GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas , Sept. 17, 2015 As large and small businesses race to embrace cloud computing, big data and digital platforms, the collision repair industry sits at a crossroads. Approximately half of the sector's repair shops and parts suppliers use digital systems to speed up delivery, coordinate repairs, manage the flow of data and communicate with stakeholders. However, the other half, mostly independent repair shops, haven't crossed the digital divide.

As new technology and consumer expectations drive opportunity to change, companies that don't navigate into the digital revolution may be left in the dust.

Healthcare and Body Shops

To improve efficiency and speed up treatment, healthcare, for example, has seen a purposeful rush into digital transformation. Telemetrics and electronic medical records help caregivers manage treatment and facilitate communications among stakeholders, i.e., providers, insurers and patients. The parallel between healthcare and collision repair is striking. Both industries involve multi-party coordination and time-sensitive scheduling. Both deal extensively with insurers and are under time and cost pressures to provide service.

Collision repair and healthcare are not the only industries facing seismic change stemming from internal and external pressures; nor are they the only industries examining big data and technology to improve performance. And anyone who makes online purchases understands that improvements in supply-chain planning, forecasting and inventory management have dramatically sped up delivery of consumer goods and services. What once took days must now be accomplished overnight.

As a result of this consumer culture change, car owners awaiting repairs have higher expectations than ever before. In a world where Amazon and Zappos deliver overnight, consumers aren't as patient as they used to be with auto repair.

Beyond meeting customer demand, there are a number of reasons why the "phone and fax" repair shops should embrace digital infrastructure sooner rather than later:

• Increased agility: As the complexity of collision repair grows, there's a corresponding need to standardize and rely on a common database for predictive and synchronous parts procurement, real-time inventory management, forecasting and estimating. As with healthcare, that means increased integration and a lot of moving parts - a continuous business imperative to effectively order, track and streamline customized steps to successful repair. What's more, as the automotive sector moves toward robotics, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, and collision-avoidance sensors, repair shops will need to respond with a greater degree of technical sophistication. Tomorrow's repairs will look less and less like today's repairs, and tomorrow's collision technicians will need the training and technology to match.
• Hiring and retention: Most body shops hoping to recruit the best and the brightest are having a hard time hiring and retaining young talent for all aspects of the repair collision process-- customer service, estimators and technicians. Next generation craftsmen and women "Millennial Natives" - whose digital skills match their love of cars - don't expect to be ordering parts and tracking shipments via phone and fax any more than most of us expect to be talking by telegraph.
• Certification with OE brands: Automotive collision shops aren't only in the business of delivering on promises to customers; they need to keep all stakeholders happy. That includes maintaining compliance and adhering to manufacturer recommended repair procedures. When a repair is made quickly and correctly, the triad of car owner, parts supplier and manufacturer experience a halo effect. When shops respond promptly and look good, the carmakers' brand and franchises look good too. Shops that are nimble will stand out by ordering parts, tracking deliveries and coordinating with all parties in real time.

How did we get here?

For most of its history, collision repair shops were independently owned and operated. In recent years, a perfect storm of private equity funding, the rise of process-driven, high-tech multi-shop operators (MSOs), and the availability of powerful and affordable digital platforms have led to change. Who's aboard? Aside from the MSOs, most of which have embraced digital infrastructure, fewer than 50 percent of the independently owned and operated collision shops have made the transition. Among those that have, the results are dramatic and satisfaction among employees, insurers and customers is soaring.

Of course it all began with Henry Ford. Famously, he said that consumers could have any color Model T, as long as it was black. Initially, car buyers were fine with that option. But as the technology and processes improved, and manufacturers could offer more variety, consumers began to expect more. A hundred years later, we saw the emergence of Just-in-Time production and lean operations - disciplines that continued to improve efficiency and change consumer expectations. Big data and advanced supply-chain planning have been helping retailers maintain the right inventory. In consumer products, avoiding an out-of-stock condition is practically an art form.

The automotive industry will never go back to the simplicity that it once was, but will grow in complexity with the increased demand for efficiency and customized repair requirements.

Future

As consumer demand for agile products and services increases, the next phase of the collision repair revolution will make mobile connectivity between all players in the repair cycle the norm.

Healthcare now has the ability to analyze that data, to query it, and to make predictions and decisions based on it. Soon, collision shops and suppliers will have the same capability to extract meaning from their data to order parts, manage inventory and assure speedy delivery - more efficiently than ever.

Bottom line: In a rapidly changing industry where increasing demand, risk and complexity are coupled with the opportunity to change lanes and embrace the next big thing, it's time for the collision repair industry to put the pedal to the digital metal.

ABOUT OVERALL PARTS SOLUTIONS

OPS started in 1995 as a professional marketing group, representing and helping a spectrum of parts suppliers manage day to day relations with collision shops throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Within a few years, OPS expanded to provide parts delivery services for dealerships, OSHA compliance and technical solutions.  In 2005, the parts management platform, OPSTRAX, was released.  Since its inception, it has worked to close the gap in miscommunication between body shops and parts suppliers and has created standardization within the parts procurement process. OPSTRAX has been adopted as the preferred solution for a majority of the top MSO's and parts suppliers throughout North America .

 

SOURCE Overall Parts Solutions