Oct. 19, 2015—Industry consulting firm J. Hunter & Associates announced the winners of its inaugural Auto Body Repair Excellence in Material Management awards on Friday.
For the awards, which focus on lean practices in materials management, one shop location is chosen in each of three categories: MSO; independent, single location; and fleet/large vehicle repair centers.
Scotts Collision Center (Stroudsburg, Pa.) was selected in the MSO category, and Big Sky Collision (Billings, Mont.) has been chosen in the independent shop category. The selection process is not yet complete for the fleet/large vehicle repair centers.
In order to be considered for these awards, shops must meet high industry standards, including meeting or exceeding all environmental regulations, minimizing waste, and using quality warranted paint materials. Shops are compared with six separate metrics that include measurements demonstrating the minimization of waste and environmental impact, cost control as measured in per RO and per refinish labor unit and producing quality repairs. Cumulative ranking in all six KPIs determine rank within peer groups.
These shops were chosen out groups who:
- Agreed to have their KPIs compared within their respective group
- Had their purchases submitted independently
- Supplied several key sales inputs needed to complete the calculations
- Material Management Reports compared for at least one year