Conner Brothers General Manager Kevin Conner is pinning much of the company's future success on a "lean management" approach that he implemented after exploring the concept at a regular 20-group meeting with body shop owners from around the country. The idea behind lean management, Conner explains, is that "everything you do on the vehicle, whether it's estimating or part of the production process, has to bring value to the customer."
The company has been testing some aspects of lean management at all of its facilities, with the greatest emphasis at its Midlothian, Va., shop. The results have been so positive that the company plans to broaden the project to include all three locations. "We're already seeing great benefits in production," says Conner. "It's a fun process. It gets the staff involved and rejuvenates the staff as well as ourselves." Noting that some technicians have been with Conner Brothers for at least five years, Conner adds, "If you're not changing something up, things will get boring."When Conner and his brother Alan, who manages the Midlothian shop and trains all new estimators, introduced the idea of lean management to their staffs, Conner says they told people, "You're the ones who experience the problems with our processes." The Conners encouraged people to come up with ideas for reducing what Conner calls "key-to-key" time — or the time between when customers drop off and pick up their vehicles.
One technician suggested, for example, that the shop keep Ziploc® bags on hand to hold clips removed from vehicles during the repair process. "Whoever does the re-assembly has all they need," Conner explains. And, by implementing quality checks throughout the repair process, Conner Brothers has been able to virtually eliminate "wash bay" supplements — problems with the repair process that are not discovered until the car is being cleaned in preparation for final delivery to the customer. Ongoing process improvements such as these give Conner confidence his business is cutting cycle times.What may have helped in gaining staff acceptance of the lean management process is the shop's unique compensation and reward system. Technicians are paid on an hourly basis — and bonuses are based on the shop's overall performance. That approach builds teamwork and encourages veteran technicians to help talented but less experienced colleagues get up to speed. "It's not about me and what can I turn," says Conner. "People realize that if the team is strong, they'll get more money."
Conner Brothers, originally known as Conner Brothers Body Shop, was founded in Richmond in the mid-1970s by Kevin's father Douglas and his brother. Kevin's uncle left the company in the 1980s, and Kevin and Alan have been working in the company since the 1990s. Although Douglas and his wife, Jean, still own the company and Jean still works in the office several days a week, the parents now have given their sons complete control of the operation.The company has expanded several times over the years. During the 1980s and 1990s, Conner Brothers operated several body shops within auto dealerships, but has since moved away from that approach — although the company continues to do a large volume of work for several local dealers. Since the late 1990s, the business has traded as Conner Brothers Collision Centers. "The words 'body shop' had negative connotations," comments Conner. "Our facilities don't look like body shops. They look more like doctors' offices."
Today the company operates out of three shops. These include a Richmond location the company has had since 1981 that was expanded in 2004, one in Midlothian that was originally operated as a drop-off location in the mid-1990s, and a third, also in Richmond, that was purchased from the shop owner when he retired. That shop — then known as Custom Auto Inc. — had an excellent reputation, so the Conner family now operates it as Custom Auto by Conner Brothers.
The Conners have been able to gain economies of scale by centralizing back office functions for the three locations. Modern information technology and communications infrastructure has helped in achieving that goal, notes Kevin. "Each location is a stand-alone network and is tied into the other locations through a secure VPN, or virtual private network." That approach enables a single location to handle accounting functions for the entire company.
Currently, Conner Brothers is conducting a test at the Midlothian location aimed at generating additional efficiencies. Each technician at that location has his own computer workstation, which is used to log and track repair progress, enabling vehicles to move through the process more quickly. Conner Brothers' long-term plan is to have a workstation for every technician in every location — although, currently, technicians at the other two locations use shared workstations.
Conner Brothers gets about 30 percent of its business through direct repair programs, which Conner views as the insurance industry's own take on lean management. "Some people think of it as something from the devil, but the model for DRP is good," Conner says. "It makes us better business people."
Television and radio advertising also help generate business. The company has its own distinctive jingle, which Conner says "morphs" every year. Conner is counting on an ongoing marketing plan, along with momentum from the Custom auto purchase and quality technicians, to help fuel future growth — and on the lean management approach to help ensure strong profitability.
