Wishing All Of The Followers Of BCRN A Happy Thanksgiving!

I appreciate all of you that take the time to read this blog.  I would like to extend my appreciation by wishing each one of you a Happy Thanksgiving.

As I posted on Facebook earlier, I am thankful for my failures.  What I mean by that is that I am thankful that I have the health and ability to try new things.  Whether I succeed or fail, at least I have the chance and opportunity to try.   

What Are You Thankful For...?

I will end this post with a quote that one of my Facebook friends shared with me.

 "Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently." ~Henry Ford

Have A Happy and Safe Thanksgiving Holiday.

Donnie

Connecting With Champions in the Collision Repair Industry

Skills USA National Winners. From Left is Jennifer, Kayla, Rachel

I had the pleasure of meeting some of the National SkillsUSA winners while at NACE. Collision repair has been a male dominated industry, but more women are showing an interest and becoming recognized as champions in the collision industry.

I asked Gold Medal winner, Kayla E. Toncik to tell me a little about herself while at NACE 2009. Kayla was born and raised in Nazareth, Pennsylvania. She recently graduated from Nazareth Area High School and The Career Institute of Technology. While at CIT, Kayla studied Automotive Refinish Technology for the three years that she was there. Kayla participated in SkillsUSA placing second in all of the competitions she competed in. That is until her senior year. She had one last shot at trying to place first. This time she made it through local competition, which allowed her to move on to district competition, where she took first as well. Kayla was named the first female in the state of Pennsylvania to take first in the Automotive Refinish Technology competition in SkillsUSA history. This allowed Kayla to move on to National where she competed with students from all 50 states in America and 3 US territories. There Kayla took first place in the nation and the first female in the history of SkillsUSA to take first in non-traditional auto refinish competition.

Kayla plans to compete in SkillsWorld, 2011 in London, England, where she will be representing the USA. That is awesome and I wish Kayla the best of luck at this competition.

I asked Kayla what her future career goals were. She replied that having a family is important to her and she wants to become a Collision/Refinish teacher so she can help others succeed in life.

After meeting Kayla, I believe that her sincerity and desire to help others will allow her to reach any goal that she set for herself.

Charley Hutton and a PPG Trainer Demonstrate How to Woodgrain Using Waterborne Paint

It is funny how some things happen in life. For instance, do you remember the commercial where these people were at the movie theater and someone drops their chocolate bar in someone else's peanut butter? The point the commercial was implying is that Reese's was discovered by an accident. If you don't remember, I included a video of the commercial below.

The reason I bring this up is because Charley Hutton from the television shows American Hotrod and Overhaulin', said he discovered this wood graining technique by accident. They sprayed some paint on an area, but did not like the way it looked. Therefore, he started to wipe it off to start over. However, after wiping the paint he noticed how the waterborne paint smeared and streaked when wiping it. This created the wood graining technique they are demonstrating in the video.

As I mentioned before, always be open minded and look from way to learn from your mistakes. Mistakes have created many of the things we use today.

Wood Graining With Charley and Paul

The Reese's Commercial 

Here is a LINK to a blog listing the top 10 accidental inventions in the world.   What have you discovered by accident?  Leave us a comment with your story.    

Positioning Yourself in the Collision Repair Industry.

Mike Anderson presented a great presentation at NACE 2009 about how jobbers can better position themselves in the collision repair industry.

As a jobber, the success of their customers is a curtail part of the jobbers success. If the shop is not doing well or goes out of business, this means the jobber is doing less business or will not be as successful either.

Mike explained that a jobber of the future is going to do a better job of serving their customers. With a shrinking industry and increased complexity of the vehicles being produced, this will be a challenge for the jobber and shop owners. The jobbers will position their customers to recruit and retain quality employees. They will position their customers to be coached to success. The jobber will become auditors for quality of repairs, estimates, waste, lean process, customer service, and much more to assure the shop is running effective and proficient. Shops that do not take hold and embrace the changes coming may be looking at closing their doors. Therefore, it is in the jobbers best interested to help the business owner avoid any problems the future may hold.

Mike also conveyed that shops are going to have to be more careful with material usage and find ways to charge for all of the materials used. Shops are going to have to dig a little deeper and assure that they are charging for all of the line items that are not included in the repair operation.

The jobber will need to become more resourceful and able to point their customers in the correct direction. They must know what websites are out there to help the shop owners. The jobbers will need to help with accounting issues, website designers, it experts, and marketing strategies.

In a nutshell, jobbers are going to need to position their customers to be coached to success and the shop owners are going to have to be open-minded and be coachable. This will be required to survive the futures competitive and complex times.

Mike gave an excellent presentation and this just touches on a few of the topics that he discussed. For more information you can contact Mike Anderson ckneip@wagonwork.com or you can visit his website at www.wagonwork.com

Donnie Smith

Learn By Teaching - How To Use A Stud Nail Gun

Butler students lead a student led lesson on how to use a stud nail gun. This lesson was developed by the students. It required research using our computer lab, I-CAR CD's and hands-on practice. The lesson requires each team to prepare a lecture presentation using visuals in the classroom and a short demonstration as shown in the video below. The students are still learning these skills, but are on their way to becoming top notch technicians in the collision industry.

I-CAR Provides Free Training At NACE 2009

I-CAR was at NACE providing free classes conveying the importance of finding the recommended procedures to repair modern day cars.   In years past a technician had a lot more flexibility of sectioning parts.  However, with all the new metals being used, sectioning in the wrong location may result in an unsafe vehicle.  

They had a new Camaro on display showing the different metals.  The I-CAR instructor also explained a few locations that sectioning was allowed and other locations that were not.  Modern day cars are made from: mild steel, high strength steel, ultra high strength steel, boron, aluminum, etc.  More composites like sheet molded compound and carbon fiber are being used as well.  Therefore, it’s easy to see that we can’t continue doing the repairs the way that we always have in the past.  It’s crucial to get the training to learn the new techniques required to repair vehicles that will be safe if involved in another accident at a later time.  

With the complexity of cars being produced, it would be a good investment to make sure your technicians are properly trained and up-to-date with the changes.  Like I heard from Tony Molla, “The only thing worse than investing in your employees training and them leaving to work for someone else, is not training them and the employee staying.”  Think about it!

Check I-CAR.com or look into other training to assure that you are employing qualified technicians.  You will have happier employees, produce high quality work at your shop, and customers driving properly repaired cars for their safety, which will result in a satisfied customer for many years to come.    

Skills USA Champion Rachel Fonseca

I had the opportunity to meet Rachel Fonseca while at NACE. After meeting Rachel, it was easy to see how she was a Gold Medal Champion at Skills USA state and Silver Medal Winner at Skills USA Nationals. Rachel’s perseverance to make things happen and favorable personality has opened many doors for her in the collision repair industry.

Rachel has loved cars for as long as she can remember and working on them is her life. She graduated from Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational High School, in New Bedford, MA, where she majored in Collision Repair.

While at Voc, Rachel participated in SkillsUSA, and then became the first female in the 34 year MA state history to win Gold in Collision Repair. She was also the only student ever to win double Gold in Collision Repair & Automotive Refinishing. She then moved on to place second in Collision Repair at the SkillsUSA 2008 Nationals.

Currently, Rachel is employed as an Adult Education Instructor (teaching Collision Repair and Small Engine Repair) at Voc and also an assistant manager at an ice rink. Most of her free time is spent volunteering with Voc's Collision program on the Curriculum Advisory Board and training current students for the SkillsUSA competition. Rachel is also attending the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth to obtain a business degree.

It was a pleasure to meet Rachel and I wish her well on her bright future and endeavors. I would also like to thank Rachel for showing the other women out there that may be interested in technical education that it is possible to be successful in a male dominated industry.