Collision Repair 9#6

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Viva Las Vegas!

Harold Carlaw’s passion for the industry inspired two generations. His tribute to Canada’s military should inspire us all.

All the glitz and glam from NACE and SEMA.

>> PLUS Steve Leal

becomes COO of Fix Auto Canada, Bill Stanzeleit joins LJ Peters and much more!

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CONTENTS

On The cover Volume 9 Issue 6, January 2011

27 The CarlaW LEGACY Harold Carlaw’s passion for the industry inspired two generations. His tribute to Canada’s military should inspire us all.

27

features 07 VIVA Las Vegas! The glitz and glam from this year’s NACE and SEMA. 10 Real world PCE The sights from AkzoNobel’s latest Acoat Selected meeting in Montreal.

24 Ken Friesen on Lean

A conversation with one of Canada’s most active process innovators.

30 Learning Experience For Mandie Steen, a studious approach can go a long way.

Harold Carlaw, 1930-2010.

32 50 years strong Carlson Body Shop Supply celebrates 50 years with a 1950s-theme gala.

Above: the T33 Training Jet that sits beside Campbellford Auto Body.

42

37 Fresh air What’s new in the world of air compressors.

42 Fresh Filters

Mandie Steen

Tips on keeping that fresh air fresh once everything else is in place.

departments

30 On the Cover:

Three generations of Carlaws in the collision repair industry.

04 Publisher’s page by Darryl Simmons The big picture.

44 Point Blank by Sam Piercey Bright idea.

46 Prairie View by Tom Bissonnette Labour negotiations.

YOUR ONLINE SOURCE

Canada’s collision repair information resource.

New articles and top news stories daily.

Visit collisionrepairmag.com.

48 Who’s driving? by Jay Perry Managing success.

50 Recycling by David Gold Seeking opportunity.

HAVE YOUR SAY We welcome your comments on anything you see in Collision Repair magazine. Send your feedback to editor@collisionrepairmag.com.

54 Last Word by Joe Rayment Compensation.

january 2011 collision Repair 03

publisher’s page

thebigpicture A tribute to Harold Carlaw and what’s great about the industry.

PUBLISHER DARRYL SIMMONS (905) 370-0101 publisher@collisionrepairmag.com

By Darryl Simmons

I

t was recently my honour and privilege to meet Harold Carlaw, the subject of this issue’s cover story. Harold epitomizes the reason Collision Repair magazine was started nearly a decade ago. His is a story of accomplishment, of passion and of a lasting legacy that now spans three generations of collision repair professionals. His is also a story of a commitment to ideals, to ethics and integrity.

Sadly, Harold passed away as this issue was going to press. He did however get to see the story and cover. He said he was humbled. That was Harold’s style.

source of pride for the community and an amazing story fellow collision repairers can and should celebrate.

In our industry, there are as many good stories out there as there are shops. Perhaps even more.

Unfortunately, the vast majority never get told. But we at Collision Repair are committed to our founding premise and are constantly searching out and delivering as many of these stories as possible.

Every time I meet a facility owner or manager, I get a reminder of how rich and colourful this industry is.

H

arold carlaw epitomizes the good in our industry.

It was only by chance I stumbled on Harold’s story. After buying a farm in Campbellford, Ontario (an area also familiar to John Kotsopoulos of Audatex), I started researching the area.

What better place (at least for me) than the local collision repair facilities. The name Carlaw kept popping up.

Dave Carlaw, Harold’s son, also from Campbellford, is world-renowned for his replica cars, sold across the world and used in many Hollywood movies. Sons Lew and Terry owned local shops and Kevin owns Kawartha Carstar in nearby Peterborough. It was apparent Campbellford and the Carlaws had a pretty good story to tell.

Then I found out Harold had spent his “retirement” building a museum dedicated to Canada’s military. It was a

Collision repairers are under constant pressure to deliver with factory-like precision. Sometimes—most times—we spend so much energy in the business that it’s easy to lose sight of the big picture.

Every once in a while it’s important to stand back and take some precious time to reflect on why you’re in this industry to begin with.

There’s a myriad of reasons, but pride and passion seem to be front runners.

Read about Harold and the Carlaws.

Then take a moment and be proud of the individuals, yourself included, who make up this great industry. CRM

For more on the industry’s latest and greatest news visit

>>>

04 collision Repair collisionrepairmag.com

EDITOR JOE RAYMENT editor@collisionrepairmag.com assistant EDITOR Megan Ng megan@mediamatters.ca ART DIRECTOR DANIELA LUBERTO daniela@collisionrepairmag.com DESIGN ASSISTANTS NICOLE GYNGNA, NIKOLAY KOLESNIKOV COLUMNISTS DAVID GOLD, JAY PERRY, SAM PIERCEY, TOM BISSONNETTE VP INDUSTRY RELATIONS GLORIA MANN (647) 998-5677 advertising@collisionrepairmag.com VP DIGITAL MEDIA JOE PLATI (647) 669-2625 jplati@mediamatters.ca SUBSCRIPTION One-year $24.95 / Two-year $35.95

Collision Repair ™ magazine is published bi-monthly, and is dedicated to serving the business interests of the collision repair industry. It is published by Media Matters Inc. Material in Collision Repair magazine may not be reproduced in any form with out written consent from the publisher. The publisher reserves the right to refuse any advertising and disclaims all responsibilities for claims or statements made by its advertisers or independent columnists. All facts, opinions, statements appearing in this publication are those of the writers and editors themselves, and are in no way to be construed as statements, positions or endorsements by the publisher.

PRINTED IN CANADA ISSN 1707-6072 CANADA POST CANADIAN PUBLICATIONS MAIL SALES PRODUCT AGREEMENT No. 40841632 RETURN POSTAGE GUARANTEED Send change of address notices and undeliverable copies to: 86 John Street Thornhill, ON L3T 1Y2

Collision Repair magazine is published by Media Matters Inc., publishers of:

Trainingmatters.ca T H E T RA I N I N G P O RTA L F O R C O L L I S I O N R E PA I R

magazine

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features 1 Athena Hilts, Sylvia Roccia

and Jamie Rodrigues.

2 Nancy Ng, Desmond

D’Silva and Cathy Strong.

3 Brad Desaulniers checking

out last month’s issue of Collision Repair.

4 Sharon Wells, Tom Bissonnette and Nancy Ng. 5 Don Morton and Justin Haas.

6 Mindy Kaltiainen, Flavio Battilana and Joe Plati.

2

1

3

&

to

Fabulous

4

NACE SEMA

By Joe Rayment

5

N

The glitz and glam from this year’s Las Vegas collision repair events.

ACE and SEMA were separate events this year for the first time in a long time, but by all accounts both were successes in their own rights.

Automotive Service and Repair Week (ASRW), which consists of both the NACE and CARS expos, brought in 16,289 to Las Vegas this year.

They’ve already begun preparations for next year’s event.

“We extend our sincere gratitude and appreciation to the loyal vendors, attendees, speakers, participants and supporters for a solid 2010 event,” said ASA president and

chief staff executive Ron Pyle in a post-expo message. “Thank you for the team effort that went into this year’s event. We look forward to another great event in 2011.”

Among the highlights of the week were the ASRW industry forums, which brought together a panel of experts to discuss issues such as industry standardization, parts certification and managing a diverse labour force.

The panel took questions from the audience, which they encouraged people to send in via text messages.

SEMA, as always, was a sight to behold.

The 800,000 sq. ft. show floor played host to more than 100,000 attendees and 1,800

6

exhibitors—everyone from funny car champion John Force to Snoop Dogg were in attendance.

The new product spotlight alone featured more than 2,000 entries. Canadians were well represented at the event. Aside from the throngs of Canucks in attendance both as guests and exhibitors, Quebec company Sun-Spot won the SEMA Global Media Award for having one of the best products at this year’s show.

The desert dust is still settling now that both events have drawn to a close, but it’s safe to say that we’re all looking forward to seeing how 2011 can top this year’s festivities. CRM

january 2011 collision Repair 07

features

7

8

10

11

14

15

16

17

16 17 18 19 20 21

Tom Perry and Vicki Ridgway.

Jerry Snyder.

Bob Leibel, Steve Leal and Serge LeBlanc.

Gloria Mann and Clint Boyer.

John Franken and Ed Velez.

Mark Hebbeler, Satoru Iwata and Gary Glass.

08 collision Repair collisionrepairmag.

9

12

13 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

Tom Langton, Johon Gibbons and Craig Ross.

Mike and Patricia Srigley.

Paul Tracey making an appearance at the Mitchell booth.

The band at the CIF’s fund raiser.

Jeffrey Schroder, Roger Schroder and Mike Kovacs.

John Kotsopoulos and Jean Francios Garoya.

Roger Turmel playing some craps at Garmat’s Speakeasy.

David Sewell.

Melissa Fochs, Jonathan Barrick and Karen Winter.

18

19 21

20

Why be anonymous when you can be visible? fixauto.com

TO JOIN THE NETWORK CALL 1.877.344.4349 Untitled-1 1

THE BODY SHOP NETWORK

6/16/09 12:00:10 PM

features

The general session PCE customer panel at AkzoNobel’s Acoat Selected conference in Montreal.

AkzoNobel looks at ‘PCE, the reality’ at latest Acoat Selected meeting.

A

kzoNobel recently hosted some of their top customers at their latest Acoat Selected conference at the Hotel Nelligan in Montreal.

The theme of the three-day conference this time around was “PCE, the reality.”

AkzoNobel introduced their Process Centered Environment (PCE) program at the meeting in 2006. Two years later, they shared members’ progress in starting and expanding PCE concepts, principles and tools within the organizations.

This year, their focus turned to sharing their successes in integrating PCE throughout their facilities and sustaining the momentum for continuous improvement.

The first day of the conference kicked off with Regional Performance Group meetings followed that evening by the official Welcome reception. The following morning consisted of the general session,

10 collision Repair collisionrepairmag.com

where they focused on the progress of PCE in the collision repair industry and a panel discussion with facilities on the PCE journey. Members also gleaned insights from the “World’s First Lean Dentist” on how to advance more effectively and quickly.

The conference also had its share of fun in the agenda. At the end of day two, attendees split up into groups for the Old Montreal Amazing Rally.

In the adapted version of TV’s Amazing Race, groups set course and scoured the historic streets of Old Montreal for clues and answers using skills such as communication, creativity, observation and coordination.

The meeting concluded with success roundtables where small groups of Acoat Selected members rotated through presentations of reallife examples of implemented PCE initiatives, and insights from AkzoNobel on how to progress along the journey. CRM

features Amazing Rally yellow team: Harris from Cochrane Image, Randy from Walkerton~CSN, Randy from Myers Carstar and Amy from AkzoNobel.

Amazing Rally green team: Mike from Industrial Park~CSN, Brian from Carcraft Carstar and Louis from AkzoNobel.

Diana from CR NO1, Stewart from AkzoNobel and Tony from Koebel’s Carstar.

Welcome reception: Gary from Reflections~ CSN, Steve from Morinville Auto Body and Koos from AkzoNobel.

The Amazing Rally Red Team: Connie from Koch Ford, Michel from AkzoNobel and Jeff from Jones Autobody~CSN.

Alice and Paul from AutoMind.

Group dinner: Albert from Blue Mountain Collision~CSN, John from Hutten Collision~CSN and Stewart from AkzoNobel.

Group dinner: MC presenting an award to Cassandra from Koch Ford and Brandon from CARS Auto Collision~CSN.

Rosie from Mervyn’s and Jerry from Crowfoot Image.

The keynote speaker at the general session.

january 2011 collision Repair 11

news

Bill Stanzeleit joins LJ Peters

LJ Peters’s Bill Stanzeleit.

Bill Stanzeleit recently joined the team at LJ Peters.

LJ Peters Warehouses Ltd has been serving Western Canada’s jobbers since 1969. Founded by Len Peters, the company became one of the first collision repair supply specialist warehouses in Canada. With headquarters in Calgary, Peters operates warehouses in four locations: Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg. They distribute a number of supply lines to Canadian repairers including products from Steck.

Over the past two months Peters has hosted a series of jobber summits. Speakers at the Ottawa Summit, held September 27-28, included: • Greg Benckart: PPG general manager, refinish, United States and Canada;

• Jean-Guy Rosa: PPG director of refinish, Canada; • Marc Bonneau: 3M sales manager, Wester n Canada; • Micheal Gray: Caruk and Associates, Western Canadian sales manager; • And Larry Bergmann: Specialty Product Sales International, general manager.

Highlights from that meeting included a chance encounter with Governor General Michaëlle Jean while on a tour of Rideau Hall.

Peters also hosted four summits in wester n Canada, including Vancouver (October 19), Winnipeg (October 22), Edmonton (October 26) and Calgary (October 28).

Automotive service and Repair week’s Industry Forum proves successful Several hundred attendees engaged in a lively discussion with leaders across the automotive industry at the new ASRW Industry Forum. The forum concluded the first day of education at ASRW 2010 and featured, among others, “Certified Collision Repair—An Industry Perspective” for

collision repair professionals.

“We couldn’t be happier with the attendance, participation and response to this new event,” said Ron Pyle, ASA president and chief staff executive. “It was the perfect start to a great week, and we appreciate everyone—the panelists, the

sponsors and the attendees—who made this event a success.”

Each moderated session featured panelists representing cross sections of the automotive service and repair industry.

Panelists included facility owners, association leaders and insurance professionals.

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news

Canadian company brings competition to California PartsCheck Live, a live, online, real-time quote and bid system for the collision parts marketplace, recently announced its Northern California launch.

Effective immediately PartsCheck will initiate service throughout a network of collision repair facilities and auto parts suppliers in the San Francisco Bay Area.

PartsCheck is entering the region after conducting successful market trials earlier this year.

“We remain committed to providing a platform for true and open competition to the market,” says PartsCheck CEO Brad Desaulniers.

“Our critical examination of the collision parts marketplace over the past three years of research and development has shown that we can deliver a unique set of benefits with a zero-cost, open platform that

and suppliers in real time.

Ultimately, it levels the playing field and allows participants to engage in a truly competitive market for the first time.”

Amica Insurance ran a series of successful field trials of the PartsCheck system in Texas earlier this year.

Where PartsCheck differs significantly from other online parts procurement platforms is in its real-time market pricing, as opposed to list price information.

The system integrates with major estimating engines, and does not conflict with existing facility management software. Visit PartsCheckLive.com for more informa-

anyone can join and use connecting multiple shops

tion on the PartsCheck platform.

NEW

Presenting the Collision Repair Premium Pack Collision Repair magazine is pleased to introduce a new way to save money for your shop—the Collision Repair Premium Pack. Available in select areas initially, each envelope will be packed with money-saving coupons from your valued suppliers. Delivered with the most respected

The PartsCheck Live interface, which includes the ability to speak to a variety of suppliers in real time to get quotes.

and well-read magazine in the industry, the Collision Repair Premium Pack is guaranteed to help your business’s bottom line.

For more information please email Joe Plati at jplati@ mediamatters.ca or visit collisionrepairmag.com.

Y O U R

B U N D L E

O F

S A V I N G S .

january 2011 collision Repair 13

news

Steve Leal becomes Fix Auto Canada’s COO

Fix Auto’s newly appointed COO Steve Leal.

President of Fix Auto Canada Manon Duplantie recently announced that Steve Leal has accepted the position of COO for Fix Auto Canada.

Leal will take up the newly defined position that reflects Fix Auto’s preparation for its new phase of lean process implementation and uniformity of operational procedures across Canada.

“Steve’s exceptional operational abilities combined with his track record of outstanding leadership, executive strategic business initiatives and in-depth

knowledge of our industry will benefit the members of the Fix Auto network,” Fix said in their release announcing the appointment. “Leal plays a key role in the network development as he operates Fix Auto in Ontario, Atlantic and Alberta—his vision and hands-on experience has made him the ideal candidate for this new position that will enable the network to pursue its mission and continue to lead the way as innovators, always seeking solutions that respect the interests of all industry stakeholders.”

Jeff Patti joins PartsCheck Live P a r t s C h e c k L i v e a n n o u n c e d t h a t J e ff

physical damage catastrophe programs.

where he was involved in the F119, Space

Patti has joined their management group in the position of business development consultant.

Patti is the principal partner of Brandtley Automotive Consultants, LLC. He was a regional automobile physical damage manager for Amica Insurance where he managed Amica’s salvage rec o v e r y, d i re c t re p a i r a n d a u t o m o b i l e

Patti is the past chairman of the Collision Industry Conference Repair Standards Committee. He is an ASE-certified master technician, ASE-certified collision master technician, ASE-certified estimator and has attained Platinum status with I-CAR. Patti also has experience in the aerospace industry at Pratt and Whitney Aircraft in the mechanical systems and design area

Shuttle Main Engine and RL10 projects. He also served in the United States Army.

“We’re pleased that Mr Patti has chosen to work with PartsCheck at this time,” said PartsCheck CEO Brad Desaulniers.

“His contacts and experience reinforce and add to current management abilities and ongoing marketing and development initiatives.

14 collision Repair collisionrepairmag.com

Wanda Makes a Splash.

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Wanda Waterbase — Smart Look. Smart Choice!

For additional information and availability in your area, visit us at www.wandarefinish.com

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news

Tom Bissonnette, Sharon Wells and Nancy Ng honoured at ASRW Awards Luncheon

“Our Focus is Spray Booth Filters!”

The Automotive Service Association (ASA) recently honoured some of its members as they earned the AMI’s Accredited Automotive Manager designation.

Among the honourees were Collision Repair columnist and owner of Parr Auto Body Tom Bissonnette, Collision Clinic general manager Sharon Wells, who we recently featured as a cover story, and Nancy Ng, who most recently appeared in the magazine when AkzoNobel announced they’d appointed her their strategic accounts manager for Canada.

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Sharon Wells, Tom Bissonnette and Nancy Ng celebrating their graduation.

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18 collision Repair collisionrepairmag.com

LKQ Corporation has announced that it has completed the acquisition of Canadian aftermarket parts distributor Cross Canada.

The acquisition is a part of a number of transactions LKQ has made since the start of the fourth quarter of 2010.

A c c o r d i n g t o t h e c o m p a n y, t h e acquired businesses facilitate the geographic expansion of LKQ’s operations across Canada, provide an entry into the engine remanufacturing industry, expand its wholesale collision product lines, and add new wholesale recycling and self-service retail locations. On a combined basis, the acquired businesses announced have annual revenue of approximately $100 million.

The acquisitions include: • Cross Canada: aftermarket parts distributor to the collision industry with operations in five Canadian provinces: Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario and Saskatchewan; • PROFormance Power Train: an engine remanufacturer with production facilities in Springfield, Missouri; • SPI Distribution: an aftermarket heating and cooling system parts distributor that specializes in radiators, air coolers and other related parts;

• and Best Bumper: a large bumper remanufacturing facility in the Dallas, Texas area.

“The transactions we announced today support our strategic priorities,” said Joseph Holsten, president and CEO of LKQ. “Combining the Canadian acquisitions with our existing operations in Canada provides LKQ with a geographic presence in each province from British Columbia to Quebec and forms the foundation for further expansion in Canada. The acquisition of PROFormance integrates with our engine product line, harnessing one of our competitive strengths—access to automotive drive-train equipment eligible to be rebuilt. The other transactions expand LKQ’s presence in related product lines including coolant and heating supplies, increase our bumper reconditioning capacity, and provide distribution points in new and existing markets,” Holsten continued.

“We have been able to continue LKQ’s growth story and make meaningful acquisitions. So far this year we have completed a record number of acquisitions and will likely execute additional transactions before 2010 is over.”

news

McDermott’s wins AutocheX’s top award AutocheX, Mitchell International’s customer experience management service, honoured collision repair facilities from throughout Canada and the US at the ninth annual Premier Achiever Awards ceremony held at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas in conjunction with NACE. The Premier Achiever Award recognizes top-performing facilities that use the AutocheX service to measure customer satisfaction. A new “Star Award” introduced this year honours facilities that have demonstrated consistent excellence in customer satisfaction over a six-year period.

“We are extremely proud of the 2010 Premier Achiever Award winners,” said Jason

• Dependable Auto Body (Staton Island, New York); • Kniesel’s Collision Center of Citrus Heights (Citrus Heights, California); • Larkfield Body and Paint (Santa Rosa, California); • Phil’s Body Works (Hewlett, New York); • and Rockland County Auto Body (Haverstraw, New York).

Other Canadian winners of Premier Achiever Awards included Ladner Auto Body,

Some of BC’s top shops being honoured on stage at Mitchell’s AutocheX Premier Achiever Awards.

Meadowridge Collision, Sunnyside Autobody, Sunshine Auto Body, Bodycraft Collision, Craftsman Collision, Don’s Auto Body and Grandcity Autobody.

Bertellotti, vice president of Mitchell Repair Solutions. “It’s a privilege to sponsor this program for the ninth year to recognize the hard work and dedication of the top-performing collision repair facilities in North America for customer service and satisfaction. These shops are clearly committed to providing the best possible vehicle repair experience for their customers. Their efforts have resulted in truly impressive levels of customer satisfaction and loyalty-deserving of special recognition.”

The class of 2010 Premier Achievers includes collision repair facilities of all sizes, from small, family-run businesses to large consolidators. Since Mitchell launched the award program in 2002, AutocheX has presented over 2,700 Premier Achiever Awards to industry-leading collision repair facilities.

“Satisfying customers consistently is a critical factor in building customer loyalty and driving long-term success,” Bertellotti said.

“It’s very appropriate to recognize these facilities that have set the bar extremely high for consistent performance over time. We congratulate these Star Award winners on their exceptional accomplishment.”

Mitchell awards the Star Award to collision repair facilities that have won the Premier Achiever Award for six consecutive years, 2005 through 2010. Only nine shops—out of nearly 500 Premier Achiever Award winners—qualified to win the award in 2010.

• McDermott’s Body Shop Ltd. (Vancouver, British Columbia); • Baker Body & Glass (Concord, North Carolina); • Collex Collision of Flourtown (Flourtown, Pennsylvania); • Darrell’s Paint & Body, Inc. (Vero Beach, Florida); january 2011 collision Repair 19

news

Fix Auto unveils new facility management software at SEMA

Bob Leibel, Steve Leal and Serge LeBlanc during the official release of ABS Enterprise.

Steve Leal, Fix Auto president of Ontario, Alberta and Atlantic Canada, announced the official release of their ABS Enterprise management system in Las Vegas at SEMA. The system, developed in conjunction with Mitchell International and Sherwin-Williams Automotive Finishes, is capable of measuring paint usage, actual cost and sold amount of paint materials in progress on every repair done in shop much more scientifically than in the past. It can

the interface allows for two-way communication.

With ABS Enterprise in place, a facility manager can extract information such as the average paint cost per repair and compare to the industry averages in real time. If your numbers are high, you’ll know there’s an area you can improve to bring your costs down to industry par.

“It goes to the heart of lean—you can’t be lean if you can’t measure your costs,” Leal said. “There is a sense of ‘anti trust’ associated with the collision repair industry [from consumers and insurers]. This system will reveal administrative costs and what is the actual cost of paint supplies to fix a car. You can double check information for verification—it will be true transparency.”

Everything in the system is documented in real time.

track the liquid amounts used including costs on a specific type of paint or primer by day, week, month or year.

Aside from providing transparency, the system tabulates what amounts are needed to the tee, the time required to complete a job and labour costs you’ll need to invest to execute an order. This is possible because

Facility owners and paint suppliers input and update information live, which they can then share with other facilities. If shop owners can see costs on paint supplies increasing or decreasing in real-time, they can budget paint material costs and for other materials and labour costs by comparing their stats against others. It can also automatically generate emails when supplies are in need of re-stocking.

WIN’s career centre now open to the public The Women’s Industry Network (WIN) recently added a career centre feature to their website, which is now open to the entire automotive industry.

WIN’s career centre offers an opportunity to post your resume for employment, or if you

are on the other side of the desk, post your company’s job openings.

“We are pleased to bring this new feature to our members as well as to the entire automotive repair industry,” said Mary Kunz, WIN board member and communications

committee co-chair. “It is WIN’s hope that through our website we can help connect job seekers with employers and bring value to both. We especially encourage women seeking positions within the industry to utilize this centre as part of their job search.”

!

W NE

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news

Collision Clinic named “Outstanding Business of the Year”

Sharon Wells and Glenn Hickey accepting the award for Outstanding Business of the Year 2010.

Collision Clinic was recently honoured with the coveted award at the Best in Business Awards Banquet held by the Mount Pearl Chamber of Commerce.

“We were nominated along with other very fine local businesses, so we were especially proud to be presented with this award,” said Collision Clinic owner Glenn Hickey.

“Collision Clinic evolved from humble

beginnings when I converted my parent’s cow barn into a four-car body shop in 1978. I pass on full credit to Sharon Wells and the focused and passionate staff at Collision Clinic. Their relentless pursuit of cutting-edge technology along with their passion for continuous improvement has enabled me to far exceed the vision I set out to accomplish in those early days. I am so very proud of them.”

Goff’s Enterprises acquires Tiger Wall

ICBC’s MDRT becomes Collision Repair Learning Centre

G o ff ’s E n t e r p r i s e s h a s a n nounced the acquisition of Tiger Wall, a division of Thatcher Oaks of Elmhurst, Illinois.

Tiger Wall manufactures curtain wall systems for auto body facilities. According to Goff, the acquisition will expand Goff’s presence in the automotive repair

The Insurance Corporation of British Columbia’s Material Damage Research and Training facility (MDRT) is moving into its next phase, which comes with a new name: Collision Repair Learning Centre.

ICBC will be offering a series of online courses to provide

market as well as enhance Goff’s ongoing growth as an industrial space partitioning manufacturer.

“This strategic acquisition fits with our business model by allowing us to create a wider distribution reach,” said Tony Goff, president of Goff’s Enterprises, Inc.

repairers with flexible training options. This initiative is the result of recommendations made by the crown corporation’s collision industry training committee. The courses will include sessions aimed at customer service and estimating staff who are new to the industry.

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22 collision Repair collisionrepairmag.com

features

Lean

Him on

A conversation with Ken Friesen, one of Canadian collision repair’s most renowned lean practitioners.

Interview by Joe Rayment

A

lmost six years ago exactly, Ken Friesen changed everything at Concours Collision Centres. The way he puts it, he blew everything up and started reinventing. Since then he’s developed a continent-wide reputation for being creative and relentlessly persistent when it comes to reducing waste in his Calgary operations.

Collision Repair recently had a chance to sit down with Ken to pick his brain on his views regarding what’s effective and what isn’t when it comes to process improvement.

Q A

What can people do if they want to embrace lean concepts in their businesses today?

Everybody at this point is really caught up in the tools of lean—the reorganization, what’s become known as the 5S principles. People are starting to get that part put together and are starting to create some flow in their facilities.

Is any of this stuff bad? No, it’s great. The tools are important. But what’s happening is that these people are getting these tools into the facility, getting a semblance of organization, and they think they’re done.

Well, that’s just the very basic start of what lean is all about.

The whole principle of lean is that it’s something you do, not something that’s done.

Lean is about the process of ongoing improvement. So when we put the tools in place it’s just to give yourself some type of stable process to build on. Once you have that, you can start looking at where the variations are in the system and see a little more clearly where you need to go to improve.

24 collision Repair collisionrepairmag.com

features

Q A Q A

Are lean seminars and conferences of value, in your opinion?

Any type of learning you can get is good. If you really want to be a lean practitioner, and you want to improve your business, anything you can possibly take in is going to be of value.

Are there any books on lean that you’d recommend collision repairers look into?

us. We literally changed the end-to-end process—from the moment the customer walks in the doors to the moment he comes back and picks the car up, we changed that entire process.

I would not recommend that for most people, but I had the right people to help me.

We started out putting the tools together, and then trying to understand how those tools work and how they fit together, and that’s when we started to realize that this stuff was giving us information.

Q A

One of the best books to help somebody get an idea about process improvement and process change is not really about lean at all.

It’s about something called TOC—the Theory of Constraints— written by a fellow by the name of Eliyahu M. Goldratt. He wrote The Goal, which is one of the best sources I’ve found for understanding what process improvement can do and about creating some flow in your facility.

One of the most recent books I’ve read is called Toyota Kata by

“The whole principle of lean is that it’s something you do, not something that’s done.”

What else was important to moving beyond that beginning phase?

We had the consistency to what we did every day to just follow the process—to follow the rules just like a sports game. Now we could see: “the cars keep backing up in reassembly,” or “at the spray booth the cars aren’t able to flow through properly.”

So we could then go in and look at that specific area, make a specific improvement, and then watch it to see if it actually helped throughout the entire operation.

That’s where a lot of people get hung up. They’re running around in their facilities making improvements all over the place, not knowing if it actually helps get one more car a day through the facility.

When you get the lean tools in place, you’ve got that consistency. Now you can actually make those changes and see if it is allowing you to make more money or put more cars out of your facility. Because really at the end of the day, that’s what lean’s all about. CRM

Mike Rother. I just last week was in Detroit at Michigan University for three days. Rother had a one-day seminar there and a two-day workshop at a company called Detroit Diesel—an amazing, huge company. We went in there and we learned about Kata.

This concept is what he wrote about. It’s about creating a culture— and a whole structure of thinking—about continual improvement.

The main thing about this Toyota Kata is that it helps you to think your way through a whole problem and how you do things.

Q A

Can you tell us a bit about your own journey through process improvement?

We began six years ago—November 15, 2004.

We spent the first week process mapping and understanding the current-state process, and then designing the future-state process.

It was all board room work—really understanding where we were and where we were going.

By the end of the first week we had mapped out what the futurestate was going to look like and by Friday afternoon we were down on the floor creating a workflow process—in other words moving the shop around, reorganizing things and creating this whole new process that we had designed in the earlier part of the week.

Now I will say that these were the tools; we started by putting these in place.

Over the second week we actually tried to make these tools work.

It was a bumpy road, but we got a few things working and cars started to flow through the facility.

We had a couple of guys in who were helping us to do this. They left at the end of the second week, and it was up to us from that point on.

It was a struggle for quite a few months trying to understand how these tools actually work. We burned all the bridges behind january 2011 collision Repair 25

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profiles of success

Harold’s History

By Joe Rayment

Harold Carlaw’s passion for the industry inspired two generations. His tribute to Canada’s military should inspire us all.

Harold Carlaw on the airboat he built as a young man.

january 2011 collision Repair 27

profiles of success

Right: Harold and Eilean Carlaw in front of one of the planes in Harold’s collection.

Opposite page, top-left: The NA-64 Yale trainer that used to sit atop Campbellford Auto Body.

They eventually sold the plane to the Swedish government for display in a museum.

Lower-left: The airboat Harold built as a youngster. It was the first in the area licensed for the river system.

Far-right: Harold with one of the projects he’s built from the ground up, including, of course, its complicated paint job.

F

rom a bird’s eye view, the area around Harold Carlaw’s home looks distinctly military—like a photo taken by a passing spy plane, in fact.

There are three buildings on the site: Harold’s home, Campbellford Auto Body— the business he ran for years before selling to his son David—and the Memorial Military Museum, which Harold has dedicated himself to in the 30 years since he retired from collision repair.

Scattered across the site are several war planes.

“It’s been a passion,” Harold said. “Especially for the airplanes, as you can see.”

Harold does have an aerial image of the site in his collection, but he didn’t need a spy plane to take it. Much of his family inherited Harold’s interest in aviation, so snapping the bird’s eye photo was fairly easy to arrange.

Harold’s family has followed in his footsteps in more than one regard—all four of his sons and several grandchildren have followed in him to collision repair or a related trade. After spending some time with Harold, it’s easy to see why he’s had such a strong influence on those around him; his skills suit auto body repair, but they run deeper than memorizing procedures. His talent is in his ingenuity, craftsmanship and care for the details.

As we flip through a photo album he keeps in the front room of the museum, Harold’s history—collecting his artifacts, developing his business and raising his family—flickers into view.

Campbellford Auto Body dates back to the early 1950s when Harold, still in his early 20s and just out of his apprenticeship, purchased the business and gave it its name.

Around the same time, he bought his first airplane. The time being what it was he broke it down into its valuable parts and sold it off for scrap. It was years before he kept one for himself.

‘I retired at 50, And I went back to work. So this is what I built.

It’s taken me until now.’

“It wasn’t until he got well established in his business that he started saying, ‘I don’t want to destroy this stuff and scrap it, I want to keep it and then start collecting it,” said Harold’s son David.

The photos in the album show Harold’s parallel interests at various points of merger.

In 1972, when his collision repair business was doing well enough that he could start keeping planes for their historical

28 collision Repair collisionrepairmag.com

value, he restored a WWII NA-64 Yale trainer and mounted it on the facility’s roof.

One of the photos in his collection shows the plane—bright yellow and marked with the RCAF emblem—angled as if on its ascent. It remained there for years until they eventually sold it to the Swedish government to display in a museum. Several years after the sale, David bought an NA-64 Yale just like it that he still flies today.

Another photo shows one of the grand children in a scale-model Spitfire that Harold built from aluminum and wood.

It’s been on display at the National Air Force Museum of Canada in Trenton for the last 25 years.

In the far right room of the museum is Harold’s scale model of the Avro Arrow. At 60 per cent the original’s size, it’s still 51 feet long—too big to see all of it at once from any angle that the room offers.

Growing up, all of Harold’s sons all worked at Campbellford Auto Body. As a testament to the influence he’s had on them, they remain spread across the region as operators of their own facilities.

When I ask Harold about his family’s involvement in the business he begins shuffling through his desk. Eventually he proudly passes over a small stack of business cards—the family businesses.

Among them: Tech-Net Professional Auto Service (now Terry Enterprises Automotive Repair), owned by Terry Carlaw; Lew Carlaw Auto Body, owned

by Lewis Carlaw; Kawartha Carstar Collision, owned by Kevin Carlaw ; and

profiles of success

Campbellford Auto Body and Prototype Research and Development Ltd, owned

by David Carlaw.

Of the Carlaw facilities, most were built or renovated by Reed Morton Construction, which is owned by Harold’s daughter Debbie and her husband.

Harold sold Campbellford Auto Body to David in the early 1980s. Around the same time David opened Prototype Research and Development, which still operates on the same lot.

Continuing in his father’s inventive spirit, Prototype builds a number of one-off vehicles for clients such as Universal Studios and the BC Lottery Corporation.

Among the vehicles, which they build from frame to finish, are the 1955/57 BelAir Convertible, the 1935 Auburn Boattal Speedster, the 1934 Mercedes 500K Roadster, the 1931 Duesenberg and the 1937 Cord Phaeton.

They also take on some more unusual projects including film and movie props.

A team of robotic gorillas Prototype built is currently touring around Canada as part of a Sony promotional campaign.

Whe n D av i d to ok ove r t he bus i ness Harold retired and focused full time on his growing collection of war memorabilia.

“I retired at 50 and I turned over the business here—Campbellford Auto Body—to David,” Harold said. “And at that time, I went back to work again instead of retiring. So this is what I built. It’s taken me until now.”

Step one for the museum was the building itself, which, like everything else he does, bears his fingerprints distinctly.

It’s supported by several large girders that run through the building and peak about four feet out from the roof—a design he seen earlier that intrigued him.

The front corner of the building is the reception area, home of Harold’s desk and the museum photo albums.

One albums is filled with photos of the people who’ve come to visit him—groups from schools, the Scouts, retirement homes and occasionally people with

Eilene and Harold Carlaw (front-centre) with their family in front of the T33 Training Jet in Harold’s collection. The Carlaws (from left): Darcy, Susan and Terry; Arlene (Whidden) and David; Corey, Debbie and Kevin; Joe, Matt and Lewis.

The rear room consists of the bulk of the collection: WWI and II uniforms, weapons, field instruments and documents too plentiful to take in all at once but each with an optional narration that Harold can deliver from memory.

In the back is Harold’s workshop, currently occupied by a 1952 army Jeep that’s still under construction. Harold is also rebuilding a 1942 army Jeep to original spec from scratch. He’s hand made his own tooling to help him complete this type of job.

direct connections to Harold’s collection.

The photo albums tell a story filled with diversity—people have come from around the world to share in and add to Harold’s histor y. A few constants come out clearly however: a respect for history, a love of design and craftsmanship, and, at the centre of everything, Harold Carlaw. CRM Harold Carlaw passed away shortly after we interviewed him for this story. It was an honour to meet him and play a small role in his remarkable story. january 2011 collision Repair 29

women of the industry

For Mandie Steen, a studious approach can go a long way.

M

By Joe Rayment

andie Steen grew up around Champlain Auto Body~CSN. Today, 25 years after her father took over the business, a lot of the staff remember her running around the facility as a child.

So when she finally joined the family business two years ago, she already had a good relationship with most of her co-workers.

And she thought she knew all the facility’s ins and outs.

“Oh my goodness,” Steen said. “I thought I’d walk in here and know everything about this business. I truly did.” As you could guess, that wasn’t the case. Two years later, she’s still learning every day. But she’s a good student and an active learner.

Since joining the Dieppe, New Brunswick collision repair facility she’s taken courses in estimating as well as French (Dieppe is a bilingual community). She has also become an active participant with many professional organizations—most recently she joined the Women’s Industry Network (WIN) on the advice of her colleagues.

“What’s [helped] me the most is staying involved,” Steen said.

“By that I mean staying involved with all the avenues and activities that are out there for us.”

Today, Steen is running the family business along side her brother, handling a range of duties including bookkeeping, customer service, HR and overseeing daily operations.

Business has never been better for Champlain Auto Body~CSN. Sales were up significantly last year compared with the year prior—which netted them the CSN Masters Award for top percentage of sales growth—and the facility is about to begin their journey toward a lean environment.

Steen has also been getting recognition in the industry for her work. About a year ago, she moved the operation to a paperless system, which has attracted other repairers to Champlain to see how they’ve implemented the system and how it’s working.

“We signed up with Summit in 2005, [but] when I walked in here they were using probably five per cent of its capabilities,” Steen said. So she took it upon herself to learn its ins and outs and figure out ways she could integrate it into their repairs.

“We set up dual monitors, and now instead of printing an assignment—which we used to do every single time we received one—we have it up on our screen,” Steen said. “We have eliminated the need to create a paper file.”

It also saves a significant amount of time when insurers call to check on a file—Champlain can send everything they have about a repair with a few clicks on a mouse.

The move fit into Champlain’s larger efforts to get ahead of the curve in terms of practice and processes. “Last year we started to see some results on paper and this year we really saw some results on paper,” Steen said. “[Which] goes to show that it’s working. So we’re at the point now where we’re looking to start something else….

Our long-term goal from here is to improve and learn and always be working on something to stay ahead of the industry, which is constantly changing.” CRM 30 collision Repair collisionrepairmag.com

Mandie Steen, Champlain Auto Body~CSN.

‘Our long-term goal from here is to improve and learn and always be working on something.’

Women’s Industry Network (WIN) is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to encouraging, developing and cultivating opportunities to attract women to collision repair while recognizing excellence, promoting leadership, and fostering a network among the women who are shaping the industry.

Collision Repair magazine is pleased to announce that Mandie Steen and every woman profiled in our Women of the Industry section will receive a membership to WIN.

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features

Dave Swenson and Chris Kikuchi.

From left to right: Bill Carlson Jr, Ron Carlson and Ted Bienvenue.

Louis McCaughan of BASF Canada.

From left to right: Dave Swenson, Gord Milford, Chris Kikuchi, Rob Neale, Hans Lengsfeld, John Robinson and Agit Bacchus.

Celebrating

50

T

with the

5 s

Carlson Body Shop Supply celebrates 50 years with a 1950s-theme gala.

o celebrate 50 years in business, Carlson Body Shop Supply Ltd. hosted a massive trade show and exhibition at the Edmonton Expo Centre in early October.

The trade show consisted of over 80 exhibitors that service the collision repair industry, representing well over 100 product lines. The products featured at the show covered all aspects of the repair process including a large selection of collision repair tools and equipment. Touring through the many booths in the large exhibition centre, one could find everything from basic 32 collision Repair collisionrepairmag.com

hand tools to the latest in resistance welders, spray equipment, air compressors and frame equipment technologies.

In addition to the industry-specific exhibitors, Carlson’s invited non-industry specific service providers to showcase their services including information technology providers, training institutions, and the Alberta Apprenticeship Board. There was definitely something for just about everyone at this trade exposition.

As the doors opened at 9:30am, there was an excitement in the air and in the line up out front waiting for the day to begin. With

features

over 600 guests registering and attending the trade show, the manufacturers in attendance commented that it was one of the best trade shows they had ever attended. Some even called it “NACE North.”

The trade show exhibits also showcased a wide array of hot rods and muscle cars courtesy of the Edmonton Hot Association and many Carlson customers—many of whom have an automotive passion that’s hard to match.

In addition to the trade show, Carlson also hosted a gala dinner and dance for over 550 invited guests. The guests consisted of past and present customers, staff, management and manufacturers. The large ballroom was decorated in a fifties theme and many of the guests showed up in 1950s attire. Slicked back hair, saddle shoes and poodle skirts were all in style. All were treated to a meal, dancing, and the opportunity to reconnect to past friends and industry colleagues. The celebration lasted well into the night. CRM

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A bit of history…

Founded in 1959 by Bill Carlson, Carlson Body Shop Supply Ltd is now one of the largest automotive refinish jobbers in Western Canada.

Started as a single location in downtown Edmonton before expanding into the up-and-coming Calgary marketplace and ultimately covering the entire province of Alberta.

The Carlson tradition was carried on by Bill’s sons and the reputation of the company quickly grew to be one of the most respected body shop supply companies in the province.

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january 2011 collision Repair 33 IBIS 2011 draft ads.indd 1

08/10/2010 15:50:39

Thriving

Lean that Lasts How Dana’s Collision~CSN brought their process forward and kept it there.

By Sasha Erfanian

R

educing waste in a collision repair facility is never a simple process—if it were, everyone would have done it by now and our industry would look like something out of the Jetsons. Some have made significant progress on this front however, even in the face of today’s challenging market conditions.

Among Canada’s business improvement standouts is Dana’s Collision Center~CSN. But they didn’t get there alone. Dana’s has received a considerable helping hand from AkzoNobel’s Process Centered Environment (PCE) program.

Dana’s has been around for over 30 years and has been at their current 8100 sq. ft. location at 369 Saint Marys Street, Fredericton for 23 years.

In that time, they’ve developed a widespread reputation for being friendly. If you tend to participate in Canadian industry events, there’s good chance you’ve had a conversation with owner Dana Alexander personally. And if you’ve had your vehicle repaired at Dana’s, there’s a good chance you left happy—the facility has won gold in the Daily Gleaner Reader’s Choice awards for the last ten years running.

They’re more than just friendly faces though. In 2007 Dana’s became one of the first Canadian facilities to go waterborne when they introduced AkzoNobel’s Sikkens Autowave.

They have also been using the PCE program for the past three years.

“We’ve noticed the process has helped our work flow, helped our efficiency and 34 collision Repair collisionrepairmag.com

Dana’s Collision Center~CSN— long beloved in its Fredericton, New Brunswick home.

Dana Alexander presenting a cheque for $1000—which they raised at their charity BBQ—to member of the Oromocto Legion Building Fund Committee John Mosher.

our productivity throughout the shop,” Alexander said. “It’s also made it a cleaner work environment with better practices all the way through the organization.”

The PCE program focuses on customer service, sustainability and real-world application of improved processes. It’s about making small changes day by day and staying vigilant in decreasing waste.

“It’s an ongoing thing,” Alexander said.

“We’re implementing it every day. The PCE process is a never-ending journey, really, because we’re always finding ways of improvement.”

The program is divided into five different stages: Explore, Start, Expand, Integrate and Continue.

Explore is about deciding what you need to change. During the Start phase you actually begin putting PCE into practice and encouraging your employees to be aware of what needs to be changed.

During Expand, you make sure everyone at the facility understands the program and you start tackling serious issues— not just the small stuff. The Integrate phase focuses on making the changes in your facility last by promoting constant vigilance for eliminating waste. And finally Continue, which is all about continued reinforcement of the PCE tools and training.

The hardest thing to do is to start.

Alexander and his people found that AkzoNobel helped them out a lot with those early days through their “Boot Camp” training sessions. They held these twoand-a-half day courses at DCR Systems in Mentor, Ohio, in DCR’s full-fledged process-centred facility.

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Photo on the right: The Dana’s team at a recent PCE training session. As you can see, everyone gets involved during these get-togethers.

Left: Community has always been important to Dana’s. After a local Legion burned down recently, Dana’s took up the challenge to help them rebuild. Here is the Dana’s team posing for a photo the day of their charity BBQ.

While there, attendees learn the basics of the PCE philosophy and the steps needed to stay on the right track during the journey.

Over the course of the Boot Camp the attendees from Dana’s Collision~CSN came across a number of other facilities similar to theirs facing many of the same challenges.

“We all have different challenges, but some of them are the same so we help one another through the processes,” Alexander said. “We’ve developed friendships over this, we’ve developed peer groups over this and it’s really helped us move our process forward.”

If you’re aware of Dana’s reputation in both the industry and the general public, you’ll know that they were already a pretty high performing operation. Their latest endeavour to become a cutting-edge facility will only bolster that.

It’s an ongoing process though—they’ve still got a lot of potential for growth and added efficiencies.

The way Alexander puts it, the system is easy to learn but difficult to master.

They’ve never had a lack of practice materials though.

“We’re always finding ways to improve the process, improve the workflow, improve the way we do things—it never stops,” he said.

Maintaining constant vigilance in finding waste is a big job—too much for any one person. Which is why employee empowerment is also a pillar of making a facility a process centred environment.

Dana’s has worked hard to make sure every employee up and down the organization grasps the underlying principles behind the changes they’ve been making.

Much of Dana’s staff have been with the company for years.

In front of the facility, set up for a celebration that would see participation both from the community and Dana’s partners in the industry.

“We’ve had a really good response from our employees,” Alexander said. “My employees are pushing harder now than ever before for change and they see the benefits of it. It’s affecting them, their work habits, their work flow and how things are done— so they’re happier. They’re very happy with the process.”

The end goal is increasing efficiency and profits, but the changes can also greatly increase your customers’ satisfaction levels, which is extremely important in the age of DRP. By speeding up the facility’s workflow, Dana’s was able to return their customers’ vehicles in a pre-accident condition faster.

They also created a situation that was easier to anticipate, eliminating a lot of the one-off problems that can plague collision repairers. Every one of those unexpected situations can lose a customer for life; going PCE for Dana’s was like performing a preemptive strike against the problem.

Customer satisfaction has always been a big part of Dana’s business, and since they introduced PCE they’ve only gotten better.

“We’ve noticed [an] increase in our ability to deliver on time and our ability to deliver a better product then we did before,” Alexander said.

“We always had a good product, but [now] I know we have a better product.

We track our customer satisfaction on a monthly basis and it keeps going up and up. We’ve hit 100 per cent for the last seven months.”

For more information on AkzoNobel and PCE visit AkzoNobel.com/cr. january 2011 collision Repair 35

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products

fresh Air Looking for a new air compressor?

Maybe you should be.

T

he basic idea behind air compressors hasn’t changed much. Scratch that. The basic idea hasn’t changed at all. Their first, last and only purpose is still to compress and deliver air.

There are today, however, several reasons you might be looking at an upgrade. One of the main ones for Canadians is that a waterborne facility can require a lot more air than an older compressor can reliably deliver. Even if you do have the capacity, air quality still might be an issue.

“One thing [with waterborne] is that air quality in air compressors systems is key and vital to not having costly redos,” said Paintline Products’ Jeremy Brown. For that, a rotary screw compressor helps. “With a screw system, air generally comes out cooler and dryer,” Brown said.

Aside from the waterborne issue, there are still plenty of reasons a facility might be looking for increased capacity.

“I think there’s still a trend toward larger shops,” said Kaeser Compressor’s Michael Chamber. “Some of the smaller shops are either going out of business or being purchased and subsumed

by larger shops. There’s that trend, and when that happens often they need new equipment because they’re expanding their overall capacity.”

One of the other reasons a facility might look at updating their compressor is noise, which a rotary screw system can also help.

“Nobody likes the noise,” said Bogdan Markiel of DV Systems.

In his experience, just about every person who comes through a facility would like a quieter compressor if they had the option.

Compared to a piston system, a rotary screw produces less vibration because it’s a relatively constant stream of air instead of many small bursts, which you’d see in a reciprocator system.

Less vibration means less noise.

Regardless of whether your system is new or old, it will always last longer and run better if you stay on top of maintenance.

“It’s important to have an ongoing maintenance program, which typically involves changing the oil—that type of thing,” Markiel said. “It’s very straight forward.”

Turn the page to see some of the latest technology in air compressors...

For Spraybake OEM parts service and technical support,

Call 1-866-325-2886

january 2010 collision Repair 37

products

DV Systems

Huron Rotary Screw Air Compressor

The single-phase 10 HP Huron Rotary Screw Compressor—designed and built with pride in Canada—offers 37 CFM at 145 psi.

The Huron is also available in 3 phase 200V, 230V, 460V and 575V. According to DV Systems, the compressor runs very quietly­—only 68 dBA—and has a maximum amp draw or 55 A. The system uses direct drive, which means no gears and improved efficiency. Its variable speed (VSD) control allows for a soft start ramp-up, which eliminates high start-up amp draw spike.

DV says the VSD will smoothly adjust the motor speed based on air demand to maximize energy efficiency. This system also features its VS20 controller with bright LCD display, a North American TEFC industrial electric motor, heavy-duty powder coated metal cabinet and 80 gallon receiver built to ASME codes and CRN registered.

> DVsystems.ca

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AirCenter

The AirCenter is a packaged compressed air systems complete with a Kaeser Sigma Profile rotary screw compressor, refrigerated air dryer, auto drain and optional filter—all mounted on a receiver tank. They arrive pre-assembled. Connect the power and air-line, and you have a fully operational compressed air system.

Compressor size ranges from 5 to 30 hp with maximum working pressures available from 80 to 205 psi. The compressor comes with a starter, aftercooler and sound attenuating enclosure. In addition to their compact size, they are very quiet.

The CFC-free refrigerated dryer delivers a consistent pressure dew point as low as 3°C. The package can be customized with filters that remove particles as small as .01 micron, oil aerosols and even oily smell or taste from the compressed air.

> Kaeser.ca

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Omega TK-5080V

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This heavy duty two-stage air compressor by Omega is highly efficient and appropriate for automotive as well as small industrial applications.

Its vertical orientation makes it easy to integrate into facilities where space is at a premium.

Its quiet operation will also make for a pleasant employee and customer experience.

This air compressor features a solid cast iron pump, stainless steel valves, splash-type lubrication and flywheel cooling for longer working life.

Every unit is tested before shipping. They are also available in a horizontal configuration (subtract the V from the part number).

> Paintline.ca 38 collision Repair collisionrepairmag.com

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product News

ChemSpec’s Metalux goes to Hollywood for Fast and Furious 5 Thanks to the team at Advanced Wholesale Distributors of Puerto Rico, Metalux went “Hollywood” to star as the paint on the race cars featured in the upcoming Fast and Furious 5 movie.

The film makers chose Metalux after closely considering its drying times and matching capability; imagine the pressures of filming budgets combined with the need for quick turn-around times on repair of the stunt vehicles. Particularly in vehicle intensive action films such as the Fast and Furious series, which feature vehicles that often get damaged in the stunts, it is vital to repair and get back to filming as soon as possible. Even more so in this case as the production team required many different refinishes and colour changes, as well as matting base finishes and some special effects that were made possible thanks to the technology the paint line offers.

During filming, many variations of colour were needed for the movie because it included some past signature colours from

previous exclusive models while introducing some new colours to be released with the movie in 2011. In the end, over 70 different cars were refinished with Metalux for the filming in Puerto Rico.

Full expert installation and support by Advanced Metalux on set at Fast and Furious 5.

Wholesale Distributors enabled Metalux mixing equipment and toners to actually be on the movie set, thus providing instant access to all colour tools. A Metalux-certified technician was also on set to demonstrate how user-friendly the system is.

The production team took most of the products with them to Atlanta, where the movie is scheduled to continue filming.

PPG’s Nexa Autocolor receives GM approval A new line of PPG Industries and Nexa Autocolor brand low-volatile organic compound (VOC) automotive refinish clears, primers and sealers has received North American approval by General Motors for warranty repairs on its vehicles.

The products are designed for use with Envirobase High

Performance or Nexa Autocolor brand Aquabase Plus waterborne basecoats. The approvals cover product lines including PPG’s EC700 series clears, ECP10 series primers and ECS20/ECS60 series sealers.

Also approved are NEXA AUTOCOLOR brand P190-6759/6790 clears, P565-314x/312x sealers and P565-540x primers.

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40 collision Repair collisionrepairmag.com

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42 collision Repair collisionrepairmag.com

It’s easy to overlook your booth’s filters, but maintaining them is crucial to working with waterborne. Here’s why.

By Keith Hayward, Servair Filters Inc.

F

ilters: the little things that can save you thousands of dollars a year.

Wow, what a crazy four-year journey this has been, running door to door into collision centres. I have been in over 400 facilities from East Toronto to the Hamilton Mountain.

I have been in facilities where you could eat off of the floor, and then into shops that I would not take my dog to for a haircut.

And do you know what? Eighty per cent of the shops push their filters too far. They consistently have to compound paint jobs and do not even realize how much time, money and production they are losing by not having clean filtered air entering their paint booths.

Do you realize every medium-sized compound job loses you about two hours of production, plus pads, electricity, compound and waxes, etc?

Not only that, but that prepper could have had those two hours to get the next vehicle ready for the painter.

Well, what does all this mean to you? How can you save time and money, and get better paint jobs?

First of all you must keep air flow equal in the booth, the same amount of air coming into the booth as the amount of air flowing out of the booth.

To maintain a good air flow, let’s begin with a look at intake filters (either the ceiling filters in a downdraft booth or the door filters in a cross-draft booth).

When the intake of your booth starts to get plugged you will fall into a negative booth pressure and the doors get easy to open.

Air flows along the path of least resistance, so if you have a negative pressure booth, it is drawing in dusty air from the facility that is ending up on the car you are trying to paint.

The ideal situation is to have a booth that is “slightly positive” so if there are any cracks the air will escape, not enter the booth.

features

Good intake filters will become more efficient as they load so as to prevent dust and dirt getting through. This also creates more restriction to air flow and the negative pressure situation outlined above. So, bottom line is that you need to force the air through the intake filters to keep the air in the booth clean, so when they get loaded less clean air and more dirty air is circulating through the booth.

When the filter’s visibly loaded and your doors fly open from the negative pressure, it is time to change the intake filters.

Now let’s talk an even bigger challenge: waterborne and your exhaust filter media (usually fiberglass) plugging up in half the time and because of surface loading only the top .5” of the filter is being used.

What’s up with that?

Well here is the answer: hold up your hand in front of you and look at your thumbnail. Let’s just pretend that your thumbnail is the size of a solvent-based molecule. Now make a fist—that is the size of a waterborne molecule.

Therefore in the molecule world, waterborne is massive. It plugs filters fast.

As the filter blinds over with paint, it allows less and less air to flow through the booth. Less air flow causes paint to linger in the air and slows down drying time. Most types of exhaust filters act the same way as intake filters in that they become more efficient and restrictive as they load. This is referred to as impaction filtration.

A better way to go in the new waterborne world is with impingement filtration.

Impingement filters (accordion style or baffle box style) maintain a constant air flow while loading. This is because the offset holes in an impingement-type filter force the air to change direction and exit the filter while the overspray sticks and builds up on itself.

As long as the holes remain open, air will flow at a constant rate so that good air flow is maintained over 95 per cent of the filter’s life.

If you are concerned about efficiency, a second-stage downstream media (usually polyester) Bodylines Auto Collision painter Denzil can be used and even changed Carby in front of Maxi-Air exhaust filters.

These filters come in sizes of 20” by 20” out at a different frequency than and 20” by 25”. They allow maximum the primary impingement filter air flow and last a very long time. (say, every other time).

Clean filters make for clean paint jobs. Every time you push filters too far you pay in lost time and productivity. To make money and speedy production, clean filters are a must. CRM For more information and a booth inspection call Keith Hayward, “The Filter Guy,” at 416-801-5218.

What is Your Collision Repair Business Doing to Capture More Cars, More Customers, More Revenues and More Profits?

Help I Crashed My Car™, the collision industry’s next generation customer service, communications, sales, marketing, advertising and customer retention platform integrates mobile phone apps, email, text messaging, Face book, Twitter, You Tube, e-CSI and other digital marketing tools to help deliver more cars, more customers, and more revenues to your collision repair business…...

For more information on how Help I Crashed My Car™ can help your collision repair business Capture, Service and Retain More Cars, More Customers, and More Revenues call us today at 1.888.377.2661 or send us an email at sales@summit-mobile.com. january 2011 collision Repair 43

point blank with piercey

CANADA HAS CHOSEN ITS BODY SHOP Why Should I Convert My Body Shop To A Maaco?

Maaco is ranked #1 in its category

by Entrepreneur Magazine in its Franchise 500 List Maaco has a Canada-wide 97.4% customer satisfaction rating [measured by CSI Complete]

Brightidea We’ve seen the light at Budds’.

By Sam Piercey

W

e recently went through an upgrade here at Budds’ Collision Services and I’m pretty happy with it so far. We’ve revamped our lighting system, which will save us big on our lighting bill and give us accurate colour to boot.

Lighting’s expensive, especially if you have a large facility. Up until fairly recently, the only cost-cutting solution you’d see most places enact was to install crappy, dim lighting for the whole place.

That’s not good. Tell me you haven’t heard of someone painting a door yellow in the shop and then driving it outside to realize the car is green in proper daylight.

If that happens, you’ve got a problem.

The way our new lights work, they know when someone’s in a particular area and switch into high as you’re working or looking for something.

I

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booths and prep stations with a new high tech design.

Capital replaced the existing 400W metal halide luminaires with a high-output electronic T8 fluorescents system, which lowers the electricity cost by 62 per cent.

Illumination levels were improved and now we get better colour rendition (light quality). The new design also reduces light loss and eliminates the colour-shift that metal halide systems are notorious for.

t’s like painting in the sun if the time of day stopped.

Maaco services more than 500,000 customers / year in North America [572 more customers / year per shop on average than a traditional body shop]

Budds’ new lighting system in action.

But when there’s no one around or a station isn’t being used, the lights switch to dim. That way, we can pull out the stops and turn good lights on when we’re working but not need to worry about leaving them on all day.

We had Capital Energy Systems come in to engineer and install everything. They tell me the system will reduce our lighting costs by 59 per cent in our main collision repair area, 67 per cent in the detailing department, 71 per cent in the offices and as much as 80 per cent in our customer vehicle winter storage facility.

If you add it all up, it will work out to as much as $35,000 off the company’s total hydro bill at the end of the year.

As an added bonus, the local municipal hydro authority will chip in up to 40 per cent of the project cost through ERIP—the Energy Retrofit Incentive Program.

Apart from the new general lighting in the facility, we replaced the fixtures in the paint

44 collision Repair collisionrepairmag.com

We were skeptical at first, but within a few days our eyes were open to the possibilities.

One of our painters was the first convert.

It’s like painting in the sun, he said, only the time of day doesn’t change.

We’ve always tried to stay on top of the latest technology, and this has been one of our more successful projects. I suggest you look in to your lights and see if you can see any savings there. They’re one of the only pieces of equipment we have that’s running constantly. Easy as they are to forget, even small efficiency gains can turn in to big savings. And it doesn’t take a priest to show you to that light. CRM If you’re interested in looking in to the system we installed at Budds’ you can contact Capital Energy Systems Inc. at 416-885-0656 or see capenergycost.com.

Sam Piercey is the co-owner of Budds' Collision Services in Oakville, ON.Samisalong-timeCoyotemember and sits on many boards and committees. He can be reached at sam@buddscollision.com.

Participating in Switch Out is More Important Than Ever.

Canadian Steel Producers have gone to a “Zero Mercury� purchasing policy.

Scrap Suppliers are now required to have a program in place for indentifying, removing and tracking the disposal of all mercury sources associated with their scrap.

Regularly participating in Switch Out is a great way to demonstrate that vehicle scrap is mercury free, because the program is partly funded by the Canadian Steel Producers Association.

Summerhill Impact designs and implements innovative programs that reduce emissions, improve air, land, and water quality, and protect the climate.

Retire Your Ride and Switch Out Automotive recyclers must be enrolled in the Switch Out program or an equivalent mercury recovery program to comply with the Code of Practice. Registering for Switch Out is a free of cost and easy way to fulfill this requirement.

Switch Out is a national program designed to remove, collect and manage mercury containing convenience lighting switches and antilock braking system (ABS) sensor modules in end-of-life vehicles before they are flattened, shredded and recycled into new steel.

It is free and easy to participate in Switch Out! Visit www.switchout.ca to register today, or for more information call 416-922-2448 x 241 .

Summerhill Impact

1216 Yonge Street, Toronto ON M4T 1W1 Tel: 416-922-2448 Fax: 416-922-1028

Retire Your Ride is a federal program designed to retire 1995 model year or older vehicles in an environmentally responsible manner in an effort to improve air quality and encourage the use of sustainable transportation. The program is being funded by the Government of Canada.

www.summerhillimpact.ca

prairie view

LabourNegotiation It’s that time again.

By Tom Bissonnette

H

ere in Saskatchewan, if you’re in collision repair you pretty much have to deal with Saskatchewan Government Insurance (SGI)—there’s not much avoiding it.

SGI used to have something they called labour negotiations. Now they just call it labour review, which might be more accurate—it is anything but negotiated.

Oh sure they allow us to stop by their office and suggest what we would like to be paid, but in reality, their bottom line has been decided by someone higher up on the food chain.

We can get mad and say “we don’t like your offer!” and leave. “No problem,” they’ll say. “We will just leave the rate where it is.”

A month or two later we come back, hat in hand, mumbling that we will take the 1.7 per cent (or whatever they are offering) and we meekly go back to work—grumbling.

“A new generation in collision repair performance.”

I have seen this scenario unfold for the last couple of decades while I was part of the team that met on behalf of our association. I finally got sick of wasting my time and resigned.

It was similar to trying to teach a pig to sing: it’s not going to happen and you just end up annoying the pig.

A couple of years back they finally opened their wallet and gave us s ome where in the neighbourhood of a 15 per cent increase. I’m not totally sure why, but I think our new “rightof-centre” provincial government told them that they had to.

I don’t think they liked doing it, but they got a taste of their own medicine and were simply told “this is final. Do it!”

I understand that they want to keep their costs as low as possible. So do I.

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46 collision Repair collisionrepairmag.com

prairie view

One of the ways I do it is to look for efficiencies in my business. If I can use technology and tools to do a better job faster and cheaper, I am all over it.

In fact we have embarked on a “lean journey” at our facility where we are looking for ways to continually improve our quality, our processes and our cycle time.

It is truly amazing what can be accomplished when a group of people work together in “a culture

all the damaged properly identified—we have to wait until their road appraiser shows up to approve our additions.

Some times we lose an entire day or more waiting for “Mother May I” to say “yes!” What a waste!

I told one of our government officials that if SGI wants to keep the rates low we need to figure out a way to work together, trust one another and become more efficient.

S

ome times I lose an entire day waiting for the ‘mother may i?’

of being respectful of the people doing the work,” to quote something Ron C Kuehn of DuPont Performance Coatings said at CCIF in Montreal recently.

Therein lays the rub.

SGI wants nothing to do with lean. They wish to control as much of the repair process as possible. They do the initial estimate (usually very inaccurately—to be fair, their appraisers only have 20 minutes to do an estimate) and once we get the vehicle at our shop, dismantled and with

If they want to control every aspect of the repair process, not trust me and stop me from being efficient, no problem. Just pay us a higher door rate! CRM

Tom Bissonnette is the owner/operator of Parr Auto Body, a collision repair facility located in Saskatoon, SK. He can be reached at tom@parrautobody.com.

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january 2011 collision Repair 47

who’s driving?

managedsuccess Long live the manager!

By Jay Perry

I

n this article I want to pay due homage to the managers out there. You do not see a lot of material written on the subject of management in the wake of the financial crisis—more has been said and written about leadership. That material has fermented the idea that management is a second-class or inferior level (next to leadership) within an organization. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The old description of the difference between leadership and management would have us believe that leadership is having the vision to build a railroad and management is making sure the “trains run on time.”

Clever, but very misleading.

This is especially dangerous as the business world evolves toward a more flattened structure. More and more we see how we must drive leadership down through the ranks and empower the frontline workers within our organizations. That means the production

W

your service level) the destruction of any class structure in a company is more imperative than ever.

This takes a lot of work because it is usually one person or a very small group of people that incubate an idea and create a company. What we must do as a business is work more in the area of teaching and coaching everyone so that increasingly people first can see and be excited by the vision of where the company is going. This work will fall directly onto the manager’s shoulders. But here is the rub; we need to teach everybody to think like a manager to make the company successful. How are you going to develop that inside your company?

Here are a few questions for all of us to ponder: How well supported are your managers? How much quality time do the “leaders” of the organization you are a part of spend with the “little people”? How many times have you heard a description of “the picture

hat we have to give up is the idea of the iconic leader. workers need to give the leaders guidance as to what they can do and how they can do it better. So where does that leave the managers?

I think the managers actually have the very difficult job of bridging the gap between the “visionary leader” and the “worker bees” that have to live with the consequences of the actions of leadership. They, more than anyone inside a business, must be able to see the vision and the make sure the work gets done. So the reality is that good management is vital to good leadership.

What we have to give up is the idea of the iconic leader. The companies of yesteryear needed those but now with so much power in the hands of the regular people (think blogs or tweets offering commentary on

48 collision Repair collisionrepairmag.com

inside my head” from the powers above? What kind of skill-set analysis has been provided to identify needed training for members of the company? What style is dominant inside your company: consultative or dictatorial? What activities have you created to encourage team work and team play?

Keep flattening the organization. In today’s rapidly changing business environment it is the only way you can remain the one who’s driving. CRM Jay Perry is the founder and owner of Automotive Business Consultants (ABC), a performance coaching company specializing in the automotive service industry. He can be reached via e-mail at jayperry@a-b-c-inc.com.

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SeekingOpportunity Participation at industry events is key.

By David Gold

M

uch like any industry, the auto recycling community regularly gathers at conferences and expos to expand on our knowledge and to network with colleagues, customers and vendors that support our businesses.

The past month was specifically taxing on many of us who travelled for four consecutive weeks in an effort to be engaged in what is happening in our collective industry and to—of course—execute on all of the principles that we picked up along the way.

Reviewing my notes in preparation for this article, it became clear to me just how many diverse concepts I learned about and correspondingly how challenging it will be to implement the exciting business enhancements I have written down.

Progressive auto recyclers are attending provincial industry conferences, peer business and mentoring groups, collision conferences (NACE), and worldwide automobile recyclers association (ARA) meetings in record numbers all in an effort to keep up with what

50 collision Repair collisionrepairmag.com

is happening in our industry and compete. One industry consultant, Jim Counts, put it this way: “Our business is to stay in business.”

What Jim is alluding to by making the above statement has a lot to do with business practices that are consistent for both auto recycling and collision repair.

Profitability drains that are the result of having unnecessary payroll or from not having lean operations can mean the end of once profitable businesses in our community. The sentiment that keeps echoing in my head is essentially that we have to do more with less people.

We are all constantly asking ourselves how can we get people to care and to set up systems in the business. The answer does not come easily for most of us and the advice that keeps resonating at these conferences is to “simplify the business/things.”

As business becomes more complicated, it is impossible to keep up and be all things to all people. Many close friends and colleagues that once had service

recycling

bays in their recycling facilities have since closed them down as the technology in the vehicles has advanced so greatly. The effort and energy to stray from our core business and be proficient at what ever else we are trying to capitalize on is not as easy as it once was.

This article is about the efforts we take to make constant and never-ending improvements in our business and to compliment all industry sectors for the collective sharing of information. It helps to make us stronger.

O

ur business is to stay in business.

What I have been trying to figure out lately is what and where is the money for the business being made—and how can I do more of that?

People are always asking me why I always have a pen in hand and take so many notes, and I constantly answer that it is important for me and our entire team to be clearly aware of the teachings at these events.

We all inherently know that the costs of business, products and operational costs are going up. There is nothing more important than making every effort to address the current economic climate within our own company to attempt to figure out how we can navigate these turbulent waters.

Correction

It is as much for you as it is for me to become further inspired and to execute on my growing list of enhancements for our company.

Let me leave you with one more thought from Jim Counts: “Assume whatever you are doing is wrong—and then come to the meetings to prove you are right.” CRM David Gold is the co-owner of Standard Auto Wreckers, an auto recycling facility with locations in Toronto, Ontario and Niagara Falls, New York. He can be reached by telephone at 416-286-8686 or via e-mail at david@standardautowreckers.com.

In last issue’s column we had incorrectly identified a few figures in regards to the Car-Part Pro series of releases. It should have read that 60 per cent of the time there will be no interchange questions and 94 per cent of the time Car-Part expects users to fill in four or fewer interchange operations.

We had them as 70 and 90 per cent respectively.

We apologize for the error. The corrected text is available at collisionrepairmag.com.

january 2011 collision Repair 51

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By Ian Hope

From a difficult beginning to life-long success and innovation.

J

ack Cohen, well known in our industry, turned 74 in the spring and quite unbelievably is about to celebrate 65 full years in the automotive parts business.

That’s not a misprint—he started working in the industry at the ripe old age of nine.

When you look at the full story of his life, it reads like an adventure novel, with a love story thrown in of course. His is the story of overcoming life’s obstacles and challenges, surviving incredible odds and hardships until, finally, things started turning around.

Born in Belgium in 1936, Jack and his twin brother Leon were only four years old when the Nazis overran their country. Their wise and caring father, fearing for the boys, took them to a country orphanage in an attempt to keep them safe. The boys never saw their father, mother or teen-aged sister after that day—all were later found to have perished in the death camps. Jack and his twin brother were also eventually put on a train, suspected of heading to one of these camps, but incredibly the train was stopped by the Queen of Belgium and the boys were able to slip away from danger along with about 150 other fortunate children.

They were later brought to Toronto and adopted by Harry and Lillian Cohen, who were childless. Harry and Lillian moved the children to

52 collision Repair collisionrepairmag.com

Edmonton. In 1946, Harry started Jasper Auto Parts in downtown Edmonton a block north of Jasper Avenue. At the time he had nothing to pedal but a truckload of Model T rear ends that he’d hauled from Winnipeg. This was the ever so humble beginning that would lead to much greater things for the Cohens in later years.

Jack went to work with his adoptive father almost immediately, quitting school at an early age to do what he loved most—work with auto

Jack in his yard as a young man.

parts. When Harry died Jack took over the business, which by that time had moved to the St Albert Trail. In 1992 that property was sold to the Alberta government as part of their transportation corridor (Anthony Henday Drive now runs right through where the yard was).

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The old store front for Jasper Auto Parts in Edmonton, Alberta.

Jack bought Windsor Truck Parts on the south side and continued to run Jasper Auto Parts from there. He owned and operated other businesses over the years including RFC in Red Deer, Arcade Automatic Transmissions and Bargain Glass, which still operates next door to the Jasper Office. During his years in business his list of colleagues and collaborators reads like a who’s who of the Alberta automotive parts business. He even brought in Mohammed Ali once to help promote the sport of boxing in Alberta. People in the entertainment business, politicians, business moguls, high-society folk and people from every level of Edmonton’s social fabric—Jack knew them and found the best in them.

On the personal side, Jack married Marilyn, the love of his life, and they had three children: Max, Dave and Cherie. Each of them in turn had two kids, giving Jack six grandchildren and making him a very proud and happy man. Max lives in Phoenix where Jack and Marilyn spend happy times in the winter. Dave runs Western Auto

Brigitte Pesant joins the OARA and ARC teams

and Truck Parts in Calgary and Cherie takes care of business with her mom Marilyn in the Jasper Parts office.

I asked Jack what was “that one big thing” that he’d learned in his 65 years in the business. I expected him to tell me about a recycling process or executing a long-term vision—or some deep well-guarded secret to do with buying low and selling high. “It’s not about the cars,” he told me. “It’s about the people.” His biggest pride was being able to connect and communicate with people of all backgrounds.

As I thought about it, I realized how right Jack is. A person’s success, especially a business owner, is more dependent on getting along with people than on any other variable in the business. That truth applies, according to Jack, to staff, customers and suppliers alike. Treat all people well and with respect is Jack’s motto.

Jack still loves the auto parts business. He’s up every day at 5am, and at his favourite bistro by 6:15, then in his chair at the office by 8am where he works all day. As he’s telling me about his daily routine, he hushes me to pick up a ringing phone from someone looking for parts—for Jack, this is what it’s all about. He says his favourite job is delivering parts in his blue beater Toyota.

To me, it’s all part of the legend that has become Jack Cohen.

Congratulations Jack on 65 years in the auto recycling and dismantling business.

Brigitte Pesant.

The Ontario Automotive Recyclers Association (OARA) and Automotive Recyclers of Canada (ARC) recently announced that Brigitte Pesant has joined their ranks in the role of director of business development, effective October 8, 2010.

In this new role, Brigitte’s responsibilities will include building on relationships with other industry sectors partners (insurers, repairers, manufacturers and suppliers) and helping to market the recycling industry, associations and members to the public, government and the automotive industry. Brigitte will report to Steve Fletcher, managing director of ARC and executive director of OARA. Brigitte brings with her over 20 years of sales and marketing experience working for companies such as Kodak Canada Inc and KAO Brands Canada Inc, where she held senior positions in business development and trade marketing.

Brigitte will bring this experience along with her passion for results to the auto recycling industry, and will work toward driving the associations business and growth.

Brigitte grew up in Sherbrooke QC and is fully bilingual.

She will also add depth and experience to the human resources that ARC and OARA will utilize to capitalize on the numerous opportunities that are before them. january 2011 collision Repair 53

last word

Compensation How do you decide your payroll?

By Joe Rayment

A

fe w months back, one of our readers got in touch with us to ask what the industry norm was for paying managers and technicians. He was interested to know if he was above or below the average, which is a reasonable enough curiosity.

I had no idea what to tell him. I know of some of the different models, but I don’t have clear answers for a lot of the obvious questions. For example, where are things trending? Are there regional differences? Do people who use this or that system wish they could blow it up and try something new?

So, I present to you: the Collision Repair Compensation Fact-Finding Quest. (Okay, we’ll work on the name.) We’ve made up a survey that’s brief but to the point.

It shouldn’t take more than a few minutes. It will also be set up to give you complete privacy—no personally identifiable information will end up in the wrong hands, so you can answer honestly knowing that no insurer, competitor or even your business partners will be able to connect any of the data to you or your business. Even I won’t know.

Within the questions, we’re going to try to build in ways to account for the wide va-

L

et’s establish clarity around payroll trends.

And the most obvious question of all: how do you decide how much to dedicate to the payroll? Is it a simple pay scale or is it tied to profits?

The examples I tend to hear about at conferences are the stand-outs. Either they’re way ahead of everyone else, incredibly complex or just very unique to a specific operation.

I’d like to establish some clarity in the area—to get an accurate picture from the Canadian collision repair industry on the answers to these questions, both in practice and in reality.

?

riety of markets across the country. Hiring a top-notch painter in the Yukon is going to have different criteria than hiring one in Hamilton, for example.

We’ll pool all the answers together and report back on what we find, and hopefully shed a little more light on the issue of compensation. CRM Joe Rayment is the editor of Collision Repair magazine. He can be reached at 905-3700101 or via e-mail at editor@ collisionrepairmag.com.

How do you set your payroll?

Go to collisionrepairmag.com/survey to share your answer with your fellow repairers.

54 collision Repair collisionrepairmag.com

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