Creating Consistency Between Multiple Locations Dave Luehr It has been said that the skills required to operate one body shop location is vastly different than running several. I couldn't agree more. I have seen many failed attempts to grow into an MSO by those that did not heed this advice. In one of my [...]
Do you hate meetings as much as most people do? I really don’t blame you! I used to hate them too. I don’t know anyone that likes to sit in a time-wasting meeting where one person talks on and on without a speck of constructive dialogue going from one tangent to the next. However, [...]
There are numerous philosophies in our industry on the subject of pre-ordering parts. I have noticed that in some markets across the country, most everyone pre-orders everything and in other markets, not so much. So, just to clarify, a pre-order is when a collision repair shop orders the parts for a repair job after they [...]
Why is Blueprinting Important? In the collision repair business, the only time the shop makes money is when the technician is actually working on the car. So for a shop to optimize profitability, systems must be put in-place to ensure that wasteful delays are eliminated. Some of the more common delays are. • [...]
The Fastest Shops in the World! Even with loads of lean information being thrust at us for over two decades, our collision repair industry’s average cycle time is still hovering at just over ten days. This is just the average; some shops are running at close to fifteen days or more while a small [...]
What would happen to the collision repair industry if automobile collisions no longer happened? This is a serious concern to many people in our industry and I hear a lot of differing opinions on the subject. Clearly, crash avoidance technology is already a reality. Many speculate that crash avoidance technology will soon become standard [...]
I grew up in a family of artists. Not always the kind of people that come to mind when thinking of the dog-eat-dog business world. As a young man my own artistic expression found its way into the automotive repair business, as an automotive painter. I loved painting cars, especially the custom stuff. It wasn’t [...]
In a business such as collision repair that is notoriously difficult to manage, a successful leader must have a firm grasp on their time management. With so many distractions every day, a laser focus on completing important tasks that will move the company in the right direction is critical. In the collision repair business, the [...]
I was recently involved in a friendly debate. My friend, who is the owner of a successful collision repair business, asked me why I was always so obsessed with helping shops make repair jobs go through the shop faster than anyone else. He reasoned, "why should I make cars go through my shop any faster than I [...]
I really can’t think of many industries whose people work as hard as our friends in the collision repair industry. When I spend time in shops discussing the “values” they find most important in life, hard work is nearly always on top of the list. After all, many of us were taught by our parents [...]