O'Rielly Collision Center is the ABRN 2011 Top Shop

Jan. 1, 2020
O'Rielly Collision Center grabs the 2011 ABRN Top Shop spot with a back-to-basics approach.
Manager Brian Guerrero and his team help drive both change and revenue at the shop. (IMAGES / O’RIELLY COLLISION CENTER)

The last time ABRN visited with Tucson, Ariz., -based O'Rielly Collision Center, they had been named a Top Shop for the second year in a row. While they were delighted with those accomplishments, not taking the top slot as the best shop in the nation left them feeling like they had some unfinished business. More resolved than ever, they began gearing up for the 2011 contest.

At about the same time, shop manager Brian Guerrero was looking for a way to improve his operation. A general manager for O'Rielly Chevrolet – the shop is a part of the dealership – suggested a business improvement to "Do the Basics Brilliantly."

Guerrero began breaking down what those basics were and finding ways to improve each – or better still, find the best possible way to do each through continuous improvement. A year later, after a lot of hard work and investment in change by Guerrero and his staff, O'Rielly Collision is more efficient and profitable than ever. The shop also captured the title of ABRN's 2011 Top Shop.

Check your work

The entire O’Rielly staff meets briefly every morning so that each employee knows what the shop’s work plan is for the day.

At O'Rielly, "Doing the Basics Brilliantly" starts with its estimators. The shop's four estimators opt for a popular pay plan that rewards them, not on individual performance, but on the shop's gross profit generated by all employees. Guerrero explains the plan encourages estimators and other employees to build a shop culture where everyone takes ownership of all the work, not simply the tasks assigned to an employee.

"At other shops, a customer might call up and ask about the status of his car. If the estimator who's overseeing the work isn't there, the customer is either stuck leaving a message or is passed over to another estimator who isn't going to be much help because he has no incentive to find out what's going on," Guerrero says. "That's not going to make your customers very happy."

That doesn't happen at O'Rielly because estimators benefit from helping each other, he said. To reinforce the importance and benefits of forming bonds among all its workers, each morning the shop holds a brief meeting on the shop floor to discuss the work to be performed that day.

"From our lot workers to technicians and painters, everyone knows where a part or vehicle is going to be that day. Everyone takes ownership of the work," Guerrero says.

Guerrero leveraged this setup to institute a key part of O'Rielly's "Brilliant" new operation philosophy. To improve the shop's product, Guerrero decided the shop would implement quality assurance throughout the repair instead of just at the end, immediately before delivery as many other shops do.

Now, estimators, technicians and painters all inspect the work they get.

"Estimators look at the work throughout and perform a final inspection. Our painters will look over the bodywork before they paint. When their work is done, the technicians inspect it. Everyone is involved. We have as many eyes as possible on the work. This way we really cut down on any re-dos," Guerrero says.

In fact, by the time a vehicle leaves O'Rielly, Guerrero says it has been inspected four times.

Index your success

The inspection that happens once a vehicle is returned to the customer also is significant since customer satisfaction is a key ingredient in "doing the basics brilliantly."

O'Rielly tries to make as much use of customer feedback and indexing as possible. Shop managers regularly sit down with each employee to review CSI scores. Again, estimators are at the core of this approach since their influence resonates throughout the operation. Guerrero notes that CSI scores are part of the formula that determines an estimator's base pay and bonuses.

Technician Bob Baldwin fixes a dent. As part of O’Rielly’s quality control processes, his work will be examined by the paint staff before they paint the vehicle.

"We sit down with them and go over scores and see where we can improve," Guerrero says. Estimators work with technicians, painters and other employees to implement these improvements.

While this might seem to be a recipe for creating friction between estimators and other employees – because one set of workers receives pay based on production while others receive a flat rate – Guerrero says that's not the case. Because the work culture at O'Rielly already is geared toward continuous improvement, employees see such efforts as beneficial.

Guerrero stresses that working with employees to improve CSI scores is not an effort to micromanage them. He notes that employees often find their own ways to improve performance or seek out his input or opinions from other employees.

Estimator Troy Chaney reviews work with technician Ruban De LaRosa.

Some employees were already used to having their performance placed under a microscope as O'Rielly searched for ways to create efficiencies. These employees benefitted from the action and are major proponents of it.

O’Rielly maintains a large training room to keep employees up to date on repairs and other operational areas.

A year earlier, O'Rielly worked with its paint vendor to implement a system that measures painter productivity based on product inventory use instead of labor hours after the vendor demonstrated how the former measurable was more valuable in determining productivity and actual costs. By examining and comparing product use, the shop and its painters received a more accurate picture of the paint department's costs and painter performance. It prepared them to make effective changes.

O’Rielly has painted its website address on the shop building to drive business to their digital marketing efforts.

According to Guerrero, not only did the system save money, it improved its paint services and served as a motivator to the paint staff who were able to see their work evaluated and compare their performance to each other's. The paint staff still meets regularly to review their performance and when possible improve.

The staff's tenure suggests that they thrive in an introspective and competitive environment. O'Rielly's eight technicians have been with the business on average nine years. Some painters have been there much longer.

The Tucson repair community seems to admire this environment as well. "I have a drawer full of applications from people who want to work here," Guerrero says.

Customer’s can relax and grab a snack in the shop’s Corvette Café, a throwback to 1950s era diners.

"The key thing is that our people want to get better. Everyone here wants to be the best," adds Guerrero, who says the renewed attention to CSI has paid off by creating improvements at every point in the shop's business, from customer service to repairs to paint. The fact that some of these changes may seem minor or are simple tweaks to an existing process doesn't matter. Small, sometimes incremental, changes can have big payoffs.

Guerrero notes that employees are familiar with this fact, having seen how their work impacts every part of the dealership.

"The dealership and shop are over 80 years old, so people have been coming here a long time. Everything we do touches them and their reputation. If we make a mistake, the customer is not going to come back here to buy another car. They're not going to come back to buy tires," Guerrero says.

"We understand that what we do affects a lot of different people."

O’Rielly also features am expansive accessory and parts department.

That fact, along with the shop's renewed focus on basic changes, convinced Guerrero this year to invest in paintless dent repair (PDR) training. Adding the service made sense because the shop is interested in offering as many services as possible. It also fit into the shop culture where employees receive as much training as possible and where Guerrero looks for opportunities to give what he calls his "A technicians" a chance to gain skills to move them to the next level.

In this case, O'Rielly spent $13,000 to send a tech to California for complete training and to purchase PDR tools. The shop is implementing this new service incrementally to first complement the rest of the dealership's business before eventually being marketed to a larger customer base.

"We're giving our tech the chance to build his experience and build a new service without it being overwhelming," Guerrero says.

That means utilizing the service for now to repair new and used cars on the dealership's lot and, when possible, to upsell it to collision and other repair customers.

Following another O'Rielly business philosophy, everyone benefits from the move – the business itself, since it no longer contracts out the work and collects just 30 percent of the revenue; customers, who now have a trusted PDR provider; and the technician who has the chance to build what could eventually be a valuable profit-producing center.

Top shop, top DRP

Attending to the basics provided O'Rielly with a major accomplishment in 2011 that was kick-started by its entry in previous Top Shop contests.

A popular theme among this year's return winners was how the contest has benefitted their business. Guerrero notes that the shop keeps its Top Shop plaques from 2009 and 2010 prominently displayed. He says customers frequently comment on them and that being named a Top Shop has helped convince many customers to opt for the shop's services.

The plaques also caught the eye of a local State Farm rep. "He asked about them. Then he made the comment that if we were recognized nationwide as a Top Shop we should be a part of State Farm's DRP," Guerrero says.

This led to a meeting with other State Farm reps who looked over the shop's numbers and became convinced they should ask O'Rielly to become a part of its Select Service DRP.

Both shop and insurer have benefitted and grown from the relationship. Guerrero reports that after its first quarter review O'Rielly was the top shop in its Select Service area.

So the question for O'Rielly is, "Where do you go from here?" The shop will continue to work hard at the basics. Guerrero hasn't reported any other planned changes for 2012. As for another run at being named one of the best shops, that remains a possibility. Being a Top Shop appears to be one of the basic things O'Rielly does brilliantly.

Sponsored Recommendations

Best Body Shop and the 360-Degree-Concept

Spanesi ‘360-Degree-Concept’ Enables Kansas Body Shop to Complete High-Quality Repairs

ADAS Applications: What They Are & What They Do

Learn how ADAS utilizes sensors such as radar, sonar, lidar and cameras to perceive the world around the vehicle, and either provide critical information to the driver or take...

Banking on Bigger Profits with a Heavy-Duty Truck Paint Booth

The addition of a heavy-duty paint booth for oversized trucks & vehicles can open the door to new or expanded service opportunities.

Boosting Your Shop's Bottom Line with an Extended Height Paint Booths

Discover how the investment in an extended-height paint booth is a game-changer for most collision shops with this Free Guide.