I am fortunate to work for LaMettry’s Collison, a respected regional MSO with many vehicle manufacturers’ certifications and dealership relationships. As a result, we work on many newer and high-end vehicles.
Our company policy is that we repair vehicles according to vehicle manufacturer’s repair procedures. For years, it’s been part of our SOPs that our estimating staff look up and provide the procedures for structural repairs. In recent years, we are requiring that estimating staff look up procedures for virtually all repairs. With the increased prevalence of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), it has become an increasingly larger challenge. We have our own mechanical departments who have been enlarged to include almost all aspects of ADAS repair and calibration. We have been very fortunate to have a few people who have developed higher skill levels in finding the repair information we seek, which can be exceedingly difficult to find in some cases.
Among our SOPs is that the estimator put verification of the procedures in the management file. This is in the form of a PDF and must at least show the first page of the procedure and date. In that way, we can show the source and prove that the procedure is current.
We started talking about setting up our own information resource department to help with this growing need. Anecdotally, I found that there are some other MSOs and consolidators with a similar interest, but so far, I’ve not spoken anyone who has done it.
With a combination of blissful ignorance, enthusiasm and optimism, we decided to set up our own department. As I write this, we are only months into the initiative, with it being up and running for about 30 days. I will share many of our perspectives and experiences, but please understand that there is no doubt more to be learned before we can claim expertise on the topic.
Getting started
To begin, one needs to decide to what extent this department will be responsible for information. It is our belief, at least at this time, that our blueprinting estimators should continue to be responsible for looking up manufacturer repair procedures. For the most part, they have been successfully doing that, particularly regarding panel replacement procedures. It is vital that to complete an accurate and complete blueprint/estimate that the estimator know the proper procedures. We recognize that their greater challenge will be getting the procedures for ADAS work, including scans and calibrations, since they simply have less experience and expertise in this area. To assist, we implemented a policy requiring one of our high-tech people from our mechanical department review each vehicle and its blueprint and provide input before it is completed. These people are more inclined to already know of a required procedure or are inclined to suspect the necessity and research accordingly. For those of you who don’t have such staff, it will be necessary to rely on collision staff and/or an information resource department to find the ADAS procedures. We decided that our information resource department should only be there to assist in the situations where the estimator and/or mechanic/high tech person cannot find what they are looking for.
We selected a person who will dedicate part of their daily schedule to handle the information requests. We chose someone who has great vehicle and collision repair experience and knowledge. Our person has already proven themselves to be exceptionally competent in navigating sources for procedures. We set them up with passwords, log-in codes, and other forms of access to all the possible sites we could think of, including:
-ALLDATA
-I-CAR , especially the Reparability Technical Support (RTS) site
-Identifix
-Vehicle manufacturer’s sites (note that some provide free or discounted rates though OE certification participation.)
We set up a form that can be used to submit procedure requests that is short, simplistic, and to the point. It can be filled out online and emailed to our resource department.
Costs
By starting in such a modest way, labor costs are minimal. Subscription fees to sites such as vehicle manufacturer can each be considered and evaluated based on demand.
ALLDATA provides a form that can be used to create an invoice for researching repair procedures. Based on surveys, such as “Who Pays for What,” and some industry event presentations it is safe to say that it is becoming more and more common that shops charge for looking up procedures, particularly the most time-consuming ones. An information resource department can use the ALLDATA form to present to the estimator with the procedures that can be handled as a sublet cost and billed accordingly. Obviously through such billing a shop can cover, or at least minimize, the expense of the department.
Challenges, what have we learned so far
Compliance can be a potential issue. Not that an estimator would ever get lazy or rushed or cut a corner. (Really?) It may be prudent to have some sort of a mechanism to assure compliance with a policy of looking up all procedures. Spot checks or periodic audits are among the tools to do so.
Through our limited experience it appears that finding most panel replacement procedures is usually not difficult. In most cases estimators, sometimes with the help of techs, find the repair procedures and have no need for our resource department.
What can be particularly challenging is finding procedures on high tech procedures, particularly regarding ADAS. More often than not these procedures are not found in the same section as the panel replacement. Different manufacturers use different terms to title these other sections, such as “Electrical” or “Optional Devices”. Often times one has to resort to performing a ‘search’. Again, different manufacturers use different terms, even when describing the same thing. Finding requirements for calibrations, such as fuel level and wheel alignment requirements, is even more difficult. The following is a list of some possible terms that can be of assistance when searching:
-The name of the component such as “lane change assist module” or “blind spot module”
-“Relearn”
-“Initialize”
-“Program”
-“Calibrate”
It is helpful to gather some information for frequent use. A great example would be manufacturer position statements. The information resource department can handle that. At LaMettry’s we set up a ‘shared document’ file within our computer system that everyone can access. Among other documents we store manufacturer position statements for easy and frequent access.
A temptation will be to develop cheat sheets for frequently accessed information. One must be cautious when considering this for manufacturer repair procedures as they commonly change. In the event of a question of repair it can be critical that a shop be able to prove they used the appropriate repair procedure provided as was current for the date of the repair.
Cheat sheets can also be handy for listing what vehicles with which options require various calibrations. Again, they can be handy and helpful but a shop must be prudent in making sure the information is current, complete, and accurate.
Conclusion
Again, we at LaMettry’s are in the early stages of this journey. I refer to it as a journey because we are learning as we go. Yet we already see value and potential in having our own information resource department. I believe with the rapid vehicle technology changes with increased sophistication, increased demands in repair methodologies, and the resulting complications for repairers , information resource departments will become more commonplace, especially with MSOs, and they will be increasingly important within our industry.
