proved to beat the competition, and four questions a shop owner should be asking: (1) How can I better select, train and equip our staff? (2) What internal processes can I improve? (3) What additional or new value can I deliver to customers, and (4) How can I improve our financial performance and output? On better selecting, training and equipping staff, he told the shop owners in the audience that most of them already knew there were people on their staff who were not top performers. He said to compete in today's very challenging market, a shop can no longer afford to have less than top performing personnel. To win, a shop simply has to have better people than the competition. A shop owner has to face up to eliminating poor performers and paying what it takes to get the top people who can enable the shop to win. To determine what internal processes need to be improved, he noted that many shops still function on 1952 processes and technician expectations. He said that today a top technician should be able to turn out $250,000 a month for a shop. He said
the old paradigm of a manager telling a top technician how to do his job is more than obsolete. He says every tech should be capable of watching for continuous improvement and adding his or her knowledge and experience to help the shop win. On the element of a “value proposition,” Baker provided an extensive printout of items for a shop owner to consider. In his shops, he says, they don't bother to fight insurance companies or adjusters. He says the game of maximizing the estimate is not the way to win. He agrees with the “lean procedures” philosophy that there is a massive amount of waste and inefficiency in most shops. By removing these impediments to success, he says a shop should be able to provide customers with greater speed, higher quality and lower cost. Finally, on financial performance, he emphasized that a top winning shop owner should know how to read the shop's financial statements and balance sheets and how to fine-tune leading indicators—not lagging indicators—to continuously correct for changes in our volatile economy and still come out ahead.
VW, Suzuki Partnership on Thin Ice
A two-year partnership between German giant Volkswagen AG and Japan’s nimble Suzuki Motor Corp. appeared to be unraveling shortly after the Japanese company’s chairman said communications had broken down, according to the Detroit News. “Volkswagen is not talking to us,” Chairman Osamu Suzuki told Bloomberg News in an interview. “We have no plans to talk to them.” His comments follow months of disparaging remarks by VW officials about the Japanese company’s attitude and retorts from their counterparts at Suzuki about VW’s overbearing manner. “Relations between the two firms have been tense from the start and have seemingly deteriorated even further,” said Tim Urquhart, a London-based analyst at IHS Automotive. In 2009, when VW acquired 19.9 percent of Suzuki for 222.5 billion yen, or $2.9 billion, the deal was viewed as a coup for the German automaker. It was expected to gain access to the low-cost carmaking technology that has made Suzuki a leader in India.
The two companies said they intended to cooperate on technology, including hybrids and electric cars, and vehicles for emerging markets. But almost two years later, no joint projects have been announced. Surprisingly, Suzuki decided in June to order diesel engines from Fiat SpA of Italy. Some analysts sensed strains from the outset, as Suzuki stressed that it wanted to remain independent. According to Bloomberg, the latest tensions were sparked by VW’s reference to Suzuki in its annual report as an “associate” that it could significantly influence. VW sold 7.2 million vehicles in 2010, more than double Suzuki’s 2.6 million unit sales in its last fiscal year, including 1.1 million in India. “Suzuki really needs a big manufacturer behind it, so the effect of a withdrawal would be far worse for them,” said Aleksej Wunrau, a Frankfurt, Germany-based analyst at BHF Bank AG. “Volkswagen could very well step back from Suzuki and either seek another partner or start afresh on their own in Japan and India.”
www.autobodynews.com | OCTOBER 2011 AUTOBODY NEWS 25