Let’s look at how this principle applies to collision repair. There are an estimated 350 insurance companies selling automotive policies in the U.S. The top ten companies (roughly 2 percent) sell 64 percent of all policies, leaving the remaining 98 percent of insurance companies selling only 36 percent.
When working closely with collision centers, we often find that 25 percent of repair jobs make up 50 percent of total billed hours and the other 50 percent of billed hours come from the remaining 75 percent of repair orders.
So how does this apply to XRAY Repair Planning? Well think about this: 80 percent of the reasons why repair jobs sit idle during the door-to-door repair process can be attributed to 20 percent of the total labor hours required to process the repair. Let’s examine the math underlying this statement using the following case study.
ABC Collision Repair applies an average of five hours of administrative labor for each repair order. Add those hours to the average repair time of 20 hours and administrative labor amounts to 20 percent of all hours spent processing and repairing a vehicle.
PPG’s MVP XRAY Repair Planning focuses on that 20 percent factor and provides best practices focused on 80 percent of the controllable factors that impact on quality, speed and cost.
Developed by MVP Business Solutions experts, XRAY Repair Planning is a key component of the 4-day MVP Green Belt Training program that offers owners and key personnel intensive instruction on the practical application of Lean Six Sigma tailored for collision repair.
Implementing XRAY Repair Planning into the repair process offers a huge opportunity for a progressive shop to improve its business model and its bottom line performance.
KEY STEPS OF XRAY REPAIR PLANNING XRAY Repair Planning encompasses a set of pre-production processes focused on eliminating delays and roadblocks in areas where you have the greatest control and inf luence over the performance of your repair processes. Here is a short overview of the key steps.
Meticulous Disassembly & Discovery
The concept is quite simple: once you have the keys in hand and authorization to repair, meticulous disassembly of the vehicle allows for a more thorough assessment of the repair requirements and any necessary supplement authorizations.
Meticulous disassembly down to the clip allows you to break early and recover early. The process is highly organized and detailed. Parts, hardware and materials are clearly labeled and stored for ordering, check-in, mirror matching and delivery during production and re-assembly. These best practices enable any technician to perform the metal work and reassembly regardless of who performed the disassembly tasks.
Visual Mapping
Visual mapping provides an identification system for authorized repairs, repairs requiring supplement authorization and prior unrelated damage, and puts in place a standardized coding system that promotes efficient discovery and enhances communication of the repair’s requirements to the downstream production and paint departments.
Discovery
Following disassembly, the discovery process is conducted by a team typically comprised of the estimator, parts manager and XRAY technician. Together they thoroughly define requirements of the repair, any supplement authorizations and parts verification.
Parts Procurement
XRAY Repair Planning ensures that the process of delivering the right parts of the right quality to technicians at the right time. To do so, the parts manager verifies parts received from the preliminary parts order, making sure they are the right parts and their quality meets requirements. Additional parts identified during discovery are ordered as needed, and price and estimated date of arrival is determined during the order process. The repair job is then scheduled for production based on the anticipated arrival of missing parts. The repair goes no further until all critical parts have been received.
Quality Verification
This critical step measures performance of the XRAY Repair Planning process. Two critical factors are tracked: the upstream supplier performance (sales and estimating), and the effectiveness of the XRAY Repair Planning on the downstream process (production). Identifying and score-boarding these key measures provides the feedback needed for continuous improvement of the process.
The overriding goal of XRAY Repair Planning is to perform that perfect job at optimal quality, speed and cost—a scenario where all the parts were correct, damage free and available when delivered to the technician. The estimate and supplement were prepared and authorized prior to the vehicle being scheduled into production, and the job was assigned to the technician at the precise moment the previous job was completed.
Of course, the above scenario cannot be played out on every repair. A “train wreck” like a $12,000 Lexus job, for example, is highly complex. It may be the case where the vehicle cannot be disassembled, repaired and reassembled by multiple technicians as efficiently as desired. However, consider this—poor cycle time performance is not typically due to the “train wrecks.” That’s because this type of job makes up a small percentage of repair orders.
But what about the majority of jobs which are not train wrecks, and typically run south of 40 billable hours? What would be the impact if you could shave three days off the typical RO? For sure, it’ll pay off with a significant reduction in your overall cycle time — and a level of performance sure to make your shop a more attractive choice for consumers and insurers alike. XRAY Repair Planning will help you get there.
We cannot possibly cover all the details of how XRAY Repair Planning works to improve quality, speed and cost in a short article like this one. But we hope this has stimulated your thinking around the possible performance improvements you can achieve by combining the Pareto Principle with a stable XRAY Repair Planning process. If you are interested in attending the MVP Green Belt Training program where XRAY Repair Planning is taught in detail, contact a PPG territory manager or call MVP Business Solutions at (440) 572-6149.
