Collision Shop Gemba Walks

Posted on September 25, 2014 by Walter McIntyre

Shop Walk Throughs (Gemba Walks)

The Lean term for this strategy is Gemba Walks. It basically means being out in the shop seeing firsthand what is happening. More specifically, it is about making potential problems more visible.

Here are a few guidelines:

Make positive interactions with employees.
Ask why things are being done, even if you think you already know. Listen carefully. You may find that the employee’s view of “why” may be different than yours. If their answer is “because I was told to”, you have an opportunity to teach. If their answers is that they are adjusting for a defect they inherited, you also have an opportunity to target and correct a problem.
Ask yourself if shop rules and procedures sometimes create negative interference with your shop’s goals and Be careful what you incentivize employees to do, you may get what you ask for. If an employee is pushing a vehicle to completion to meet a scheduled delivery, and is neglecting to fully test vehicle functionality, you are paying for on time delivery with a comeback.
Look for cases where trying to “do the right thing” turns out to be the wrong thing.
Considering what you know to be defects (comebacks, incorrect ordered parts, missed delivery times, etc) look for potential causes. This involves intimate knowledge of how your shop actually does work, not how you think they are doing work.
When you see an improvement opportunity, work with the employee to find a solution. The next day (or opportunity) ask them how the solution is working. Give them some ownership by letting them shine.
Most importantly, these walk throughs are not for the purpose of beating folks up. What you find that requires discipline should be dealt with later and not tied to the walk through in any way. Obviously, critical things like safety are dealt with immediately. The point is to have employees see the walk throughs as positive interactions and not witch hunts.

I have always felt that a good shop manager has to have “dirty fingernails”. These walk throughs help you be seen as a member of the shop floor team and help your employees think like managers.

Lean Shop Defect Elimination

Posted on September 23, 2014 by Walter McIntyre

If you are serious about making process improvements in your shop, the best place to start is defect elimination. For this discussion, a defect is anything that is not done right the first time. Things like failed inspections, wrong parts, comebacks , etc. In this brief write up, let’s focus on comebacks. The points we make here can be applied to any activity in your shop.

There is a method to the madness of defect elimination. Here are a few steps to take:

Define what a defect is. This should be from the perspective of the customer, bottom line business metrics, safety, or cost.
Document every occurrence of the impact, along with circumstances surrounding it. Things like who the tech was, time of day, day of week, weather, etc. can help you track the defect to its root cause.
Define the impact of the defect. This allows you to weight the impact of the defect and focus on the most important to your shop. For example, a defect that happens a lot, but has very little impact other than being a pain, may be less important than a rare defect with very large impact like a loss time accident. Things to track are cycle time, labor time (labor time is not cycle time), cost, customer complaints, etc.
When you have documents all of the above, you can easily see how often a defect occurs, its impact, and root cause. This information will help you determine a fix to the problem and prevent the defect from reoccurring.

I have attached an example comeback log to under the “Free Stuf” tab. It can be easily modified and applied to other activities in your shop.

Two things to remember about shop performance. If you are not measuring it, you are not managing it. And, what you do not know can, and will, hurt your shop’s performance.

Collision Repair Shop Cycle Time Bandits

Posted on September 18, 2014 by Walter McIntyre

Cycle Time Bandits

Where are the cycle time bandits in your business? This key question becomes the starting point for streamlining your business and increasing profits.

Before you can accurately locate these profit stealing activities in your shop, you must first understand what you are measuring. Here is a key point. There are two timelines that we concern ourselves with. One is the time we spend working on the vehicle, which is labor time, not cycle time. The other timeline is how long a vehicle resides in your care before being returned to the customer. This is the timeline that is important, because it is the cycle time of the repair. It is the time the vehicle spends doing something, or waiting on something, that is important.

For example, if you have to spend an extra 30 minutes of time on a vehicle that saves a day of vehicle cycle time, it is the day of cycle time savings that is important. The 30 minutes can be billed as labor, but does not contribute to the vehicles cycle time.

In the language of Lean, we call this the value stream. The value stream is made up of value added and non-value added steps. Basically, value added steps are those things the customer doesn’t mind paying for; non-value added steps are those things that they do not want to pay for. For example, the insurance company would be happy to pay a half hour of labor that cuts a day of cycle time from the repair. They are not happy about paying for the rental car charges for an extra day while the vehicle waits for some sort of service.

One last note; when considering cycle time, a return of the vehicle to the shop due to some repair problem, adds to cycle time. Everybody loses in this situation. You need to evaluate every comeback and eliminate its root cause.

Heatcraft Tifton Georgia

Posted on August 30, 2014 by Walter McIntyre

Thanks to the folks at Heatcraft in Tifton, Georgia, for spending some time with me. They have a design/build to customer specification manufacturing process that operates at a very good cycle time. This takes a “can do” attitude, and they have it.

They will tell you that focusing on the customer makes all the difference and they are right. That’s how you keep/save jobs.

Science verses Religion

Posted on August 22, 2014 by Walter McIntyre

I love this topic. Stick a quarter in me and I can go on for hours.

Science and faith do not have to be at odds. Science and faith are both absolute and come from absolute sources. God can do what He wants, how He wants, when He wants. That is how I reconcile things science to things faith.

Science, though, will always be in conflict with religion, because religion is not absolute. It comes from man and is really a means for a few to control the many (just like politics). Just look at wars and crimes against humanity in todays world that have religion as their source…Not God.

Religious folks make me nervous with their effort to separate people based upon their belief systems. For example, believing God created the universe and looking to science to understand it is not only okay, but healthy. In fact, I believe that God created the natural laws to provide a foundation for the rest of his creation, and He loves us for trying to understand these natural laws. Unfortunately, religious folks, both theists and scientists, who vilify others with a different world view, control the dialog. This is dangerous.

Consider the dark ages. The Catholic Church squelched all scientific endeavors. Some of science’s great minds were put to death for saying the world was round and earth was not the center of the universe. This lasted 700-800 years from the collapse of the Roman Empire. It took humanity another 500 years after that to catch up to where we were in scientific understanding at the time of Christ. In other words we lost nearly 1300 years of scientific and cultural advancement. All due to religion, not faith.

The scary part is not the debate between science and religion. The scary thing is how many people reject someone saying “let’s look at the facts”, but accepts someone saying “forget the facts, believe what I tell you”. This is the basis of the conflict between science and religion. It is also the basis of conflict between cultural advancement and cultural stagnation. The argument has nothing to do with faith. Faith is a personal thing, not a corporate thing.

Note to My Son

Posted on July 24, 2014 by Walter McIntyre

A few things I know:

It is obvious that you are being called to make a difference, just like I am.

You are making a difference, you just don’t think about it that way.

You need to get back into a group leader situation. Your group was always involved in helping people. I believe that you miss and need that.

When frustrated, do something. Remember that you can’t eat the elephant in one bite. You can’t solve the world problems all at once either. Start in your back yard and move out from there.

Strategy Based Automotive Diagnostics in Collision Repair

Posted on July 2, 2014 by Walter McIntyre

Strategy Based Diagnostics is an automotive best practice routine that was initially published by G.M after studying and observing successful technicians in the field who consistently meet or exceed productivity standards and have the lowest levels of “re-checks” or “comebacks”. Since GM published this best practice, Strategy Based Diagnostics has been adopted by most in the automotive repair field. With the current wave of innovative technologies being applied to new vehicle models, this process is finding its way into collision repair as a necessity. The complexities and procedures associated with the requirement to return a vehicle to pre-loss condition can be mind boggling. I have modified some steps to this process that makes it more applicable to collision damaged vehicles in addition to the assessment of obvious visual physical damage.
The goal of Strategy Based Diagnosis is to provide guidance when creating a plan of action for each specific diagnostic situation. By following a similar plan for each diagnostic situation, maximum efficiency will be achieved when diagnosing and repairing vehicles.
The first step of the diagnostic process should always be: Understand and Verify the Customer’s/Technician’s Concern. For a collision damaged vehicle there is the additional challenge that the customer may not be aware of a problem
1. Understand and Verify the Areas of Concern. The first part of this step is to obtain as much information as possible from the customer and from the vehicle itself. In order to verify the concern, the technician should be familiar with the normal operation of the system and refer to the owner or service manual for any information that is needed.
2. Perform a Vehicle Diagnostic System Check. This will verify the proper operation of the vehicle’s embedded systems. This will also lead the technician in an organized diagnostic approach to building a good repair blueprint.
3. Preliminary Checks: Conduct a thorough visual inspection. Review the history of the vehicle. Detect unusual sounds or odors. Record the diagnostic trouble code (DTC) information.

• When does/did the condition occur?
• Is/was there physical damage contributing to the condition?
• How long does the condition last?
• How often does the condition occur?
• Are there aftermarket accessories on the vehicle?

4. Check for related Bulletins, Recalls and Preliminary Information (PI).
5. Previous steps may not be possible until physical condition of vehicle is repaired to a point that it can be operated normally.
6. Review the following diagnostic categories:
6.1. Current DTC: Follow the designated DTC diagnostic in order to make an effective repair. Refer to Diagnostic Trouble Code (DTC) List for the vehicle.
6.2. Symptom – No DTC: Select the appropriate symptom diagnostic. Follow the diagnostic steps or suggestions in order to complete the repair.
6.3. No published diagnostics: Analyze the concern. Develop a plan for the diagnostics. The service manual schematics will display system power, ground, input, and output circuits. You can also identify splices and other areas where multiple circuits are tied together. Look at component locations to see if components, connectors or harnesses may be exposed to extreme temperature, moisture, or corrosives such as road salt, battery acid, oil or other fluids. Utilize the system description and operation and system circuit description.
6.4. Intermittent/History DTC: An intermittent condition is one that does not occur continuously, may be difficult to duplicate, and will only occur when certain conditions are met. Generally, an intermittent is caused by faulty electrical connections and wiring, malfunctioning components, electromagnetic interference (EMI), driving conditions, or aftermarket equipment. The following approaches and tools may prove to be beneficial in locating and repairing an intermittent condition or a History DTC.
6.4.1. Combining the technician’s knowledge and skill with the available service information.
6.4.2. Evaluate the symptoms and conditions described by the customer.
6.4.3. Follow the procedures in Testing for Intermittent Conditions and Poor Connections.
6.4.4. Use the available scan tool, digital multi-meter, or data logger with data capturing capabilities.
7. Isolate the root cause then repair and verify the correction. Verifying that the DTC or symptom has been corrected may involve road testing the vehicle.
8. Re-examine the Concern: If a technician cannot successfully find or isolate the concern, a re-evaluation is necessary.
5. Vehicle Operating as Designed: This condition exists when the vehicle is found to operate normally. The condition described by the customer or technician may be normal. If possible compare with another like vehicle that is operating normally under the same conditions described by the customer or observed by the technician. Document your findings and the operation of the system.
9. The final step of the diagnostic process should always be: Repair Verification.
This process is very straight forward however each step is not always easily achieved. Damaged vehicles can induce faults in areas not normally encountered by routine maintenance or component failures. This means the technician’s thorough understanding of what was damaged and repaired from a collision is critical in chasing down a fault.
Collision shops that currently have skilled electrical/electronic diagnostic technicians on staff are those who already recognize the need of getting involved with the electrical/electronic repairs needed on today’s complex vehicles. If your shop is currently subletting this work or towing vehicles to dealers after collision repairs for electronic diagnosis and repair, I Highly recommend you select a candidate for training to at least an intermediate level with a diagnostic support system.
Check out the I-car courses offered under the path of “Electrical/Mechanical Technicians”
• DAM13e Basic Electronics Damage Analysis
• ELE01 Electrical Circuits and DVOM Usage (6 Credit Hours)
• ELE02 Diagnosis, Testing, and Repair of Common Electrical Loads (6 Credit Hours)
• LSC04e Automotive Lighting (1 Credit Hours)
• RES01 Restraints (6 Credit Hours)
• NEW13 Vehicle Technology and Trends 2013 (3 Credit Hours)
• NEW14 Vehicle Technology and Trends 2014 (3 Credit Hours)

Chuck Olsen
Director of Diagnostic and Technical Support
chuck.o@collisiondiagnosticservices.com
(888) 486-1166 x5348

An email to my staff about alignment

Posted on June 12, 2014 by Walter McIntyre

This email is not addressing a current problem. I simply want to make sure everyone understands the importance of working through your teammates and not around them. As we grow and become a more diverse and complex group of employees, one of the first things that will be compromised is alignment of agenda and purpose. Customers and prospects should get the same message and content every time they communicate with us. This means all of us must be “singing from the same piece of music”. We are all aware of how inconsistency has hurt us in the past. Just imagine how bad it could have been with 10 or more times as many customers and prospects. Remember that none of us alone know everything we need to know to plot a course for our future. As a team though, we come pretty close.

In order to make sure customers and prospects receive the same message, no matter who they communicate with, our message content must be standardized. This means that we will only use approved sales and marketing material. “Approved” means that the team has signed off on the content and message. This is not meant to stifle creativity, just to protect the integrity of the message.

It is important that we keep the approved sales and marketing documents on the Google Drive and shared folder (I will get this folder set up) so that we all have access to them. All communication with customers and prospects must be consistent with approved content and message. When creating a new document (word, ppt, etc.), or proposing a change to CDS’s messaging, the approval process involves the sign off of the other team members. We do pretty good at this, I believe. It only works, though, when we actually read the proposed new or modified documents and give feedback to insure their alignment with currently approved content. I will not approve anything where I haven’t seen feedback from other team members.

When a current approved document or message needs updating, it must go through the approval process. There should be no “draft” or unapproved documents on the Google Drive or in the shared folder. There should be no communication with customers and prospects that includes information out of alignment with approved content. In other words, no freelancing or operating on your own agenda. This includes email and phone conversations with customers and prospects. These may not go through the approval process, but the onus is on you to insure that content is consistent with the agreed upon CDS message.

Sales and Marketing 101: Prospects and customers like consistency of message because they can predict how outcomes can affect their business. Inconsistency will make us seem unreliable and drive profits out of the business.