Waste may be right under a shop owner’s nose, but it takes a concentrated effort to find and eliminate it to save production time and boost the bottom line.

“Collision repair, like most industries, is full of opportunities to eliminate waste. For many, it is simply a matter of being able to see it so we can take action to eliminate it,” says consultant Brad Sullivan of The Body Shop @ (pronounced “at”), based in Moon Township, Pa. He conducted a Friday NACE seminar on Identifying Waste in a Collision Repair Operation.”

Waste is the opposite of value, according to Sullivan.

“Value is any activity that a customer is willing to pay you for,” he says. “In a collision repair shop, an example of value would be bolting a new fender onto the vehicle or applying the paint. A simplistic way to think of waste is any activity that a customer would not be willing to pay for, such as – for example, moving vehicles in/out of the building, writing supplements, searching for parts or tools and returning incorrect parts.”

For detecting wasted movements, “start with honing your ability to see them by understanding what they are, and then take an objective, close look at the activities that are actually happening in your shop by creating a Current State Value Stream Map,” Sullivan observes. “Typically, examining your process can be quite an eye-opener, and in many cases the specifics of how you believed your process worked turns out to be not be so accurate.”

If customers are not willing to pay for any people or product movement, then those movements are considered waste. “That doesn’t mean we don’t move,” he says. “It means we should attempt to eliminate it completely or minimize the effort required to perform it.”

In regard to processing, “where we typically see waste is when unnecessary steps are performed – things that we still do when the reason for doing them has long been irrelevant, such as complete sand and buff of all refinished panels to remove a couple nibs, filling out the same customer/vehicle information on multiple forms and sanding through the e-coat on new OEM sheet metal during the preparation stages. When we investigate why someone is doing this excess processing, the reply is usually, ‘Well, that’s how we have always done this.’”

Here is where a Current State Value Stream Map can aid your business, Sullivan said.

“Break down the entire operation into the functional areas: The administrative processes, the parts processes and the production processes. Think of each of these functional areas as their own value stream. Attempt to understand all of the steps and tasks involved in completing the required work in each of these areas and see how the work flows,” he suggests.

“You accomplish this through observing and documenting each step and the tasks inside those steps and understanding the current sequence of events. You also perform time and distance studies, looking at how long each task/step actually takes, recording people and product movement inside the operation to perform those steps/tasks. There are some standard tools/forms used to record the steps and tasks. Multiple observations are recorded to grasp an understanding of typical activities and time requirements. You then gather all the information recorded and ‘map out’ the current operation, documenting current sequence, time to perform and time between steps. This is mapped out onto a total timeline, so that you can see when and where each activity happens along this timeline. Though a lot of work, this is really just the beginning,” he explains.

“The real value of the Value Stream Mapping process is that once we have completed and recorded our observations, we then examine every task/step we currently do through the filter of the ‘eyes of the customer’ and their true definition of value,” Sullivan says.

The question is thus posed to every task/activity that you are currently performing: value or non-value?

“The objective is to attempt to remove as many non-value tasks as possible and reduce the effort required to perform the remaining non-value-adding steps that we cannot currently eliminate. Once this work is completed, you then move into the next phase, which is taking what’s left and re-arraigning it into some type of logical sequence, creating the ‘future state’ of how the operation will run going forward,” says Sullivan.
“Once you have gone through the exercise of removing non-value activities (waste) from your process, line up the remaining tasks in a logical sequence so that you can attempt to flow work (value) back to the customer. The whole concept behind flow is to create a series of interdependent steps and attempt to flow work uninterrupted from step to step so that we can see where it does not flow. Flow is merely a tool to use to be able to tell where your process needs to be improved.”

Sullivan said writing an estimate in the parking lot and then using that sheet to pre-order parts and establish the future production schedule is one of the biggest sources of waste in the collision repair process.

“The vast majority of the time it is inaccurate or incomplete,” he says. “It is the biggest driver of rework (supplements, part returns, supplemental part orders) and drives other types of waste such as ‘waiting’ and ‘inventory’ when vehicles have to sit around waiting for supplanted approvals, parts, authorizations” and other factors.

“Repair planning is the complete dismantle and organization of the vehicle upfront, so that 100 percent of the damage and parts requirements are identified prior to ordering parts. The idea behind this concept is first-time accuracy, a perfect repair plan that drives a perfect parts order,” he says. “The process of repair planning eliminates all the pain associated with ‘hidden damage’ because the repair planning mission is to expose all the damage upfront.”

There are many ways a shop can institute a parts process to eliminate or reduce waste, he said. “Utilizing a repair planning process is a great start, as it should only deliver perfect parts orders” because of the complete dismantling and identification of the damage.

Consider using parts carts in which dismantled parts/bolts/materials are organized and separated for easy identification.

Repairers also can institute a verification process where incoming part orders are unboxed and checked for correctness against the dismantled/damaged parts. Establishing guidelines with parts vendors regarding delivery of “complete” orders, timelines on delivering parts, internal parts ordering and return guidelines that vendors and employees understand is another good idea, according to Sullivan, who says having a systematic approach to the parts process can go a long way toward eliminating waste.

Part of Sullivan’s expertise comes from his study of Toyota’s production standards, including the concept of PDCA, which is plan, do, check, act.

The breakdown goes like this:
• Plan: Understand where we are headed, what we want to accomplish in this specific area? What is the target? What is the step we will take to move closer to our target?
• Do: Take the next step as prescribed in the Plan. Try to move toward the target condition.
• Check: Evaluate/understand the outcome of the step just taken. Did we move closer to the desired objective?
• Act: What have we learned? Do we understand what adjustments need to be made to the plan based on what you have learned from the check?

“PDCA is a methodology – a way to conduct controlled experiments in the shop based on a clear understanding of where we are headed,” Sullivan says.