Happy New Year

Happy New Year!

As we move forward in the New Year I hope all reflect on 2011, bring the good forward, leave the mistakes behind and have a very prosperous 2012.  I believe things are progressing well for our industry and see many good things coming.  NACE and SEMA were both very good shows this year and I only see things getting better for those two venues.  SCRS, CIC and I-CAR as well as several other organizations are constantly working to improve our industry by raising standards, bringing understanding and developing certifications.  I look forward to seeing you somewhere in my travels and appreciate the following as I try to bring information you can use through this blog.  Please be safe this holiday season, we need all of you !

Marketing Tactics

Did you notice how companies changed their marketing for the holidays?  Black Friday - Cyber Monday – Super Saturday, they even had a couple of jingles for the procrastinators = me!  They continually modified their targets to meet a different group of people to create a steady stream of buyers.  Just like the companies working to get their fair share of customers during the holiday season you need to alter your marketing efforts to keep your shop full.  Marketing is an ongoing process, you have to continually market your customer base, you have to explore areas you are not reaching and you have to diversify your tactics over the different media opportunities.  In Michael E. Gerber’s book E Myth Mastery   he discusses six disciplines involving awareness, motivation, acceptance, brand preference, purchase transaction and customer satisfaction.  From this it is evident that you have to ensure you generate awareness of your collision center, motivate potential customers to drive to your facility, create an acceptance of what you offer, identify your brand as unique, explain the processes that makes doing business with you attractive and capitalize on  your customer satisfaction index.  Kelly McDonald, President of McDonald Marketing, book How to Market to People Not Like You gives insight on how to market those areas you are not reaching with your current methods.  She explains how to “Get to Know the Customer You’re Not Getting but Should Be” in chapter two and in chapter five she describes how to “Communicate in Their ‘‘Language’’: Develop Marketing Messages Based on Their Values”.  She continues in discussion about Gen Y’s, X’s and Z’s and how to approach them.  You can find many other books on marketing but I enjoyed these two and believe you will also. 

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas

The Christmas season has rolled around quickly again this year, I hope all are a little more prepared than I.  This is one of my favorite times of year and look forward to the celebrations, my wish to you is that you are able to celebrate this holiday in the method, fashion and style you are accustomed.  It brings great joy to see the number of military members being returned home, and think about the ones remaining in harm’s way protecting us as we gather with family and friends.  Please keep them in your thoughts and reach out to their family members if they are near you.

Operating Lean Saves You Money

I get asked often how lean can save shops money and I always answer "by eliminating waste." Lean management is the theory of eliminating waste by refining processes. As you journey through the lean process you will incorporate the 5S Kaizen philosophy and identify items in your operation that can be eliminated through one of the seven elements of waste. The 5S Kaizen philosophy is based on five Japanese words that begin with S: Seiri – Sort, Seiton – Set in order, Seiso – Shine, Seitetsu – Standardize, and Shitsuke – Sustain. By progressing through the 5S steps you will develop habits that will streamline your operation, remove waste and ultimately save money.
For the complete article visit: http://abrn.search-autoparts.com/abrn/Training/Operating-lean-can-save-your-shop-money/ArticleStandard/Article/detail/749279

Continuous Improvement

I probably read the best quote in a while about Continuous Improvement (Lean) on Don Sweigart’s twitter page @donsweigart where he said “If it doesn’t solve a problem, you don’t need it.”  Think about that quote and then look around your shop and see how much you are holding onto or check out a process that you work through everyday just because…..you have always done it that way.  I think you will find there are tasks being accomplished that do not really serve a purpose or more importantly they mask a process that is not being followed.  To have true continuous improvement each task must stand on its own merit.  Each process should have a Quality-In standard as well as a Quality-Out standard.  Those two standards set the expectations of what comes out of a process as well as what is sent to the next process.  Without measuring those expectations you pass problems downstream until either somebody stops and corrects the defect or the defect stops production.  Either way time is lost correcting the defect.  Look around and if it doesn’t solve a problem, you don’t need it, it is time to get rid of it.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving

I wish all of you a very Happy Thanksgiving.  As I look in the mirror and reflect over the last year I have found many things to be thankful for, most of all I appreciate those that read my blog.  I work to document things that have moved forward in my mind that I think others can learn from, that is the goal of JSE Consulting LLC, to help others grow.  I am thankful that I am in a position to use my company as a tool to make the collision industry better, one person or shop at a time.  Thanks for reading and I hope you find many things to be thankful for in your mirror too. 

The SEMA Report - Final Chapter

SEMA Final Chapter

Today I saved for my day at SEMA.  I used the time to see things I had to walk by throughout the week because I was on a mission heading to the next meeting or a class.  I was actually able to stop and look at  some cars. 

Welding Equipment

After attending the class on the “new” metal yesterday I thought I would spend the morning looking at a few welders.  There were about five different spot welders at the show and in talking to the different vendors I found that the Car-O-Liner CTR 12000 was among the best available.  This is a fully automatic process-regulated welder that recognizes total sheet thickness via a Pulse-Sonar-System.  I saw a demonstration that showed the welder going from two sheets of metal to four sheets of metal without changing any settings.   I talked with Tim Curran who told me that one of the highlights of the machine was that it required a minimum of training.  We all remember when spot welders first came around and the amount of training was necessary for the technicians to become proficient.  The CTR 12000 has a card type training system attached so a technician could review the process and begin welding without specialized training.  To me that was a bonus, a welder that would meet the need of a collision center that did not require specialized training.  With all the training technicians require to stay certified it is a true benefit to have a piece of equipment that does not add another training requirement.  In my discussion with Tim I learned that most of the OE’s have endorsed the CTR 12000 with Volkswagen being the most recent.  After understanding that a weld could make a difference in air bag deployment in yesterday’s class, I know I will check the shop that repairs my vehicle a little bit closer.

AutoMobile Technologies

I met Mike Fischer, another of my LinkedIn contacts today and we discussed his company’s products.  The one I like the most is CollisionNotes™ a software program that works with a PDA or Tablet PC that will allow you to quickly inspect and collect vehicle data, digitally and error free.  Once the inspection is complete, all the information including photos and voice notes are wirelessly transmitted and integrated with your estimating and management system.  You really need to follow the link above to appreciate all this program does, it is amazing.  I knew something like this had to be out there somewhere, now I know where.  That is just one of their software programs, they have software solutions for Reconditioning Companies, Dealership Service Departments, Used Car Reconditioning Departments as well as the Collision department as mentioned above.  Check out the links, I got started looking at one and ending up spending about thirty minutes looking at all the different software programs.