How much training is enough? Or too much? Repairers increasingly must wrestle with these questions as pressure grows on them to pick up OEM certifications and meet DRP requirements. Education and learning are always worthwhile, but effectively mixing them into already busy shop schedules and tight budgets can be trying.
More than ever, repairers need training options. More than ever, vendors are stepping in to assist shops with affordable, convenient learning opportunities that can help them refocus their businesses, build employee skill sets and provide other benefits — such as earning I-CAR credits.
Take a look at some if the latest, most effective vendor training opportunities available, along with tips to set these lessons in stone at your shop.
Paint Companies
Axalta
A comprehensive progressive learning “Master Certification” program launched in mid-2016, running from Level 100 to 400, provides students with what Axalta calls a “learning path” to Axalta MasterCertification. In 2017, Axalta will green light courses that “incorporate efficiency, profitability and productivity as it relates to each step in the repair process, beginning with Pre-paint,” according to North America Learning Content Manager Bob Pittenger.
| Training Contacts |
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AkzoNobel www.sikkenscr.at/en/services/bodyshops-/atc-trainings |
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BASF www.refinish.basf.us/training_about |
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PPG www.us.ppgrefinish.com/PPG-Refinish/training.aspx |
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Sherwin-Williams Automotive Finishes http://www.sherwin-automotive.com/refinish/training-support/ (Contact [email protected]) |
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Pro Spot http://prospot.com/support/training/ |
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Chief http://www.chiefautomotive.com/Chief-University/ |
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Car-O-Liner www.car-o-liner.com/us/training/find-training-worldwide/usa-canada/courses-usa/ |
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Celette http://www.celette.com/university_of_celette/ |
“Our entire curriculum is revamped with shorter, ala carte offerings to enable the students to target the learning gaps rather than long classes that demand several days away from the shop for topics that the student may not need,” says Pittenger. “All automotive course offerings now feature I-CAR Industry Alliance recognition with ProLevel as well as credit hour recognition.”
Axalta also currently is piloting certification training using live virtual broadcasts with its customer locations and has plans to expand these efforts after an official rollout. Along with these efforts, the company will expand its online offerings at axaltalearningcampus.com, adding at least 50 more courses by the end of the first quarter 2017. Online training is free and provides initial and refresher classes, typically running 10-20 minutes, around the clock seven days a week.
BASF
Jeff Wildman, North American Key Account Manager OEM and Industry Relations at BASF, says his company’s most popular courses continue to be its Glasurit and R-M certification and color-match classes, which help shop’s meet OEM certifications. Wildman stresses that BASF provides other resources that can help shops navigate their way through demanding, sometimes multiple, certification procedures—namely guidance from its Business Development Managers.
BASF additionally offers a number of convenient, one-day VisionPLUS courses provided both classroom and hands-on experienced designed to help shops reset their operations. Measuring and Improving Performance teaches students to utilize and develop the data streams needed for both financial and non-financial reporting. The streams are used to calculate 24 critical key performance indicators (KPIs), which students then compare against benchmarks to understand what positively or negatively affects shop performance. Also included are sections on understanding ratios, percentages, tracking trends, goal setting and management.
BASF’s Paint & Material Profitability class demonstrates the steps needed to analyze the factors that influence a shop’s paint and materials profitability. Students calculate actual paint-only costs, along with paint and material costs, per-paint hour to next explore ways to maximize profit. They also assess sales by scrutinizing damage reports for non-included items, add-ons and proper classifications and learn how to cut costs through reduced usage and proper classification of non-paint items.
PPG
PPG will roll out an updated version of its Envirobase High Performance Waterborne Certification raining. The curriculum, available in early 2017, is based on SOPs shops are already familiar with, making its lessons more accessible and easier to implement. The training adds PPG’s latest Envirobase products and processes, along with a comprehensive list of how-tos for handling challenging 3 and 4 stage finishes and blending techniques.
Updated Custom Restoration and Custom Painting classes too will be available in 2017. Students will have the opportunity to learn the latest about the various substrates they might encounter and the most up to date ways to prepare them. Both courses provide a guide to proper selection of the most effective undercoats, creating an authentic color and choosing a clearcoat to help the vehicle stand out from the crowd while protecting it for the long term.
Sherwin-Williams Automotive Finishes
In 2017, Sherwin-Williams Automotive Finishes (SWAF) will begin offering a new two-day Painter Certification and Color class, the only course that will certify painters for SWAF’s Limited Lifetime Guaranty program. The course instructs students on the proper application and usage of Ultra 7000 Solvent-borne and the AWX Performance Plus Waterborne System. Class objectives include:
- Accurately identifying OEM color formulations
- Describing the benefits of tinted / urethane undercoats
- Restoring corrosion protection
- Proper application and blending procedures
- Improving production and best demonstrated practices.
Joining this course is a new Advanced Painter class being piloted at the beginning of the New Year that will cover stage color and process training for current and future OEM styling.
Valspar
Valspar Automotive also will premiere a 2017 course focused on the latest OEM styling. Its Color Theory course will examine OEM color variations and include a section on the latest in workshop safety. “Students will learn what is involved in selecting the right color and how to properly utilize the necessary tools and resources, like the spectrophotometer,” says Gary Kilby, Valspar Senior Technical Manager. “They will also learn how to use Valspar Automotive’s Color Focus (formula retrieval software), which aids in the color selection process and can be used to improve color accuracy, increase shop production and reduce costs.”
The class includes an advanced color theory curriculum where students learn the color wheel and tinting methods for classroom and practical application. “The hands-on approach has the benefit of giving students the expanded knowledge and skill sets they need to understand the influence that equipment and the setup of the equipment has on the application process and ultimately, the color,” adds Kilby.
Welding companies and frame makers
Shops can pick up nine I-CAR credit hours by completing ProSpot International’s i4 Resistance Spot Welding & MIG Steel Welding course. The class satisfies requirements for two I-CAR ProLevel 1 knowledge areas--Spot Welded Panel Replacement and Steel GMA. Incorporating online interactive training/testing and in-class, hands-on experience with the i4 Resistance Spot Welder, the course can be conducted in a shop’s training facility or a facility the shop has access to.
Chief Automotive Technologies provides a number of classes that also offer I-CAR Credits. Course options include: Aluminum Damage Analysis and Repair Technology, Structural Damage Analysis, Designed Based Repair, Full Frame Analysis and Repair Planning and Unitized Body Analysis and Repair Planning. Classes run 1-3 days and are available nationwide at technical schools, shops and other training sites.
Car-O-Liner similarly offers training at its Academy in Wixom, Mich. And throughout the rest of its distribution network. Students received I-CAR credits for completing Bench, Measuring Systems and Pulling System Training, Basic Electronic Measuring and Basic Resistance Welder Installation courses.
Auto manufacturers
As OEMs look for ways to better connect with collision repairers and build their certification programs, they’ve begun taking another look at training opportunities outside of traditional I-CAR and certification courses.
General Motors recently started a series of free nationwide InShop Clinics aimed at helping shops prepare for technologies soon to reach dealer showrooms, along with others focused on OEM approved repair methods. As their name suggests, the clinics are held on-site at nearby dealer shops and are conducted by GM experts.
Topics include:
- Bolt on Body Panel Adjustments
- Post Collision-Brake Inspection and Repair
- Post Collision-Power Steering Inspection and Repair
- Post Collision-Tires and Wheels
- Supplemental Restraints-Service and Repair
Interested shops can contact GM parts dealers for an updated course list and steps for registration.
Costs, management and setting lessons in stone
The courses ABRN looked at typically ran $250-$400 per student. Some included meals and others worked in the cost of a hotel stay. Since travel can add significant dollars to a training budget, courses like these provide significant savings as does finding classes offered near your business. In some cases, vendors provide training opportunities free of charge.
The best way to locate all these savings is to put someone in charge of your shops training who can not only keep you OEM, ASE and I-CAR certified, but who has the time and responsibility to spot learning opportunities. This means talking with vendors, jobbers and parts and equipment dealers. Having I go-to training coordinator is critical since some of these folks don’t always tout all the benefits their companies provide.
A coordinator also can be one of the keys to ensuring lessons picked up from training are incorporated once employees return to work from class. Coordinators not only track training but can work with employees and management to see that lessons learned are also set in stone to ensure shops get the most from their educational investments.
Vendors further suggest repairers take three steps to put lessons in place.
- Reiterate steps. Implementing lessons actually begins during training. Students not only need to learn new repair steps but the reasons behind them and why they must be performed in a specific order.
Kilby notes, “In our classes, instructors walk students through each step highlighting its importance and why it’s necessary in the refinish process. If any step is skipped, students learn why it’s likely they’ll find themselves back in the booth repainting the vehicle.”
“They ultimately learn that refinishing a vehicle is a process and skipping any step in the set process results in rework, loss of productivity and an increase in cost,” he says.
Pittenger declares that the process of repeating steps and gaining experience also provides other, more critical benefits. “The real benefit of training is not as much the information a student would pick up and take with them, but the experience that enables them to actually change their processes to be more efficient and productive,” he says. “It’s not just a matter of learning, but applying what was learned to their everyday work. Changing behaviors is the key to success after training.”
- Always involve management. Even when students begin transforming their work practices, there’s still a decent chance they can revert to old behaviors. People often slip back into old habits because, well, it’s a habit. It’s human nature.
If you want true change, you need new standards that management must be aware of and stand behind. “When management is a part of any training, it leads to everyone being on the same page and accomplishing the shops goals” says SWAF Director of Training Rod Habel.
PPG Director of Training Randy Cremeans adds, “Technicians should discuss what they learned with their managers back at work. They can all decide on what procedures might be implemented to have the best impact on productivity and eliminating paint application problems. This might be trying a new product or following a new application process.”
- Set SOPs that are value based. After management examines the lessons, it needs to take an additional consideration in hand before creating new SOPs—basing their implementation on sound math. New steps must prove their worth after they’re put in place.
“Tracking KPI's in the shop is a must,” says Habel. “From that, a shop will be able to see the value that training all shop personnel brings to the table.”
“And through regular internal audits, they can use new SOPs to gauge the shop’s success in the repair process and from there make any adjustments to improve,” notes Kilby.
As with any other part of your business, return on investments probably plays the largest part in your operational decisions. Training arguably provides the quickest, most consistent and significant ROI of any investment area, even more than equipment, tools and products. Training also has the potential to transform every part of your operation for the better, and it could markedly improve your business in 2017. There’s no better time than now to contact your vendors and see what they have to offer. Make the call.
