract, unfair and deceptive trade practices, and bad faith. The amounts sought for recovery in the lawsuits range from $1,178.77 to $5,749.64. “These claims stem from the insurers’ continual refusal to pay for factory correct
January 2014 | BodyShop Business
repairs according to manufacturer repair specifications and guidelines,” said Bradshaw. “Not all insurers are bad; what we’re finding is that many of these companies are doing the right thing and paying for manufacturer correct repairs. There is, however, a select group of insurance companies that show complete disregard for manufacturer-specified repairs, procedures and safety checks on a consistent basis. Unfortunately, those insurers put us in the position of performing the
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Clark’s
Corner
By Mark Clark
Used Car Dippers
and Dead Cats continue to be impressed with the chemistry that goes into today’s auto refinishing coatings – especially the part where various liquids in a series of cans in your shop can combine to produce a finish that will last as long and look as good as the multicomponent, heat-cured, robotically-applied ones that came on the car. That’s a good trick! But it wasn’t always like that.
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Early Failure » Back in the 1970s, both the OEM finish and refinish coatings had much shorter life spans, mostly due to the ultraviolet rays of the sun. In addition, extreme temperature changes, abrasion and impacts meant coating failures were always just around the corner. All the auto paints were prone to early failure, especially lacquer but also synthetic and uncatalyzed acrylic enamels as they were relatively inflexible. Paintless dent repair only became possible when the coatings were durable enough to flex both down and back without cracking. Chemistry advanced far enough to make the necessary flexible coatings in the late-’80s, early-’90s. Before then, short life spans on auto coatings gave rise to a unique segment of collision repair: the “used car dipper.”
Steady Customers » As a PBE jobber from 1970 until 1998, I saw used car dippers as desirable customers by virtue of their paint volume. A minimum repaint was a threequart sale, and pickup trucks were a fivequart sale. Mixed paint was the most profitable item I sold in those days, and rather than buying pints of color for panel repair, the used cars guys were most often buying gal16
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lons for complete repaints. They were also steady customers for cheap sandpaper, masking tape and masking paper. But because the only criteria used car lot managers ever cared about was their cost, they had to succeed by being the cheapest choice. Keeping their costs to the minimum meant most of these guys were in buildings adapted from something else, like service stations or former mechanical garages. And most of the time, they were located in a non-retail part of town that wasn’t very nice. The paint booths in the ’70s often consisted of an electric fan propped in a window and some 20-inch-by-20-inch filters cut into the overhead door. While their paint volume was good and my gross margin was healthy, collecting money from them was a neverending challenge.
Cutting Corners » These days, we oldsters tell tales around the cocktail table about the good ol’ days of collision repair. Horror stories abound, and it’s usually brought up how there seemed to be no end to how drastically the used car guys could cut corners. Perhaps you’ve heard of the “dead cat” school of body work? The theory was rather than pulling out the deep dent or replacing the rusted metal or otherwise legitimately repairing the vehicle, you stuffed a dead cat into the hole and quickly covered it with body filler. While I never did see any of my customers use deceased animals, I saw them frequently patch body damage with balled up newspapers, spray styrofoam from an aerosol can or an aluminum pouch, and many times just cut cardboard from the nearest wind-
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»| Clark’s Corner |« shield box and tape it in place before a healthy coat of mud. Some of these specialists were fond of old license plates as handy patch material. They would cut the used plate to shape with tin snips, pop rivet it over the damage and fill that baby to contour – a repair guaranteed to last to the edge of the parking lot or 15 minutes, whichever came first.
Caveat Emptor » Caveat emptor is Latin for “let the buyer beware,” and nowhere was that more true than in repainting used cars in the ’70s. Most (but not all) of the dip shops actually washed the car before repainting it. A few wiped with wax and grease remover, but that was too expensive for many and a rag soaked in cheap lacquer thinner served to smear around whatever contaminants were still on the car.
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Sanding time was a luxury, but most shops made at least some effort to scratch up the old paint – but only after they found out that no sanding at all often led to the first rock chip triggering the whole panel to peel off. Even the sleaziest used car lot expected the repaint to not shed off in big, colored sheets. Abrasive, impregnated red scuff pads were a major find for the true used car artist. You could take the gloss off the old finish in just minutes by clamping a scuff pad to a jitterbug sander and whizzing quickly around the car. Quality work all the way! Because life as a used car shop depended on being the cheapest vendor, their business life span was often pretty short. The minute the next sleazebag undercut your price, they were painting all the vehicles from that car lot. As a result, the owners and the techs from these low-end
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shops frequently changed jobs – ahead of the sheriff, eviction notices or angry customers. How angry were some of their customers? Sitting here 40 years later, I can still recall several used car shops I visited regularly trying to collect money they owed me, where the owner visibly carried a handgun to discourage irate customers from complaining too much. Saying they were a tough crowd hardly covers it.
Shame on Me » The following is a true story about a notorious used car painter who had many different business partners and many obscure locations while he was my customer. I got burned on his bill early in our careers and insisted for years afterward that the barrelhead pay me cash. I’m sorry to say that, several years later, new partner and new location in hand, I extended him credit
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»| Clark’s Corner |« again. Burn me once, shame on you. Burn me twice, shame on me. And burn me he did! His excuses were classics: “The check is in the mail”; “Didn’t that &$%* send the check yet?”; “I’ll have it for you as soon as I deliver this car”; “Here’s a hundred, I’ll have the rest Monday.” Great gross margins on mixed paint or not, it was always a struggle to get paid with the used car kings. Evidently, you can take the owner out of the used car shop, but you can’t change their mindset. Unbelievably, this same guy turned up as the new body shop manager at a nice Chevrolet dealership shop that I had as a customer on and off depending on their current painter. A brand-new truck customer had complaints about some transportation damage on the boxside and a factory flaw in the OE finish on the driver’s door. The former used car stud had his
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crew panel paint the door and the boxside with acrylic enamel. After there was lots of dirt and a poor match, the customer refused and the shop tried again, this time painting the adjacent panels complete with the same poor matching color. The irate customer was still unhappy and refused to accept the work and offered them one last try. True to his roots, the manager had the brand spanking new truck scuffed, casually masked and dipped complete. When the dust settled, the dealer gave the customer a much nicer new truck from the lot and took a hit when they sold the poorly masked and sprayed brand-new truck at the auction.
Out of Business » Tales from the seamy edge of collision repair make for amusing cocktail conversation these days, but I’m delighted to report that the worst offenders are
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finally out of business. Today’s consumers know enough to expect their late-model used cars to continue to look good for the whole time they own them and don’t hesitate to return to the selling dealers with complaints when they don’t. Paint chemistry has improved, and so has the used car specialist. Sadly for the local jobber, they seldom buy gallons of color these days and often remain difficult to collect money from. BSB Mark R. Clark is the owner of Professional PBE Systems in Waterloo, Iowa; he is a well-known industry speaker and consultant. He is celebrating his 26th year as a contributing editor to BodyShop Business.
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Web Presence
Management
By Mark Claypool
Google Is
Not Calling ’m Anthony. I work for a telemarketing company and spend my days calling small businesses and selling them things they really don’t need. And boy…I’m good at it! Commission sales really motivates me, and that’s how my company operates. If I don’t sell, I don’t eat. Let me tell you, I eat very well, drive a fancy car, have a trophy wife and an ex I send a bunch of money to each month because the courts say I have to. But it’s OK, I make plenty of money! I sell to business owners who simply don’t know what they don’t know. That really works in my favor. The less they know, the better my sales pitch works. Right now, my job has me calling and representing myself as a rep with Google. Everybody’s heard of Google, but very few know how it works. Actually, I don’t really know how it works either, but it doesn’t matter. I’ve honed down my sales script and close 3 percent of my calls. That puts me in the top 10 percent of the salespeople here. Talk about great job security! I’ll say anything to get the sale. Want to hear my script? Yeah, I bet you would. OK, here’s a little inside baseball information for you. Those who don’t read this won’t know any better and I’ll sell to them. You, on the other hand, will know what to
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tell me and I’ll know you read this in BodyShop Business. Good for you! I’ll hang up in just a few seconds and immediately make my next call. Call volume equals money! Here’s my script: Anthony: “Good morning, may I speak with the owner please?” Shop: “May I ask who’s calling?” Anthony: “Of course! This is Anthony. I’m calling because our records show your business hasn’t updated your Google business listing with us.” That usually does it! I get to the owner more often than not. I count on receptionists not being well trained to screen calls like mine. Sure, there are many other salespeople out there calling them every day, but I’m good, persuasive and come across as if I’m from Google. Your “free” listing simply needs to be updated. It’s “free,” so what’s the harm, right? I get the owner’s name and wait until Paul the owner picks up. Paul: “Hello?” Anthony: “Hey, Paul, this is Anthony. I’m calling because your business hasn’t updated your free Google business listing with us. As a result, your website isn’t ranking well. In fact, your competitors are kicking your butt on page one. No one goes beyond page one on a search. So let me verify your business information.” From here, I go over everything my company has gathered about this business, which is valuable information for us, and update our records. Then I go for the kill. Anthony: “Paul, just updating your records won’t ensure your website will be on page one. We have a couple packages that will put you in the top position, not only on Google but on Yahoo and Bing,
Track Talk Battle at the Beach Back at Daytona for 2014 Bent sheet metal, hurt feelings, last-lap action and ecstatic winners. That’s what the inaugural UNOH Battle at the Beach promised. And it delivered. The event, held on the short track on the Superstretch of Daytona International Speedway, will return to the “World Center of Racing” during Speedweeks 2014 and will highlight a week full of NASCAR racing at Daytona and neighboring New Smyrna Speedway. NASCAR’s top short-track stars will reconvene for another shot at victory, and perhaps a reprise of last season’s fireworks, on the sport’s biggest stage Tuesday, Feb. 18 at Daytona International Speedway. It comes on the heels of a successful debut on the Daytona Superstretch in which
last-lap contact decided the outcome of all three races last season. “The UNOH Battle at the Beach is a great opportunity for short track racers from around the country to compete on racing’s biggest stage,” said Daytona International Speedway President Joie Chitwood III. “We’re looking forward to some intense competition with two Last year, veteran Steve Park scored a popular win in the NASCAR Whelen exciting main events.” Modified Tour race at the UNOH Battle at the Beach. The 0.4-mile oval layout that includes part of the Modified tours. Both races will people talking about the elec2.5-mile track’s backstretch be 150 laps. trifying finishes.” returns to host a championship “Fans around the world The race will actually be points race for the NASCAR look forward to Speedweeks the second event of the seaK&N Pro Series East and a non- to kick off the NASCAR sea- son for the K&N series, which points event for the combined son, and we are proud to be will kick off Feb. 16 at nearby NASCAR Whelen Modified able to present a week of New Smyrna Speedway, a and Whelen Southern short-track action leading up half-mile track in New to the 56th Smyrna Beach, Fla., now in running of its second year of affiliation the Daytona with the NASCAR Whelen 500,” said All-American Series. G e o r g e Tickets and information for Silbermann, the UNOH Battle at the Beach N A S C A R as well as NASCAR’s most presvice presi- tigious race – the 56th annual dent of tour- DAYTONA 500 on Sunday, ing & week- Feb. 23 – are available at ly series. daytonainternationalspeedway. “The antici- com or by calling 1-800pation for PITSHOP. last year’s Fans can follow NASCAR on first UNOH Twitter (@NASCAR) and stay Battle at the up to speed on the latest Beach was NASCAR news by using hashThe 2014 NASCAR season starts with the 56th annual DAYTONA 500 on Sunday, Feb. 23. s u r p a s s e d tags #NASCAR, #DAYTONA500 The Great American Race will air live on FOX, MRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, only by the and #ROADTODAYTONA and with additional coverage on NASCAR.com. number of #NASCARBattle. Follow NASCAR Performance on Twitter and Facebook www.twitter.com/NASCARauto ■ www.facebook.com/NASCARPerformance
»| Web Presence |« too. And the cost is cheap compared to the work you’ll get out of this. What would it be worth to you to dominate your competitors online? We do this all the time and can get you on the top of Google for only $495 per month. Fix one car a month and you’ve more than paid for this. I just need some additional information to get started…” Now I start going over the various packages we have, counter his objectives (I’ve got an answer for everything), upsell into automated social media management, mobile apps and more. Once we’ve got their money, we turn all the work over to our overseas operations and our company makes a fortune! That’s how they can afford to pay me so well. So, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got more calls to make.
Warning: Anthony Is Not From Google Dear readers: Anthony isn’t from Google. Google doesn’t have telemarketers calling you to boost your search rankings. That would be like Consumer Reports taking advertisers and then giving them inflated reviews. No one can promise you page one or position one rankings on any search engine unless you’re paying for the sponsored ads at the
emails promising the same thing. Ignore those. SEO is real, but few really know it well and they probably aren’t calling you. Today, I heard a radio advertisement by a major national company promoting website development. They said, “We will actively promote your website on more than 100 search engines.” Their website has a testimonial that says, “We saw results right away.” Tricky lingo. You can’t
doesn’t have telemarketers calling you to boost your search rankings. top and sides of the page. If anyone calls you and says they can, tell them to take you off their call list and never call again. It’s simply not ethical. You probably receive
“promote” your site on search engines unless you pay for it. And results take 60 to 90 days before search engines fully recognize changes to a website – and longer if it’s a new one. Buyer beware. An educated business is Anthony’s worst enemy. BSB BSB Contributing Editor Mark Claypool has more than 30 years of experience in the fields of workforce development, business/education partnerships, apprenticeships and Web presence management. He is the CEO of Optima Automotive (www. optimaautomotive.com), which provides website design, development, search engine optimization (SEO) services and social media management services. Claypool’s work history includes stints at Metro Paint Supplies, VeriFacts Automotive, the National Auto Body Council (NABC), the I-CAR Education Foundation and SkillsUSA. He is the founder of Mentors At Work and cofounder of the Collision Industry Foundation. He served, on a volunteer basis, as the SkillsUSA World Team Leader for the WorldSkills Championships from 2003 to 2011.
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COVER STORY
What Keeps You Up At Night? We asked several body shop owners what industry issues are keeping them from getting a good night’s rest. Their answers may (or may not) surprise you.
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By Jason Stahl usiness owners have lots to worry about. Of course, people in general have lots to worry about. It’s part of life. If you weren’t worried, it would mean you didn’t care, right? Of course, there’s the calm, rational person’s clarification: “I’m concerned, not worried.” Right! Collision repairers are among those business owners who especially find the going tough these days. Inadequate labor rates,
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COVER STORY
Joe Sanfilippo CEO USA Collision Cincinnati, Ohio
Wide Awake hat keeps me up at night is wondering where the new breed of technicians is going to come from. I think everybody has had their own experience with younger technicians and people coming out of trade schools. We’re kind of lucky in that the median age of our techs is 35 to 36, but I look at some of the kids we try to bring in from vocational high schools and technical colleges and realize you strike out more often than not. I think, why does this happen? And then it dawned on me. Think of who we’re going after. The kids who are in these vo-tech programs in high school don’t want to be in school. For the most part, there are only a couple who actually want to be there and look at [collision repair] as a good trade, but a lot of kids get into the program as a way to get out of normal class and earn ‘X’ amount of credits so they can get out of school. Then, they arrive at a shop and expect to make what seasoned techs are making. When they find out they have to start as an apprentice and won’t make those kinds of dollars, they seem to move on pretty quickly. Maybe, after all these years, we’ve been going after the wrong group of people. Think of all the college kids who, after four years, are trying to stay in school because they know the job market is bleak. Why don’t we go after people with four-year degrees? I think that’s where we need to start looking for our next generation of
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intrusion into their business from outside entities, increasingly sophisticated vehicle technology and steering are just a few of the issues that no doubt keep them up at night. Of course, we mean “keeping you up at night” in the figurative sense, but maybe these problems literally are causing you to toss and turn at night. But we thought it was important to ask various repairers what these specific issues were and what they were doing about them to take back their slumber and sleep peacefully. The answers may or may not surprise you.
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COVER STORY » What Keeps You Up? techs and owners. Cars are not basic anymore – there is so much computer technology inside of a car, it’s mindblowing. We really need smart people to work on cars because now it’s more than just pounding dents out, spreading a little mud and spraying paint. I think it’s fine if we go after someone who’s more disciplined and wants to better themselves and has a four-year degree. There is as much money to be made fixing cars as there is fixing computers or anything else. A tech making $100,000 isn’t unheard of if they’re good at what they do. We need to rely on our industry associations to get in front of colleges at career fairs and educate the men and women of our future what our industry is all about. We need new shop owners. You have to have brains in order to run a business, whether it’s a McDonald’s franchise or a collision franchise.
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Fast Asleep e’ve actually been fairly successful over the past two years in taking graduates from vo-tech schools and putting them in our own apprentice programs. Because the median age of our techs is 35, we have some younger techs who are pretty smart and have done pretty well. We have a couple locations that actually have teams that are working pretty well, so we put apprentice techs into those groups. Sometimes it works really well, and sometimes you find that people figure out collision repair isn’t for them, but you won’t know till you do it. But we feel that putting them in the mix of a team or an apprentice-type program with a seasoned tech who can bring them up to speed slowly is beneficial. This program takes anywhere from
one to two years depending on the strengths and abilities of that person when they come out of college.
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Todd Litton Owner American Autobody Billings, Mont.
Wide Awake hat keeps me up at night is the concern of making sure my technicians are successful. Our problem is that you’re either too busy or you’re not busy enough. You’re either worried about getting stuff done or having enough scheduled to keep them busy.
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COVER STORY » What Keeps You Up? Is everything going to go right, you wonder. Is Johnny going to make a good paycheck? Because everyone in your business kind of becomes a big family after awhile. I’ve always felt that, in order for me to be successful, my employees first have to be successful. And that has worked pretty well for me over the years.
What has helped somewhat in our area, at least, is that our industry is growing because the population is growing due to an oil boom, so we’re seeing additional business. If there’s something that gives me nightmares, though, it’s changes with insurance companies and the difficulty you encounter with them. When DRPs
started 25 years ago and I signed my first contract, I said, ‘This is really going to be great until we reach the point when the insurance companies feel like they own you and start telling you how to run your business.’ And I think, in a lot of ways, we’ve reached that point with direct repair. Some insurers will push the envelope constantly as far as they can. Montana has been fortunate with some of the legislation we’ve been able to get passed through our association. For example, a law was passed a couple years ago that says the insurer must use the database we chose to work together on in its entirety. So if prime and block is a separate operation, then you have to pay for prime and block. Regarding spot paint and blend within a panel, that’s not legal per the way our laws are written now. Still, it totally gets ignored because insurers always feel they’re above the law. Those are the things I think haunt every body shop owner. Cars are getting so technical to work on with different metal types and electronics that it takes a pretty seasoned tech to keep up, and the amount of hours you get paid to perform those repairs seems to be shrinking. After 29 years in the business, I’ve noticed that body men usually always didn’t have any trouble, on a commission basis, having more hours than a painter. But in the last 10 years, it has completely turned around. The paint techs now have a way easier time making the checks than the body techs. The billable hours seem to be shrinking away in that area.
Fast Asleep ’m on the board of directors of our state association in order to help the industry get better because that, in turn, makes everyone more successful. And that boils down to the training of estimators and everybody, so you’re truly getting everything owed for that repair. We’re also really involved in I-CAR
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COVER STORY » What Keeps You Up? to make sure our guys have the training and tools available to them to make them as successful as they can be – whether it be the latest technology in spot welders or frame equipment. I also want to make sure they understand what they’re working on so they don’t have to learn as they go. For me on down, training is huge.
I’ve been in the auto body business for 29 years and still go to SEMA and classes. And I promote that and try to have an open dialogue with local shops because I’ve always felt if you can educate your competitors, then everybody wins. Make your competitors successful and that, in turn, makes you successful. You need to keep them on the same
page so they’re not bringing the industry standards down.
Jeff Butler President Haury’s Lake City Collision Seattle, Wash.
Wide Awake here are three things that keep me up at night: steering, where our business is going to come from in the future, and negative illegitimate online reviews. With steering, we lose a lot of business from insurers blasting our reputation. I estimate that my shop loses $10,000 to $50,000 per month from people being chased out the door – and that’s just the people I can document. As far as where our business is going to come from in the future, I wonder if the business model today will be viable in 10 years. There are more and more multi-shop operations (MSOs) in the marketplace and OEM certification programs, of which I have a few. But those programs tend to be political. I’ve been fortunate enough to work with really good people with whom I have good business relationships. I’m not paying people off to send me business, but that has a lot to do with some of these manufacturers’ programs. Just to get a dealer sponsor, there is stuff that you have to do to win that business, and it’s not always aboveboard. Plus, technology is changing the face of collision repair, so what will the industry look like in 10 to 20 years? Finally, negative online reviews – especially illegitimate, negative online reviews. I do have a couple legitimate ones, and that’s because you just aren’t going to have everyone in the world thinking you’re wonderful. Nobody will ever be able to make every cus-
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COVER STORY » What Keeps You Up? tomer happy, even if that’s our commitment. But our shop has a bunch of negative press that isn’t real – comments from either our competitors or, in some cases, an insurance adjuster. The power of the Internet is substantial and it sways people’s decisions. And when I get slandered online, it really upsets me.
Fast Asleep o address the steering, we started taking a proactive stance and educating our customers, whether it was through handouts on insurance “frequently asked questions,” handouts about our company and what differentiates us, or our VeriFacts VQ Medallion status on the walls in our office, on our website and on our Facebook page. I’ve also conducted seminars for local car clubs to teach them about
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what happens in a shop and what insurance issues they might face. So I’m going right to the consumer to educate them in advance. The other thing I’ve done to fight steering is to litigate. I’ve had cars pulled out of my shop and I’ve learned to document it. I sued four carriers for tortious interference, and I didn’t win the case in the sense that we tried it and I won it – we just knew how to bring the case and go after them for discovery and they just settled instantly and wrote a check. If an insurer induces a customer to breach their contract with us, we look to hold them accountable. I also use bad repairs to exploit what’s going on at other shops. ‘Here’s what you’re getting at their place – here’s the proof – and here’s what you’re getting at ours. It may cost more, but that’s covered under your policy and the law. So what do you
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want? Do you want it right or do you want it hassle-free and get what these people got?’ To alleviate my concern about where our business is going to come from, I’ve been marketing online heavily, again conducting educational seminars for local car clubs, and pursuing manufacturer certified programs. I won’t be a DRP or CARSTAR any time soon, so I have to focus on what sets us aside. We’re a boutique shop that stays community-focused; we’re a local, family-owned business and will market directly to the consumer. We’re also trying hard to become part of dealers’ programs by selling them on our value proposition versus the insurance model. If I can sell them on the fact that we’re going to take care of the customer and put more business in their store and they’ll be better off in the long run, then that speaks to our value proposition.
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COVER STORY » What Keeps You Up? As far as managing our online reputation, we realized this is a new world and every customer represents a Yelp review. So how do we up our game and deliver the kind of service that inspires them to talk about us? I can’t fix the negative reviews, but what I can do is give customers a great experience to where they start marketing our business. When we deliver the car to them, they get a message from me thanking them for their business and asking them how our team did. They receive a follow-up survey that, if they fill out, will earn them a “buy one, get one” coupon for a local restaurant. So then I get direct feedback on my employees, and I give them bonuses based on CSI and other things. When the survey is positive, we follow up with a thank you note with links to Google, Yelp, City Search and Angie’s List and encourage them to share their experience via these commonly used online forums. We can bury the BS with good reviews!
Scott Tompkins Owner Fairbanks Collision & Glass Service Fairbanks, Alaska
Wide Awake artsTrader keeps me up at night, only because I don’t know much about it. It’s not in Alaska yet, but it will be. I worry about anything that will reduce our profitability. If it works for State Farm, it’s just a matter of time before it works for everyone else. I’m very pro-DRP, but you just can’t keep taking away. Pretty soon, there won’t be anybody left in the industry to fix cars. If we can’t afford to pay our people what they need to make and their cost of living keeps going up…there’s nothing attracting new people to this industry. And that’s my
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second concern: where are we going to find people? I’m a little concerned with consolidation, too. It’s a growing concern for an independent operator. Again, we don’t have it in Alaska yet, but it’s just a matter of time. I would like to be the guy who is in a position that, when consolidators do move in, I’m the guy they want to buy. But right now, I’m far from that guy and have a lot of work to do in that area.
Fast Asleep e occasionally hire a couple people out of WyoTech, and we also have an autobody program at the local high school, but those kids are far from being ready to put on a line. I have a competitor in town who is constantly bringing me employees because turnover at their shops is insane. And when they come here, they usually stick around for a long time because we’re pretty good at retaining our employees. I know what wages are in town and I always pay a little bit more than my next highest competitor. Also, I feel our benefit package is better than any of our competitors. We help them out with health care, and we also offer a vacation package and contributing IRA. We also have a good place to work. I’m a pretty easygoing guy as long as everyone is doing their work. I don’t micromanage. I have a self- motivated crew. I don’t have a production manager because I don’t believe in them. We just hire the right people and, if we have a bad apple, he’s out. If consolidators move into town, I believe insurance relations will be key to protecting myself and our market. At a recent collision group meeting, they talked about “owning the customer.” I believe in great customer service, and we have strong CSI. But I feel you need to own the insurer. You can spend thousands of dollars marketing, but if you don’t have great insurance relationships, you’re not going to get the referral. BSB
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BUSINESS
One Step Forward,
Two Steps Back By Tim Komoroski ’m now five months into my journey of transforming a high-production shop into a kaizen facility. My long-term goal is to accomplish a complete, “real” transformation – not because it has now become the sexy thing to do in a lot of industries, but because it’s the smartest thing to do. Most people, including people I deal with on a daily basis, don’t even truly know what being a lean operation means, let alone a kaizen organization. I could divide the shop up with tape on the floor and throw up some visuals on the wall and fool a
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The Journey » Five months into
this journey, I’m nowhere close to where I thought I would be. I was ignorant to how long this transformation was going to take. In my head, I thought it would take about two months to get the buy-in from the team and begin to establish flow. In the third month, I would start introducing standard work and the very beginnings of problem solving. By month six, we would be “rockin’” – by no means even close to perfection, but a 180-degree turn from where we started. At the very least, I thought we would be getting vehicles out the door on time and with quality, making our customers happy. Let me be the first to admit, however, that I didn’t get us there. We’re basically back to the beginning and fighting non-stop fires in order to come close to on-time, quality work. What I’m not used to is the non-stop amount of work literally blowing through the shop
After five months of trying to implement kaizen at a highproduction shop, I’m back to the beginning, fighting fires non-stop. What did I do wrong? Read and find out. Part II in a series.
lot of people, but why bother? It’s not for show, it’s for results.
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BUSINESS » One Step Forward doors. It doesn’t scare me; it intrigues me. I get asked all the time, how can you be so calm? It’s because my mind is going a mile a minute on how to fix all this stuff, and there’s no time for panic. Also, there’s no downtime and no time for training. For example, I have two full-time repair plan techs, with one mediocre
writer in between them and eight to 14 vehicles a day scheduled for repair plans. That doesn’t count the unscheduled drops that typically average around 10 vehicles on any given day. So, to save the math, two techs are expected to do from eight to 24 quality 100-percent teardowns a day. There are rules in place and
quality standards to follow, but when you as a tech or I as a manager look at 24 repair plans in the eye, what happens? Firefighting and the creation of a countermeasure road for stabilization. Unless you have a team of people and plan on doing a kaizen event, you cannot pick this point to do your training. The repair plan is the most important area of the process; if you screw up here, you send a bomb downstream that will pick the worst possible place to detonate. This is one of my main focuses right now. By the time this article comes out, I’ll have a different repair plan team in place, one that I am 100 percent sure will buy in – if not for the right reason, then to please the boss. At this point in time, I’m OK with that because that light will eventually go off in their heads. Quality standards are already in place, and I’m now working on standard work for the repair plan team. They will be my first guinea pigs!
Scheduling Problems » I’m fully aware that the repair plan overload would be conceived as a scheduling problem, which I don’t have my hands into yet. However, even if I did, I couldn’t fire off the way to immediately fix it. It would take a lot of work to figure out how to manage this shop’s workload. I was taught that you scheduled to your throughout goal/demand, which had to be the correct mix of work and correct number of vehicles, too. You didn’t want to schedule eight heavy jobs, nor did you want eight speed jobs coming into your system in one day. You had two ways of dealing with an unscheduled drop: you either blocked capacity into your schedule to allow these jobs, or they went into the next available schedule slot that could handle it, which may have been two or three days later. My current shop adds a new twist to this. There is capacity built in for unscheduled drops daily, and Fridays Circle 40 for Reader Service
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BUSINESS » One Step Forward are shut off completely to take care of the rest of the unscheduled drops. However, that still isn’t enough. At any given time, we’re scheduled out at least six weeks and get an average of 10 unscheduled drops a day. Where do you put those, seven weeks out? Do you move out the scheduled customers who have already waited six weeks to accommodate the non-drives? I don’t think that would go over well with the owner or insurance partner. This all leads to incredible waste, inflated work-in-process (WIP) numbers and days where you need to deliver 19 cars. Basically, it’s insanity. Fixing it is not going to be easy, but if I don’t, the downstream operations will always feel the pain.
My Failures » I explained in my first article in the December 2013 issue of BodyShop Business that this was my first shot at implementing lean. I’m not going to feed you a bunch of BS and tell you
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I was ignorant to how long this transformation was going to take to get off the ground.
that I did A, B and C, and we’re now the greatest shop out there. I’ve been keeping a daily journal on what I do, what I tried, what failed and what worked to put into an informational article that hopefully will allow you to avoid my failures and pick up on some of the things I did right. The first and best thing I can possibly tell you is to make it your own. Don’t try to imitate something you’ve seen, read or have already done elsewhere. If you do that, chances are you’ll fail badly. You can take bits and pieces, but ultimately your best asset is going to be your knowledge. Take the knowledge you already have but make it work in your new surroundings; it’s going to have to be a hybrid. You cannot duplicate someone else’s model – unless you’re an MSO, in which case your model will work across all of your locations. But taking Shop A’s model and trying to adopt it
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BUSINESS » One Step Forward at Shop B isn’t going to work. There are way too many variables that keep this from being successful. That was my first failure: trying to model my shop too closely to the shop from which I learned everything. My thinking was, it worked there and I have a very good understanding of it, so why can’t I just put it into play over here with a few tweaks I always wanted to make anyway? Looking back at it now, I realize I was way wrong. The culture was wrong, the building was different, the volume was three times that of the shop I came from and I was all alone with no kaizen team to work with. What the heck was I thinking? And the failures didn’t end there; this was just the most blatant one. Of all the things I implemented in the first article, only two stuck, and one of those two already had to be revamped. Circle 44 for Reader Service
Heijunka Board » The heijunka board worked like it should have and provided the important information we needed. But it failed. People didn’t understand the importance of it, and the shop layout didn’t allow it to be as visible as it should have been to everybody. The design didn’t yell out where the trouble was, because they didn’t have the knowledge of where to look. Plus, I was the only one who could update it. We’re currently working on a new, simpler version that should do the job just fine; I’ll let you know if it works out! Repair Plan Priority Rack » The repair plan priority rack withstood the test of time, and it’s still an integral tool used throughout the day. The production start rack failed and turned into a storage bin where all the files are kept but not where they belong. It was designed to let everyone know what the next logical job to start was by indicating part status and target delivery dates. Without me staying on top of it, it fell by the wayside. Once again, the
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BUSINESS » One Step Forward team lacked an understanding of how important this system was.
Quality Control » The quality standards are still posted on the wall in each area, but haven’t been looked at since. The quality check-off has been completely abandoned, and papers were showing up at the front desk with one signature on them versus the six they should have had. Ownership feels it’s a waste of paper and ink to continue right now. The quality control sheet is still in play, but doesn’t work as it should. How do I know? Vehicles are still making it to detail and getting bounced back for quality issues.
the check-ins. The first draft was way too complicated for them to follow and was geared toward setting customer expectations. They didn’t fully understand it, which led to them just not doing it. The form is simplified now and is vastly improving communications between the estimator/customer and the shop floor. So, there you go. No sugarcoating, no rainbows and unicorns – just the real deal. These are the many failures that directly point back to me for not properly coaching the team on the importance of these elements and sustaining them.
Changing the Culture » I’ve spent Vehicle Check-In Sheet » The vehicle check-in sheet is still in play and working for the most part. I had to revamp it so it would make more sense to the estimators doing
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more time on reading/researching culture over the last five months than anything else. I walked into a bad situation, one of the worst cultures I’ve ever been a part of, to
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BUSINESS » One Step Forward the point I didn’t understand why these people got out of bed in the morning. A couple weeks in, it seemed to be coming around, and people were actually having some fun and getting along. Then, for no apparent reason, the bottom fell out and the culture went back to rock bottom. I can’t count how many conversations we had about the culture of the shop. Every day it changed – it was either “get rid of them all and start fresh” or “it’s a management problem.” I was teetering on the “let’s start fresh” angle, but decided that maybe it was me and that I needed to be a better leader. I know that no matter what I do, nothing will be sustainable without a winning culture. But I also need data. I have no idea why the culture fluctuates so much, so I need to know what’s on the teams’ minds. I’m in the process of creating an anonymous employee survey with carefully thought-out questions and discover what we as leaders can improve upon to make it better for them. I’ll share the results with you when it’s completed.
The Real Work Begins » The main element of kaizen is the problem-solving work, and I wanted to try to pick the lowest hanging fruit. One of the first opportu-
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nities to gain buy-in that jumped out at me was the frustration of the paint team. There was no organization; techs were just throwing cars and parts at them all day long. There were six available bays in the paint department, with no less than 10 vehicles jammed into the paint line. It was a classic case of overproduction. I stopped the pushing of vehicles into the paint area and saw Don’t try to an immediate response imitate something from the paint team. I explained to the body you’ve seen, read or and paint techs that we have already done were trying to establish a pull system and flow elsewhere. and what that meant, and also what overproduction meant. I got them to understand that if the downstream operation couldn’t accept any more vehicles, we would have to move resources to that area to help out. In between running production and trying to educate the team (in small doses) on where I came from and what I was trying to do, I was trying to figure out my next logical step. I was starting from scratch without the ability to shut down production and implement the system as a whole. I decided the first step would be to adjust the layout of the shop to support flow. At that point, I saw three key opportunities to change: there were a lot of smaller jobs fed into the system that caused bad decisionmaking, too many bays causing overproduction and reassembly was located outside the flow line. Vehicles were leaving the paint booth and going outside and back into the building to be reassembled. Also, there was no visual to indicate to a tech that there was a vehicle ready for reassembly. There was a large area outside the two paint booths that could easily fit three vehicles but wasn’t being utilized. I knew that the time a vehicle spent in reassembly was too much and that moving it hastily in front of the booth would blow the whole shop up, but I had no data to back that up. Once again, I went to the gemba. The feedback I was getting was that putting reassembly in front of the booths would cause a bottleneck, but it shouldn’t because that would be overproduction. So, I researched it. I had the owner buy me a few stopwatches, and I timed numerous vehicles from various stages. I had to tread lightly doing
Make it your own.
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BUSINESS » One Step Forward this, because the techs automatically think you’re tracking their performance. I had to explain in great detail the purpose for which I was collecting the data. I created spreadsheets detailing job size versus the time it took to execute it and tried to quantify it. I measured vehicles in three different phases: reassembly only, booth cycle only and from the start of priming to coming out of the booth. At that point in time, the data was pointing to the reassembly jobs being too large to produce by the time another vehicle was ready for them. In order to boost booth efficiency and speed, all the panels were being painted and cut in at the same time, which led to basically a shell coming out of the booth. Not only was this a large build, there were so many alignment issues either from inexperienced techs putting vehicles together or a defect being passed from upstream that they didn’t have a fighting chance to flow vehicles at the rate we needed. On paper, I redesigned the shop floor to be able to flow work through the system and stop overproduction. You had your typical areas: repair plan, heavy body, light body, prime, prep, paint and reassembly. In this specific shop, I saw the need to add more because the shop had a large volume of tow-ins and heavy work, along with a lot of speed work. I added: 1) a three-bay speed lane that would have all work (except paint) done in that bay, 2) two “heavy only” repair plan bays and 3) two heavy build-down bays. The heavy builddown bays would have all weld-on panels completed, cut in and built down (interior, etc.) in that area so that once the vehicle hit light body, it could easily flow through the rest of the system. The flow line looked good on paper; all we needed now was implementation and execution of the plan.
Data Collection » We knew we had a lot of problems to fix, but we were shooting in the dark. We had a huge on-time delivery issue and ideas on what was causing it, but no data to support it and know what to attack first. I started tracking and trending different things: WIP, on-time percentage, cycle time, throughput and severity. Also, tech performance: hours per day and productivity. 50
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It’s not all doom and gloom. The team has shown glimpses of greatness from time to time and, through all my failures, we’ve experienced some success that continues to trend upwards.
And finally, a master constraint list. I created a spreadsheet to track all problems and categorize them into buckets to see what we needed to fix first. When I started tracking all this information, on-time delivery was at 52 percent and the data pointed directly to paint quality 28 times. Breaking the data down even further: 10 color match issues, three times damage painted over, 12 times panel was run so bad or had solvent pop it had to be repainted, and three times they forgot to paint something on the work order. We found our first area to attack with solid data. I’m currently working on an A3 and PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Adjust) in the paint area and will post our results next month.
The Good Stuff » It’s not all doom and gloom. The team has shown glimpses of greatness from time to time and, through all my failures, we’ve experienced some success that continues to trend upwards: 䡲 Productivity went from 117 percent to 191 percent. 䡲 Hours per day went from 135.7 to 199.6. 䡲 We were also able to take ontime delivery from 52 percent to 79 percent in the last 30 days. There’s still some work to do here, but that’s good progress in a month. You have to always find a positive to build from. If the team is constantly beat down, the culture will change for the worse. Having transparency to the true numbers of what’s really going on and celebrating small victories with your team goes a long way toward building up the culture. Next month, we’ll continue through my journey of successes, failures and everything else that I think may be able to help you. BSB Tim Komoroski is currently a lean facilitator/operations leader for a collision center in Pittsburgh, Pa. He has spent 18 years in the auto repair industry, the last five learning and studying kaizen/lean from an industry leader. Email him at trkjr01@comcast.net.
PROFIT IN THE PAINT SHOP
Profit in the Paint Shop Series:
Sand Scratches and Pinholes By identifying and understanding some of the causes of redos, we can minimize their frequency and stop losing money. Part 1 of a six-part series on how to maximize profit in the paint shop.
By Carl Wilson ew things are more frustrating to a painter, body man and shop – or detrimental to cycle time and margins – than a redo, a comeback or an OMT (one more time). Whatever you call it, efficiency and profitability suffer when we make mistakes. Yet we all make mistakes because we’re all imperfect humans. And while no one “bats a thousand,” we can often pitch “no hitters.” There is nothing faster and more profitable than accuracy – doing the job one time. In fact, there are few things more unprofitable than doing it a second time. I’m certain we can all agree that doing it a third time is one of them.
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Pinholes » In this article, let’s consider those pinholes that “show up” after the painting is done and the sand scratches that weren’t there before. Where did they come from? 52
Pinholes are caused by air entrapment within the plastic body filler and are exposed during the sanding operation of the filler by the body man. Yes, we painters all know that pinholes come from the body man. And there are plenty of resources available to the body man that deal with the cause and prevention of pinholes. Our purpose here is dealing with them once we have the job in the paint shop.
Sand Scratches » Sand scratches are too coarse a scratch pattern in the filler, or an improperly feathered paint edge surrounding a repair that has been primed over. The primersurfacer appears to initially fill the scratch, but the problem is that the primer-filled scratch behaves differently than the surrounding body filler and eventually telegraphs its presence to the surface. Think of it like an expansion joint in concrete. Sand scratch issues must ultimately
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be dealt with by the body man to ensure they aren’t ongoing problems. The grits of sandpaper (40, 80, 120, 180, 220, etc.) must be worked through by the body man, with a final grit scratch of 220 or 240. So, 220 or 240, which is it? It’s 220 if the scratch pattern is left by a random orbital; 240 if the scratch pattern is left by straight line hand sanding. A random orbital scratch is always less aggressive than a straight line scratch of the same grit. A proper featheredging of the surrounding scratch-filled paint film generally falls to the painter. In most cases, you should figure nearly 2 inches of featheredging per modern day paint job. That is, a factory finish. If it has been refinished and there are two paint jobs on the vehicle, feather the edge 4 inches. Be aware of and be faithful to the paint manufacturer’s excessive film build recommendations and warnings. A smooth bed for the primer to lay in helps ensure success. Asking the primer to do more than it’s designed to guarantees failure. We’ve all seen the results of priming over an improperly prepared repair.
Passing the Blame » Pinholes. Excessively aggressive sanding scratches. Yeah, they came over from the body man, but we primed it. How can we possibly blame him
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PROFIT IN THE PAINT SHOP » Part 1 for not seeing it and sending it to us if we didn’t see it ourselves? Let’s think about this: the body man didn’t see it. The painter didn’t see it. Was there a production manager or other quality control person who didn’t see it? Is this work even being inspected? I mean really inspected? Properly? Or are we more
concerned about getting onto the next job? Hmmm. Since these preventable problems in paint affect us painters by way of a redo, frustration, enmity toward the body man, lost production time, etc., it’s in our best interest, the shop’s best interest and the customer’s best interest to discover
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them before we invest too much time in preparation. Let us consider procedures to detect these potential shop disrupters that will help us avoid priming over them as well as dealing with them after the fact.
A Few Fundamentals » Before we do anything, we must blow the repair area off really well with some decent air pressure. At this point, you may as well feel the repair for straightness; there’s no point in fixing pinholes if the repair needs a trip back to the body man. And it shouldn’t need a trip back as I’m certain the body man has already felt his work and is satisfied with it. Now, I did say “fix pinholes,” as in fix them in the paint shop. We’re trying to improve cycle time, not have a grunting contest with a troglodyte, so unless the body man has an epidemic pattern of sloth (which would need to be addressed), we’re going to fix things in the paint shop and maintain continuity of motion through the refinish process. Presuming the repair is straight and has been blown off, we’re going to inspect the body filler for pinholes and sand scratches. You should be close and utilizing proper lighting. By proper lighting, I mean a flashlight illuminated across the surface. In the same way the light will cause a shadow to be cast from a paper clip, it will put the crevice of the scratch or the base of the pinhole in a shadow, making it easier to see. If your rapport and diplomacy with the aforementioned cave dweller is such that you can introduce this technique to him, you can further minimize the pinholes and sand scratches that make it to the paint shop. If you don’t have the rapport, he’ll probably just kick your butt, so tread carefully. (I should probably mention I was raised by a genius metal man who transitioned from the days of tinning and lead work to plasma cutters and resistance welders. I have nothing but respect for my co-worker the body tech, and
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PROFIT IN THE PAINT SHOP » Part 1 it’s my hope that my satirical approach in this article doesn’t get my butt kicked!) Once identified, we can easily swipe a small dab of putty with a small steel spreader, or even a razor blade, over the problem to fill it. A quick hand sanding with a small block and that problem has been
eliminated prior to priming. And when you prime, observe proper flash times between coats. You’ll get a better film build of the product than if you simply “poured on” three coats, one on top of the other. Once your blocking and sanding is finished, you need to clean off all the sanding dust again. Blow
the panel off and then spray on a waterborne, low-VOC cleaner and wipe it off. The panel is really clean now – dust-free and ready for another inspection. We’re attempting to avoid discovering the pinholes in the booth. You know, that room with the best lighting in the shop. Use the flashlight before you’re in that position.
Slipping Through the Cracks » Still, there will be a job that slips through the fingers of our imperfect hands. And when that happens, we discover the pinholes in the middle of the refinishing process. Perhaps we see them in the sealer or, worse yet, the basecoat. We must honestly deal in reality and ask ourselves, “Do we pretend we don’t see them and ‘finish’ the job, or do we fix them now?” Do we even care? We need to care. Whatever the shop’s quality standard is, your personal standard should be slightly higher. I’m not talking perfection,
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PROFIT IN THE PAINT SHOP » Part 1 I’m talking excellence. Of course, we fix them now. Despite the apparent disruption to the flow of production, this is the fastest way to deliver the vehicle with certainty, with respect to the painter’s portion of responsibility. Now if, God forbid, we finish the job No one before we discover the pinholes, we may be able to fix them without a total repaint. If it’s a dark-colored metallic we can often or a solid color, you may be able to dab a bit of catalyzed clear into the pinhole. Allow it to dry, then sand it, flush and polish. Silvers, golds, pearls and candy colors are not typically so forgiving. Incidentally, the occasional errant “fisheye” can also be addressed in this manner. Sand scratches in dark-colored metallic and solid colors can often be sanded out and polished if they’re not too deep; the problem is that they’ll likely return, and the more clear you remove through sanding
“bats a thousand,” but pitch
“no hitters.”
and polishing, the less effective the UV protection of the clearcoat. Each time you sand and polish, you reduce the film build and, in time, you’ll eventually have clearcoat failure. This is why sand scratches ultimately have to be dealt with by the body man when they’re in filler and by the paint shop when they’re in the feather edge – in both cases, prior to priming. If the sand scratches appear in a light-colored metallic, you’ll have to re-paint to fix it.
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No Hitters » We cannot affect every variable that hinders cycle time, but we can address more than a few things in the paint shop. By identifying and understanding some of the causes of redos, we can minimize their frequency and pitch a few more “no hitters.” BSB Carl Wilson has been painting for nearly 30 years, with formal training from the GM Training Center, ASE, I-CAR, and multiple product and color courses. He currently works as a painter at RPMS Auto Body & Paint in Kailua, Hawaii. He can be reached at carl@ refinishexpert.com.
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Tech
Tips
By Karl Kirschenman
This Ain’t Your Father’s Collision Industry Interface devices like these may cause issues in 2006-2014 GM passenger cars and trucks.
he collision industry amazes me, mostly in a good way. Today’s rapidly changing technologies keep things interesting in our shops. New vehicle construction materials, such as ultra high strength steel, plastics, composites and other materials, offer up challenges we didn’t have to deal with in the “good ol’ days.”
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Rolling Computers » Perhaps the most challenging aspect of repairing newer vehicles remains the ever-increasing use of electronic systems. We no longer see “cars” in the shop but rolling computers.
Of course, we have to do our best to keep up with all the changes; there’s really no other option. A repair done wrong can be hazardous to the driver, the passengers and those sharing the road. And let’s not even mention the liability issues involved in a repair not performed to OEM standards.
No Issues Here » Has the collision business really changed all that much? Every day, I meet someone in a shop who says, “We are not having any issues with newer vehicles.” My next question is usually, “Well,
how do you know how to repair them properly so that the family you put back in that car is safe and the vehicle will perform correctly?” The response is often one I was hoping not to hear: “My technicians are the best. We’ve been doing it this way for 30 years and we know how to fix cars.” Like I said, this industry amazes me. So what has changed in the last 30 years from a technology standpoint? Downloadable music has replaced CDs, which replaced cassette tapes, which replaced eight-track cartridges. Streaming video, DVRs and DVDs replaced VHS and Betamax (new on the market 30 years ago). Thirty years ago, Radio Shack had the hottest computer system on the market…the TRS 80. And IBM marketed a personal computer with a 10MB hard drive and 128KB of RAM. And let’s not forget that your smartphone has replaced your Walkman, your folding maps and portable TV with telescoping antenna. Vehicles from 30 years ago did www.bodyshopbusiness.com 59
»| Tech Tips |« not include dozens of control modules and sensors monitoring, regulating and directing everything. They didn’t have side-impact airbags or onboard navigation. They didn’t have collision-avoidance or hands-free parking systems. They didn’t have blind spot sensors, adaptive cruise control or lane departure warning systems. How about ABS, TPMS, ESC and all those other initials? Nope! The only way to properly and safely repair vehicles today is by referencing OEM information. As one shop owner has said, “Without it, you’re flying blind!” All this technology has made driving safer, more fuel efficient and more enjoyable. But sometimes a problem can come at you from left field. Here’s an example of a condition that might be especially difficult to solve without OEM information. This excerpt from OEM-issued information has been edited for the purpose of this article.
Real-Life Example » The real-life example involves 2006-2014 GM passenger cars and trucks where the aftermarket Assembly Line Diagnostic Link (ALDL) or Data Link Connector (DLC) interface devices are causing multiple issues. Customers may comment on various issues with their vehicle related to high- or low-speed data bus traffic. These concerns may be widely varied, but some of the known issues are listed below. The information contained in this bulletin is not meant to single out any one device or symptom, but to provide additional information that may be useful for diagnosing issues that do not have other diagnostic methods to identify the root cause. The known symptoms (not specific to any one device) include: The radio may not shut off after shutting down the vehicle. Bus or LAN traffic may stay ac-
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tive, leading to a discharged vehicle battery. Problems reprogramming modules either because of interference or the device will not allow the bus to power down. ONSTAR may lose the ability to provide diagnostic data. Various engine and transmission performance issues with SES light set. Intermittent drivability issues. Reduced power message and codes. Stabilitrak message and codes. C0561 stored in the EBCM leading to a traction control issue. No high speed LAN communication along with various communication U-codes. Transmission may not shift for one key cycle (TCM in default mode). Erratic gauge readings or flickering displays. SES, MIL or CEL light set and numerous DTC communication codes such as U0100, U0101, U186B and U1862. Diesel power-up devices causing no power in 4WD low range. Erratic electric power steering boost potentially associated with codes U2109, U2107, U2100, B1325 and C0000. Service Tire Pressure Monitoring (TPM) system light illuminated. Cannot relearn TPM. Specific to hybrids: reduced propulsion power message. Service high voltage charging system message.
Cause » If nothing else can be identified as the root cause of the issue after normal diagnostics, check for a device plugged into ALDL or DLC for tracking and/or maintenance interval scheduling. Monitoring devices, along with other electronic accessories such as aftermarket cruise control or police speed checking devices (RADAR or LIDAR) may cause one or more of the concerns listed above.
January 2014 | BodyShop Business
Many of the problems described could be caused by an open connection on the HSCAN bus. Example: if the device only makes connection with one CAN +, then it will cause bus errors and erratic ECU behavior. These devices may be removed by the customer for use in another vehicle while their vehicle is brought in for service. The intent of this bulletin is to identify potential sources of concern that do not have other diagnostic methods to identify them.
What Has Changed? » As you walk around the vehicles in your shop today, ask yourself what has changed in your business over the last 30 years. Then ask yourself, “What do I need to do to keep on top of the changes happening in the next 30 years?” NOTE: This repair/service information is excerpted from information published by the vehicle manufacturer and is intended for the purpose of promoting OE collision repair information to trained, professional technicians with the knowledge, tools and equipment to do the job properly and safely. Before attempting any repairs described, refer to the complete article in ALLDATA Collision S3500. It is recommended that these procedures not be performed by “do-it-yourselfers.” BSB Karl Kirschenman, ALLDATA collision product manager, holds a bachelor of science degree in communication. He has more than 10 years of experience in the collision industry. © 2014 ALLDATA LLC. All rights reserved. All technical information, images and specifications are from ALLDATA Collision S3500. ALLDATA and ALLDATA Collision are registered trademarks of ALLDATA LLC. GM, ONSTAR and Stabilitrak are registered trademarks of General Motors. All other marks are the property of their respective holders.
»| Industry Update |«
Ft. Wayne, Ind., Shops Voicing Strong Opposition to PartsTrader By Jason Stahl ore than a year ago, 18 shops in the Birmingham, Ala., market dropped off State Farm’s Select Service program in order to avoid being forced to use PartsTrader. Nearly one month ago, 14 shops in Ft. Wayne, Ind., comprising 64 percent of the total Select Service shops in that market similarly dropped the program to demonstrate their opposition to being forced to use a particular parts procurement program.
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According to Mike Hartman, president of the Indiana Autobody Association (IABA), State Farm is looking to open up a drive-in claims center at one of the shops that stayed on Select Service to make up for the loss of Select Service shops. The insurer had a drive-in claims center at another shop, but, according to Hartman, that shop dropped off the program and expressed its desire not to have a claims center for State Farm either. There is also a large MSO in town, Collision Revision, that
stayed on the program and is still processing claims for State Farm. “One guy who has been in business for more than 50 years said he had to stay on because [State Farm] was 30 percent of his business,” said Hartman. “But other shops that have been in business as long as him opted to get out from under Select Service.” Hartman believes State Farm only unleashed PartsTrader to Ft. Wayne and not the outlying rural areas because those areas tend to be more tightknit and the shops
would more than likely band together. “In bigger cities, it’s more dog-eat-dog cutthroat because one shop wants to outdo the other,” he said. “If one caves in, the other caves in and it snowballs – kind of like what happened in Indianapolis.” This big-city dynamic makes it all the more surprising that the Ft. Wayne shops have been able to show solidarity. “Guys who have been part of organizations in this industry for 30 years have said this is the first Continued on pg. 62
Louisiana Collision Meeting Has Strong Turnout
By Jason Stahl undreds of collision repairers attended a meeting Dec. 3 in Baton Rouge, La., to determine if there was interest in starting a trade association in Louisiana. “It seems the insurance companies have pushed us around enough and I feel they have now awakened a sleeping giant in this industry,” said Alysia Hanks, office manager of Lakeway Collision Center in Mandeville, La., and or-
H
ganizer of the event. According to Hanks, repairers from associations in Texas and Tennessee told her it was the largest crowd they had ever seen for such an event. Hanks felt there was a misconception among some individuals that she and other repairers in Louisiana were forming the Louisiana Collision Repair Association to team up for a class-action lawsuit against State Farm. But she reiterated that this was not the case. “Any shop that pursues that is doing it as an individual,” she said. “We will, however, work on changing Louisiana’s collision industry
for the best through support and education together. With this association, when I show up at the commissioner’s office alone, I know I won’t truly be alone because I’ll have the backing of 200 shops across the state I’ll be representing.” Steve Plier, Alabama Automotive Repair Industry Society of Excellence founder and president of Consumer Auto Repair Excellence, kicked off the meeting by introducing himself and outlining his background and credentials. Plier resigned from his position at State Farm after almost 23 years, saying he could “no longer look at himself in the mirror every morning” and continue in his capacity as a supervisor. He made the observation that the collision repair industry Continued on pg. 63 www.bodyshopbusiness.com 61
»| Industry Update |« FortWayne continued from pg. 61 time they’ve seen the Ft. Wayne market stay together and back each other up,” Hartman says. The decision to either stay on Select Service or drop off seems to have had drastic consequences business-wise. Hartman claims the owner of one small shop who stayed on the program said his workload for State Farm has doubled, while another shop that dropped the program has gone from 25 State Farm repair orders per month to five in a month’s time. Hartman says there are three or four steering suits currently being eyed by shops that elected not to participate in Select Service anymore. They’re currently documenting the individual cases, including one involving a customer who was simply told by State Farm that the
shop of her choice was no longer on its program. “They said it would be close to three weeks before they could get out and write the estimate, but if she went to a Select Service shop, they could get on it immediately,” Hartman says. “Other shops said that State Farm is telling their customers they are no longer on the program and can’t explain why other than [the shop] didn’t meet their criteria.” The IABA has voted to file an injunction against State Farm, but is waiting to see how Florida and Mississippi’s efforts pan out. “We’re confident it will pass in Indiana, but Mississippi and Florida started it, and it’s easier to get things passed once one has already been passed and the judge has something to look back on,” says Hartman. Hartman says that IABA member shops’ main objection to PartsTrader is similar to other shops: they don’t like the idea of being forced to use it. “And it’s not just State Farm, but any insurer getting their hands too far into their business,” Hartman says. According to Hartman, suppliers have been equally opposed to PartsTrader. The overall sentiment is that the suppliers don’t like having to go through a bid process, and almost
all feel they would have to add extra manpower to accommodate the additional State Farm orders. “The suppliers said there is not enough fat on this parts stuff anymore to have to add on more administrative people to take care of it, and then go out and bid against it and possibly have to offer a little bit of a discount,” says Hartman. One Honda dealer with a body shop particularly did not like the scenario of the shop not being able to order parts from their own parts department 200 feet away if the shop stayed on the program but the supplier didn’t. “And why would they want to buy parts from Penske in Indianapolis, their competition? Another thing is getting your parts in a timely manner. If you have to get parts out of Indianapolis or Dayton, we know that will affect cycle time, which will ultimately affect your scorecard,” says Hartman. For now, Hartman says it’s a waiting game to see what happens with Florida and Mississippi’s legal effort. He feels confident his group will stay together. “One of our members said with his State Farm business down a little, he hopes his brothers at the table won’t cave in and sign up. And every single one said no, we’re in this for the long haul and have to take a stand.”
Lawsuits continued from pg. 14 operations for free, making the customer responsible for the additional costs or resorting to legal action. “As always, our main concern is that our customers’ vehicles are repaired safely, as close as humanly possible to their pre-accident condition. The costs involved in having the proper equipment, training, facilities and staff to repair today’s vehicles continues to escalate. But the reimbursement rates have moved very little in the past several years. I think the problem is many times an insurer Circle 62 for Reader Service
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is attempting to base payment on the lowest cost in the market and not the cost of proper repairs in the market. Based on our conversations with other shop owners around the country, this is a situation that I believe is occurring nationwide. I remain hopeful that someday these actions will no longer be necessary as all insurers will choose to do right by their customers.” While no trial dates have been set, the lawsuits are expected to take place during the first half of 2014.
»| Industry Update |« LCRA continued from pg. 61 has become one that’s controlled by fear. “The person sitting next to you is not your enemy,” said Plier. “The person sitting next to you shares your goals and aspirations. Your very presence here tonight is a signal that you understand that the time for taking back control of your business is now.” John Mosley, president of the Mississippi Collision Repair Association, pointed out the many advantages of association membership. Entertaining the crowd with a few colorful stories about his own personal struggles in taking back his business, he drove home the current state of the collision repair industry and what must be done if it is to survive as an industry comprised of independent small businesses. Insurer intrusion with programs such as PartsTrader, labor rate suppression, refusal to recognize and compensate for procedures necessary to properly repair vehicles, and onesided DRP agreements were just some of the issues he identified as
being in urgent need of correction. He also reiterated that the time to take a stand is now. Attorney John Eaves Jr. followed Mosley, continuing to advance the notion that curing what ails the collision repair industry is bigger than anything any individual by themselves can accomplish. He also spoke of his amazement that any business could operate successfully under the current circumstances faced by collision repairers and questioned why no lawyer has ever successfully taken on the job of righting the wrongs. Eaves restated an analogy he has frequently made during the many gatherings he has attended over the past year, comparing PartsTrader to a virus that has the potential to infect the collision repair industry and something that must ultimately be recognized as a consumer issue. Eaves advanced the opinion that the majority of the problems faced by the collision repair industry can be traced back to a failure to recognize and enforce the 1963 Consent Decree, a failure he is endeavoring to correct.
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ADVERTISER INDEX COMPANY NAME
Aframe Spray Booths Airomax/U.S. Body Products American Honda Motor Co. Automotive Mgmt Institute Axalta Coating Systems BASF Corp. BendPak Bernardo Ecenarro Blackburn’s Hubcap & Wheels, Inc. Blair CCC Information Services Cebotech Inc. Certified Auto Parts Association Chief Automotive Systems Crash-writeR DEKRA Dent Fix Equipment
PG. #
4 20 17 48 5 31 62, Insert 18 34 44 33 42 13 56 40 58 7, Insert
COMPANY NAME
Dominion Sure Seal DV Systems Evercoat Ford Parts Herkules Equipment Corp. Induction Innovations Innovative Tools & Technologies, Inc. Island Clean Air Malco Products Martech Services Co. Motor Guard Corp. Nissan Motor Corp. USA Northeast Show 2014 O’Reilly Auto Parts PPG Industries Pro Spot International RBL Products
PG. #
28 30 3 51 32 24 15 49 9 36 58 29 55 57 Cover 2-1 Cover 3 19
COMPANY NAME
Reflex Truck Liners Rubber-Seal Products S.A.I.M.A. Of N. America SAAB Parts North America Scorpion Truck Bed Linings Sherwin-Williams Co. Shop-Pro Equipment Southern Polyurethanes Steck Mfg Co. Suburban Mfg. Toyota TYC/Genera Corp. Urethane Supply Co. US Chemical & Plastics Valspar/Debeer Zendex Tool Corp.
PG. #
44 54 25 10-11, Insert 46 35 43 41 46 42 Cover 4 37, 53 39 21 45 63
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Product
Showcase Spot-Clean Painting Equipment Sparkle Clean is a low-VOC aerosol spray cleaner that can quickly spot-clean all painting equipment and includes two different length straws with each can. One straw is built into the can’s cap, while the second is longer and accompanied by its own cap. This product works with both solvent and waterborne paints. Herkules www.herkules.us Circle 150 for Reader Service
Rigid Sanding Blocks Motor Guard’s Ultra-Rigid Big Block models are engineered from super-dense yet lightweight materials, providing just the right amount of flex to conform to body panels and slight contours. There are three models available: the BGR-1 (1.5” x 11”), which is ideal for smaller areas; the BGR6-1 (5.5”), designed for use with 2 ¾” PSA rolls or halfsheets with no waste; and the BGR12-1 (11”), designed to power block large areas with ease.
Regularly Replace Breathing System Filters Martech Best Buy Filter Kits allow users to replace filters for respective breathing systems on a regular basis. Each product in the kit has a recommended yearlong filter change schedule, which ensures a safe shop environment and a long lifespan of the product. Kits accompany Martech’s Models 50, 80 and 150. Martech Services Company www.breathingsystems.com Circle 153 for Reader Service
Versatile Two-Stage Filter
The RoboReel POWER, recently approved by Bosch, is a 360-degree rotatable safe and convenient power reel designed to offer versatility to technicians. It retracts automatically with the touch of a button at the end of the cord and on the base, and automatically slows down upon docking to prevent the whipping action that’s common among other types of power reels. The reel senses when it’s overheating and will shut off automatically, and will instantly shut off if the power cord is severed.
The 5 Micron Compressed Air Filter provides point of use filtration of liquids, oils and other contaminants. This twostage filter is designed to operate most effectively when placed near the point of use, and is ideal for a variety of applications including surface preparation, paint spraying, powder coating, air-powered tools and pneumatically operated equipment. It’s available in sizes with flow ranges of 15 to 250 SCFM, and pressure ratings of up to 250 psi. It includes a mounted differential pressure gauge and comes with mounting brackets.
Great Stuff Inc. www.roboreel.com Circle 152 for Reader Service
Walmec North America www.walmecna.com Circle 154 for Reader Service
Motor Guard www.motorguard.com Circle 151 for Reader Service
360-Degree Power Reel
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»| Product Showcase |«
Easily Align Trucks and Trailers
Strip Wheels and Rims D-Zolve from Solvent Kleene is an industrial grade immersion tank stripper ideally suited for removing one or more layers of a powder coating or liquid paint from wheels/rims. Developed as a safe eco-stripper, it’s safe for use on aluminum, steel, magnesium and most other ferrous and non-ferrous metal substrates and alloys. Serving as a high performance replacement for chlorinated and other hazardous stripping solvents, DZolve is a safe alternative to burn off, sandblasting and shot blasting. Solvent Kleene www.solventkleene.com Circle 155 for Reader Service
Flexible Adhesive Cutting System Catalog BTB’s new catalog features 28 pages and covers the BTB system, tool power options, applications, kits, blades, controller arms and accessories. It also now includes updated toolkit blade content, BTB’s 12-volt battery-powered E-Tool auto glass removal tool, new Spade cutting blades and new versions of Powered Cold Knife blades. BTB Auto Glass & Body Shop Tools www.btbtools.com Circle 156 for Reader Service
Hunter’s new WinAlign HD alignment system allows fleet operators to perform truck and trailer alignments without unhooking the trailer from the tractor, maximizing workflow and reducing setup time. It also allows technicians to perform trailer alignments using a simple kingpin adaptor. Six heavy-duty sensors communicate with the system to capture and produce live, simultaneous measurements on three axles in just four minutes. The sensors are accurate to a range of 600 inches to cover all truck, bus and trailer lengths. Hunter Engineering www.hunter.com Circle 157 for Reader Service
Low-Rise Lift BendPak’s LR-5T is a 10,000pound capacity low-rise lift that accommodates passenger cars and trucks. It features specialty adapters, wider drive-over capability and increased lifting capacity. A convenient built-in storage tray means lug nuts and other small parts are always within reach, while a small footprint, easy installation and adaptable 110V/220V power unit round out the lift’s design. BendPak www.bendpak.com Circle 158 for Reader Service
Remove Moisture and Contaminants The patented Extractor/Dryer is a two-stage filter designed as a point-of-use filter that removes moisture and contaminants. It’s most effective when installed withing 25 feet of the point of use. Each model offers a standard 5-Micron rating, with lower Micron ratings available. Additional features include a differential pressure gauge and a weep drain. LA-MAN Corporation www.laman.com Circle 159 for Reader Service
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»| Classifieds |«
Body Shop Inventory & Web Software by Rossknecht Software www.rossknecht.com
• Original Equipment Wheels In Stock • Limited Lifetime Guarantee • 1000s of Wheels In Stock • Affordable Prices
A Windows® inventory system for Body Shops that also salvage vehicles or have new/used parts to sell – vehicle and parts inventory, invoicing, reports, instant sales totals, bar-code labels, digital pictures, electronic catalog of body parts. NEW: Put your inventory on your Website included. No monthly fees. $895 complete. Free Demo CD. bpsales@rossknecht.com phone 303-884-5315
We ship from eight different locations: Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Chicago, Miami
Alloy Wheel Remanufacturing Order your Wheels at:
www.newwheel.com or 800-486-0931
MIG / TIG / PLASMA / SPOT * Fixed & Flex-Neck Torches * Tips / Nozzles / Caps / Diffusers
* Wire / Rods / Tungsten * Helmets / Gloves / Safety Gear
The Body Shop Specialists Toll-Free 1-866-568-3170
Body Shop for Sale NW Pennsylvania Only shop in town Steady flow of business
On site consulting/ training
22 years steady, loyal customer base
Hdmofo1@verizon.net 814-484-7779
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WELDINGDIRECT.COM BodyShop Business Classified Help wanted • Business for sale • Equipment for sale • Software... and so much more! Call Tom Staab today at 330-670-1234 ext. 224
»| Classifieds |«
MarkiNgpeNdepot.coM Collision Shops, Towing, Auction Sites, Dealers, Recyclers, OEMs Tow Pro $2.50 Autowriter $3.50 Posca $3.50 Bopagla $2.00 Unipaint $3.86 MPD-15 $1.30 Volume Discounts! Call 888-906-9370 or online at
markingpendepot.com
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Quality Solutions for the Collision Industry
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The
Shop Jacob Nossaman Owner Collision Works 䡲 Oklahoma City, Okla.
We hear you like to go fast in boats. We’re big into boats and dune buggies and any sport that gives you an adrenaline rush. Adrenaline sports fit really well with the body shop business, where you’re constantly meeting time crunches and cycle time and keeping up with the fast pace of the industry we’ve built. Quality is expected, and any more we’re managing minutes, not days. The one thing with the boats is when the weekend hits in summer, you can get there on a Friday night, jump in, fire them up and outrun the stress of the previous week.
Are boats something you grew up with? Yes. We went water skiing all the time. My dad worked for GM, and any time they were doing a model change for summer, we always spent a couple weeks at the lake.
Where do you go boating today? We do poker runs all over the U.S. We go to Lake Havasu for the Desert Storm Poker Run. We also boat at Lake Eufala in Oklahoma. We tube, wake surf and wake board and go non-stop with my four kids. They love it. We all sit around and count the days till summer. The fast boat is Dad’s toy.
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Where do you take the dune buggies? We ride our Polaris Razors at Little Sahara State Park. It’s a lot of fun. Anything outside de-stresses you from the body shop business.
Do you ever worry about getting hurt? I’ve been hurt. I have a titanium plate in my arm. You can get hurt, but you can get hurt walking down the street. You have to respect riding dune buggies, like any other sport.
If you could have any boat in the world, what would it be? A Mystic. It goes 200 miles per hour. You could outrun any stress that way.
Do you collect cars? No, I’m not a big car guy anymore. I guess I work on so many cars and see so many that, at the end of the week, I just don’t care if I see another one. Boats and dune buggies and time spent with the kids is where it’s at.
What’s the next frontier for you adrenaline-wise? Maybe skydiving. That would be pretty fun.
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