Shop employees need to know, abide by the company culture.

Want to do your part to help the nation’s economy rebound? Just find a new way to put technology to work for your shop.

In a 2008 study of customer satisfaction with the auto insurance claims process, J.D. Power and Associates found that across all insurers, customers who had filed a claim within the preceding 12 months were generally satisfied. But there was a market variance between the highest rated among the 25 insurers measured and those father down in the
rankings.

At the International Bodyshop Industry Symposium held earlier this year in Germany, event moderator David Lingham posed an interesting rhetorical question for attendees. At any given moment, he said, there may be 100,000 collision repair estimates being prepared worldwide. If you could observe that process, how much time would you see the estimator spending with the vehicle versus how much time the estimator was spending with the vehicle owner?

Growth in the U.S. collision repair market is likely to be anemic at best for the next four years, but things could be a lot worse for shops and vendors in the industry, according to Tony Aquila, founder and CEO of Solera, Inc., the parent company of Audatex.

Here are 11 steps that will alow you to avoid accidents.

Here’s how production has changed at a shop that’s gone lean.

If the idea of yet another explanation of such “lean processes” as “5S,” “constraints” and “blueprinting” has you moving on to the next article, stop for just a moment. Because beyond the symposiums, consultants, panel discussions and trade press attention focused on lean are some real-world shop operators ready to share their experiences – both good and bad – with trying a new model in their shops.

>Spend 20 minutes watching TV or walking the aisles of your neighborhood grocery store or discount retail chain and one thing will quickly become apparent: Virtually every company is touting the “green” benefits of its products or services.