Industry Trek

Technological forces are gathering to make significant changes to collision repair. What does the future hold? Here's a hint: Think wireless

If you're looking for some perspective on the changing technological state of collision repair a great place to start is the television. Yes, that's right, the TV. The next time you're channel surfing, stop at the old time TV station and catch an episode of "The Andy Griffith Show." Follow that with an episode of the original "Star Trek" series. (It's always on somewhere.)

On both series you'll see groups of very decent people meeting life's challenges, with the major exception that one group lives in space and the other in small town N.C. Then there's the other major difference between shows — the technology. In '60s era N.C., the world is tied together with rotary dial phones. Operator assistance is necessary to contact anyone, and neighbors share a phenomenon called the "party line." In the 23rd Century world of "Star Trek," cell-phone like communicators let people communicate from thousands of miles away, instantaneous computer analysis is available and matter can be converted to energy and then back.

So what does any of this have to do with collision repair? Collision work currently stands between its traditional past and a fast moving future (much like the rest of the auto industry). Industry veterans like Chris Sachs, who recently retired from Northeastern Auto Coach in Hudson, N.Y., like to point out that little has changed in repair work over the past several decades. Metal parts may be replaced far more often than they are reshaped, but basically body work remains the same. Frames are still straightened, panels replaced and bodies painted. The main technological changes: vehicle models get updated and the tools to repair them evolve into more advanced, easier-to-use forms. The most noticeable changes probably lie in how business is conducted — dealing with insurers, etc.

The repair side of the business is now poised for some serious changes. Advances in computers and communications technology promise to transform how a vehicle is repaired, along with how one does the work and when. Read on.

Prologue: A critical decade

As repairers look at current trends in vehicle design, they need to keep two terms in mind: mechatronics and telematics. Mechatronics is a meeting point between mechanics and electronics. It describes adaptive steering and suspension systems, driver displays and other electronically variable system controls — essentially systems where electronics take over mechanical controls. Telematics is the two-way transfer of data between a vehicle and a stationary source — Internet service, Global Positioning Systems (GPS), etc. Manufacturers are investing heavily in both. In 2005 alone, automakers invested over $15 billion in computer semiconductors. Industry experts see telematics growing from a $9 billion to a $40 billion industry over the next decade. That means more electronic equipment, particularly sensors, in more places on an automobile. It also means vehicle architecture will evolve even more drastically from mechanical to electronic, a factor that will heavily impact shops which probably will need to be prepared for more technically challenging tasks.

Of course, only time will tell what these tasks will be. The next decade should be particularly critical, according to analysts like Roger Shulze, director of The Institute for Advanced Vehicle Systems (IAVS), part of the College of Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Michigan in Dearborn. Shulze and others believe the industry will "shake out" a number of emerging technologies over the next ten years before taking a more definitive course.

Shulze, for example, believes hybrids will disappear (or become prevalent only as forms of public transportation) as manufacturers and the marketplace focus more vehicles powered by a single fuel. The same should happen with materials as well, as manufacturers experiment with aluminum, carbon composites and new steels.

Regardless of powerplants and materials, the trend towards more electronically sophisticated vehicles should remain. Indeed, some of the technology they will incorporate already is at work in other applications and is in the early stages of finding a home in automobiles.

The Bluetooth advantage

By now you've noticed the curious phenomenon of otherwise normal people seeming to talk to themselves as they drive, shop or simply walk down the street. Looking a bit closer you notice a metallic black device clipped to their ears. That's a Bluetooth headset. That same technology could be an integral part of vehicle design.

Bluetooth is an industrial specification for wireless personal area networks (PANs). Bluetooth allows wireless devices to communicate to one another via a secure, low-cost, globally available short range radio frequency. Devices include personal digital assistants (PDAs), PCs, mobile phones, laptops, printers and digital cameras. Bluetooth is popular due to its high signal strength over the 2.45 GHz frequency across short distances and for the modest complexity and low price of its transceiver chips (which reportedly can cost as little as $3.50 each).

Bluetooth is a viable technology for automobiles since it operates at a range of 10 meters and less. No automobile takes up more than 10 square meters of space. Manufacturers such as DaimlerChrysler, Audi, Saab and BMW already have incorporated Bluetooth in vehicles to give drivers hands-free access to mobile phones. Manufacturers also are looking at plans to incorporate Bluetooth technology in vehicle telematic systems. In particular, Bluetooth radios could be used as sensors to respond to changes in tire and mechanical pressure, vibration, temperature and electrical output. In fact, they could be used as transceivers virtually everywhere on an automobile to monitor virtually every aspect of a vehicle's mechanical health.

They can send data to a central computer to warn drivers of a problem or a potential problem. Once inside a shop fitted with Bluetooth technology they also could send vehicle data to a shop computer for diagnosis.

Given the fact that Bluetooth could help monitor mechanical problems, its use may seem of little importance to collision repairs. You need to think long term here. Remember that vehicle architecture is increasingly joining electrical and mechanical structures. The lines between mechanical and collision repair, therefore, could begin blurring.

Collision shops might find it necessary to perform some kinds of mechanical repairs. Also, in the event of an accident where systems like steering or suspension were damaged, shops could use Bluetooth data to help diagnose damage. This becomes particularly significant for shops when manufacturers begin releasing products with by-wire technology to control steering, braking and other operational areas. Bluetooth capabilities inherently lend themselves to helping diagnose problems.

Bluetooth also has the potential to affect collision repair in another way. It could force designers to use different materials and architectures. Bluetooth uses an antenna to transmit data. Vehicle parts and materials can block its signal. Antennas can be designed to be omnidirectional to make it easier for them to retrieve signals. However, designers will have to account for design, parts and other factors that could interfere with reception.

Beyond diagnosis and design, Bluetooth has the potential to seriously impact collision repairers in another area — their ability to compete for business. Bluetooth may provide for the short distance transmission of data, but once this information is collected on the database of a device such as a computer it can then be transmitted long distances.

For example, diagnostic information could be sent long distances through a mobile cell line or through the Internet for a shop to collect and interpret. If the vehicle begins experiencing engine problems, it could automatically begin sending data to a shop, which could then notify the driver that he/she needs to stop in for service. Also, in the event of a system failure, a vehicle could send a message to a service provider who tracks the location of the vehicle and provides information on the nearest repair centers. Similar help could be given in the event of an accident.

The question here: how can a shop be sure it is competing for this business? More specifically, how does a shop get on the list of nearby repairers? If the vehicle needs to be towed from the scene, it will have to be taken somewhere — very likely the lot of a collision repairer. In these instances, how do independent shops compete with dealer shops and others to get this work?

One further question: Will the list of available shops also contain a schedule to show when each available shop will be able to perform the work? Will the list include prices and contain information, such as whether a shop is a member of a specific DRP?

In any case, when Bluetooth integrated systems begin the first line of diagnoses to tell drivers they need to get automotive service, shops undoubtedly will have to invest in technology that will allow them to compete for a piece of the work pie. They'll also have to invest time and resources in new ways to market their services to a more mobile, global public.

The wireless workplace

Most shops face a real squeeze when looking for space to fit equipment, front office and customer service space, along with work and personal use space and room for storage and inventory. As vehicles begin integrating systems in an effort to increase efficiency it would seem only appropriate that shops could do the same. Good news — equipment manufacturers have begun offering products that integrate a variety of tools and services. Just as significant, some of these tools now have wireless capabilities. Wireless frame measuring systems, for example, now allow technicians to take their work outside of shop walls.

Even more revolutionary, is a diagnostic product from Redmond, Wash., -based Microvison, the Nomad Display System. Nomad is a wireless, headworn see-through display that overlays computer based information over the real-world, allowing hands-free, head-up access to any digital information.

Consider the time techs spend walking to and from a computer terminal searching for repair information. Once they have the info, they frequently need to look back and forth from the work application to a terminal or a printout. Nomad takes that same data and displays it onto a lens, allowing a technician to overlay the actual application with visuals and diagnostic and repair information. Technicians use a side pack with controls to sort through available information.

Honda already has purchased over 3,800 Nomad systems for use at its dealer shops. Trials at Volvo Trucks North American Technical Support Center in Greensboro, N.C. have measured average increases in diagnostic efficiency of 31 percent.

Right now, Nomad is used for mechanical work. But it can be adapted for collision repair as well.

Significant as the virtual "joining" of human and computer that Nomad provides, this product is an important example of the kinds of innovations that should be coming to shops. The example Nomad provides is integration — one system seamlessly flowing into another. In this case, diagnostic and repair information is available at the application site. Following this example, a system for parts acquisition might also be integrated. Work order and insurance information could be added as the business and technical sides of collision repair become integrated.

This would set collision repair on course with the goals of other industries—namely, to breakdown the barriers that separate each part of a business in order to streamline processes and increase efficiency. Integrating information systems is the necessary first step. Providing greater access to this information is second. From there, shops determine how to use this information to run their own personalized operations.

Final word: Brave new world

What might the collision industry look like in 2016? To survive, repairers likely will have to make substantial investments to make their shops as technically advanced as the vehicles they intend to repair. While dealing with this challenge, they could very well find themselves facing new competition from mechanical shops along with dealers anxious to pump up revenues with repair dollars. They'll also need to find technically savvy managers and workers who know how to use the information highway to access ever more critical repair information and to market their services.

A bleak future for repairers? Hardly. Survival, as it always has, will be a matter of adapting to a changing environment. For repairers, that should mean saying "goodbye" to the collision industry's Mayberry days and "hello" to a bold new universe of technological innovations. Think about that the next time you watch Scotty miraculously save the Enterprise. In an earlier time he would have been working on cars.

Tim Sramcik is a freelance writer who has covered the automotive repair industry for more than five years. He has received national and regional awards for feature writing from the American Society of Business Publication Editors (ASBPE). He also has 15 years of experience in the technical writing industry.