Are Academic Skills Needed for a Technical Career?

It seems like many people have the perception that technical careers do not require academic skills.  In collision repair, not only do students need to learn and stay updated with today's sophisticated vehicles, they also need to have basic academic skills.  

While four-year college degrees are not designed for every student this does not lessen the significance of academic skills. Even though technical education provides a career path for students that may not be seeking a four year college degree, this does not exempt the academic skills required of them to properly and safely perform a technical career.

In order to get a job the applicant must know how to properly type a resume, fill out an application, properly communicate with interviewer, and the ability to read and comprehend the description and requirements of the job. Once employed, he or she will need to use basic academic skills in almost any job situation. At a body shop in a dealership, for example, the manager is going to hand the employee a work order and expect the employee to take the information and repair the vehicle. The supervisor is not going to instruct the employee step by step what to do like a teacher may do for a student. The employee will be expected to read and comprehend the work order and repair manuals; use critical skills to analyze the damage and determine a repair method and process; use math skills to calculate, to measure, align unibody structural components, and to understand estimating procedures and times. The employee will need good communication skills to communicate with co-workers, supervisors, and customers. Miscommunication is one of the biggest problems in the work place today. It is also important for the employees to have the right attitude and values. The best skilled employee can find them self unemployed if they do not know how to control their temper or if they are caught stealing. Which employee would you rather hire and work with? One that lacks some technical expertise, but understands the basics, has a good attitude, good values, team player, and is willing to learn the skills needed to become successful; or a seasoned employee with the skills of "Chip Foose" (if anyone watches Overhaulin), but is hard to work with, always complaining he's being cheated, can't get along with other co-workers causing a high employee turn over rate, hateful to customers, and makes you feel uncomfortable because you feel like he is always looking for ways to cheat or steal from the company? Would the high skill level be worth the headaches and risk?

According to Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) report, to survive in today's work place an employee must have the foundation and work place skills. These skills include:

•Basic Skills - writing, arithmetic, mathematics, speaking, and listening.
•Thinking Skills - ability to learn, reasoning, thinking creatively, make decisions and solve problems.
•Personal Qualities - individual responsibilities, self-esteem and self-management, sociability, and integrity.
•Resources - know how to allocate time, money, materials, space, and staff.
•Interpersonal Skills - works on teams, teach others to serve customers, lead negotiate, and work well with people from culture different backgrounds.
•Information - acquires and evaluates data, organize and maintain files, interpret and communicate, and use computers to process information.
•Systems - understand social, organizational, and technological systems, monitor and correct performance, and design and improve systems.
•Technology - select equipment and tools, apply technology to specific tasks, maintain and troubleshoot equipment.

Teaching students only technical skills is setting them up for failure in today's society. We need to teach students the basic academics needed, technical skills required, attitudes, values and work ethic expected by employers to ensure we provide successful employable employees in the future.

Technical education does not require all honor students. The ideal students need to have basic academics skills, safety conscious, interest in the program to motivate them to learn, willingness to complete assigned tasks, and a good attitude.

If you think you have what it takes to become a successful collision repair technician, then I invite you to join our team. Class size is limited to 15 students per year. There are only 4 openings remaining. I hope to see you in August.

Contact Information:
Donnie Smith
Lead Collision Instructor
Butler Community College
316-323-6890
asmith73@butlercc.edu

Here is some additional information to help you with the enrolling process

Butler Collision Repair Web Page
(Limit to 15 Students)

To learn more about Butler Community College and the enrolling process, visit our advising page at http://www.butlercc.edu/advising/

Apply and enroll online by visiting http://www.butlercc.edu/admissions/enroll_now.cfm

Enroll Now or Wait Another Year

The Collision Repair Program is filling fast. There are currently only 4 openings left in the Collision Repair program at Butler CC, as we only accept 15 new students per year.  Enrollment for this program is only offered once per year, which is now, the fall semester. Once this program is full, you will have to wait another year before having the opportunity to enroll again. If you’re procrastinating until the last minute, you may be left behind.

 
Visit our check list to assure you taken all of the necessary steps to get enrolled. Visit HERE to enroll today before it’s too late.

If you have any questions feel free to contact me.

Donnie Smith
316-323-6890

asmith73@butlercc.edu 

P-Page Logic at ASA MOKAN Wichita Collision Chapter

The ASA MOKAN chapter in Wichita, Kansas held their monthly meeting Tuesday, June 23, 2009.  We had a speaker, Craig Baltz, explain the importance of following the procedure pages of estimating systems. 

Many shops have been denied items that they originally had written on their estimate.  As mentioned in the meeting, many times the items may have just be worded incorrectly.  By simply taking a little time to look at the p-pages and correctly wording non-included items, the estimator could add profit to every estimate.  You may be surprised how many dollars are unclaimed.  

One example mentioned was replacing a bumper cover.  Do you charge R&I, R&R, or Overhaul when replacing a bumper cover?  If you just charge R&R or R&I, you may be cutting yourself short.  I have some mixed feeling about which way is correct, but I’m open to explore the possibilities.  I certainly do not claim to know it all.  Another example is aiming headlamps.  I’m sure we all add time to aim headlamps in a front end collision.  However, do you charge mechanical or collision time for it?  Again, I’m not sure that I would charge mechanical time for that operation, but it is something to think about.  I believe we need to consider all possibilities.  If we did charge mechanical time for the operation, we’d add additional dollars to the shop profit.  

Other non-included operations addressed were masking jambs.  This is something that you have to do.  Are you getting paid to do it?  One shop owner said he gets paid for that most of the time.  Other’s said that they rarely get the insurance companies to pay for this operation.  What about covering the car to prevent from  over spray getting on it.(bagging)?  Do you get paid for that every time?  I’m not going to mention all of the topics mentioned; however, you may not realized how many dollars you are losing.  

One concern keeps being addressed at the meetings, which is proper documentation.  I think many shops are aware that they’re performing many operations that they’re not getting paid for.  However, shops may be tired of asking for non-included items, just to have them removed by the insurance companies.  Some feel the constant fighting, arguing, and negotiating with insurance adjusters is not worth their time.  I feel your pain, but if you will follow a few suggestions, it may be easier than you think to get paid for these items.  First, you have to ask for the non-included items.  If they pay it, great!  If not, you may consider documenting it and filing a complaint with the Kansas Insurance Commissioners Office.  Allow them to investigate the situation for you.  If you’re in the right and have good documentation, you stand a good chance to be paid for it. One member made an excellent point at the last meeting, which is, the insurance commissioner needs facts, not war stories.  Therefore, provide them with documented facts.  You may not get everything that you ask for every time, but you will never get it if you don’t ask for it.

A Few Suggestions: 

Use the P-Pages

First of all, you need to know what items are not included in an operation.  To do this look in your p-pages.  There is a website that have all the different estimating systems p-pages on it.  Take some time to look at your systems information.  It may take a little time on your part and we’re not going to change everything overnight, but start one step at a time.  One member suggested trying to find one non-included item to add to each estimate. That sounds like a good start to me.  If you would like to pursue this, you can visit the website with the p-pages at  www.degweb.org   

Ask for it

Include the item on your estimate.  It may be better to add a different line for each item.  The reason many shops may not get paid for items is because they clump things together.  Sure, it makes logical sense, but the insurance wants to see everything itemized.  If the insurance adjuster claims that they don’t pay for that operation, you may choose to show them that the item is a non-included operation that is required to properly perform the repair.  If they still refuse to pay you for the operation, you may consider filing a complaint with the Kansas Insurance Commission’s office.

Filing your complaint with the Kansas Insurance Commissioner's office.

I called the Kansas Insurance Office and they said that a complaint can be filed one of two ways.  You can use their online form to submit the complaint or mail the complaint.  You can call them to assist you, but the complaint can not be verbal.  You must use documentation.  They said repair shops are welcome to file a complaint; however, if the insured (customer) files a complaint as well, this will strengthen the case.  Here is their contact information:

Online:      www.ksinsurance.org/

Phone:      1-800-432-2484

Mail:          Kansas Insurance Department
              Consumer Assistance Division
              420 SW 9th Street
              Topeka, KS 66612

Make A Difference in the Collision Industry

Get Involved

The best way to make a big impact is to get involved.  Bigger things can happen when many business leaders come together.  There is strength in numbers.  Join an association like ASA.  They are here to help the collision industry succeed.  In fact, they will be in Washington, D.C. fighting for the industry in July.  They’re working hard on topics like blend within the panel. You may also consider joining a collision repair school’s advisory board.  This is a great way to assure that schools produce qualified technicians for the collision industry.    

Continue Your Education

In Donald Trump’s new book “Think Like a Champion”, he says “Being a know-it-all is like shutting the door to great discoveries and opportunities.”  Another statement he makes in his book that I agree with is “The more you learn, the more you realize what you don’t know.”  That is very true for me.  With the complexity and changes being made to today’s vehicles makes this statement ring true to this industry.  Therefore, I encourage you to stay up-to-date by continuing your education, which is another good reason to join ASA.  I learn something new at every ASA meeting that I attend.  I-CAR and Masters Education Services also have some outstanding classes to choose from.  Don’t shut the doors, keep an open mind and be willing to learn something new.

Social Network

Working at a college, I realized that students communicate different than they used to.  Drew Barrymore puts it in perspective in one of her movies.  She says something like, “people don’t go get their hair done to impress guys today, they update their profile page.”  This sounds funny, but it’s kind of true.  There is a lot of time spent online.  I realized if I was going to connect with students, I needed to go where they spend most of their time.  However, in the past few years, young and old, have consumed the social networks like FaceBook.  This can be another great resource to network and stay up to date with what is going on in the collision industry.  You may consider checking out the new social network www.collisionhub.com   There you will find groups for students, educators, shop owners, and more.  

I encourage all business leaders involved with the collision industry to join us for our next meeting.  We’d like to hear your concerns and suggestions.    

Our next ASA meeting is August 4, 2009.  Tony Molla with ASE will be our guest speaker.  This is your chance to get involved.  We hope to see you there.  

For more information about joining ASA MOKAN contact our Wichita Chapter President:

Brad Shelton, Shelton Collision Repair

316-788-1528 /  brad@sheltoncollision.com

ASA MoKan Joined Together with SCRS and AASP for the 4th Annual Midwest Collision Industry Forum

This was my 1st year to attend the event, but this was the 4th year for the Midwest Collision Industry Forum in Columbia, Missouri to join together.  I'm starting to meet others in the collision industry in this area, as I moved to Kansas from Texas about two years ago.  I'm learning that the Kansas and Missouri folks are friendly and easy to get along with.  It was also nice to meet some of my Collision Hub friends, which were from several different states.  

It was interesting to see three different associations get together and share ideas.  A couple things that I felt came out of the meeting were unity and documentation.  

Unity

The words unity and working together kept surfacing to the top of the discussions.  I believe that our ASA MOKAN Executive Director, Sheri Hamilton, summed it up.  She said, "we need to have unity with one message to be heard for the collision industry."  In other words, we need to put everything on the table and determine what the message is that the collision industry wants.  Once determined, we can all focus on the same message and move forward together. 

Documentation

What I mean by documentation is to document your complaints and submit them to the correct resource.  For instance, there were complaints of how the aftermarket parts are shipped,different insurance issues, etc.  Speakers from both Progressive and Taiwan Auto Body Parts Association conveyed the same message.  We need the proper action to be taken to correct the problems.  You must document everything and provide us the documentation.  If they don't have concrete evidence, they can not correct the problem.  Hearsay, complaining, and fussing will not hold any weight when proposing solutions.  

Before you can take the action, you must know what action to take.  Therefore, I've provided a few links to help you.

CAPA Parts Complaints

I visited this website and it appeared to be fairly simple to navigate.  According to Karen Fiest with TABPA, filling this form out and submitting will hold more weight for correcting the problem than hearsay or complaining.  However, she said that very few shops take the time to submit the form.  I encourage you to start using this form with any of your CAPA complaints.  http://www.capacertified.org/complaint.asp

Insurance Complaints

Progressive speaker, Chris Andreoli attended the meeting last year.  As I mentioned, I was not there, but I heard it was a little rough.  Chris attended again this year and asked the shop owners if any improvements resulted from last years meeting.  Many shop owners agreed that their have been some improvements.   He mentioned by knowing what the concerns were, helped him address the company, which resulted in improvements.  He plans to continue listening to the concerns of the collision industry and looking for ways to address them. If you have an insurance complaint, the best way is to submit the complaint  through your state insurance department.  In Kansas visit HERE and submit the complaint.  Jim Welch, with the Kansas Insurance Department attended our last months ASA Wichita meeting and he too said that he can not move forward unless he has a complaint on file. 

This is just a scratch off the surface of the issues the collision repair industry face.  I encourage all business leaders to get involved and help pave the way to success in the collision industry.  

To help make a difference join ASA at www.asashop.org  If you're in the Wichita, Kansas area, we recently started a new ASA Wichita Collision Chapter.  Our next meeting is June, 23 at 7PM in Wichita.  For more information contact our Chapter President: 

Brad Shelton, Shelton Collision Repair
(316) 788-1528 / brad@sheltoncollision.com

If you're not in collision repair industry yet, but you would like to learn more about seeking a career in the industry contact me:

Donnie Smith, Butler Community College

316-323-6890 / asmith73@butlercc.edu

 

Tips To Keep Your Car Running Safer and Longer

Jody DeVere is dedicated to helping women buy and maintaining their vehicles.  The current economy may compel us to ignore car maintenance to save money.  However, the dollars saved will cost us in the end.  Proper maintenance  is crucial to keeping our cars safe and running longer.  Watch Jody's interview, which will give you (man or women) some tips that you can do yourself to save money and keep your car properly maintained.  

Staying organized to produce a lean working environment in the collision industry.

I recently attended an I-CAR class, Cycle Times, which touched on the subject of lean.  It was a great class.  If you’re interested in improving the time it takes repair a vehicle at your shop, then I would recommend you attend this class.  They mention in the class that cycle time is not only the responsibility of the manager or technician, but of everyone there.  Everyone from the receptionist to the detail tech have an important job and role to improve cycle time.  Therefore, I recommend this class for everyone at your shop.

As we peel the layers of what lean looks like for a body shop, I will share my discoveries with you.  One of the concerns with lean is organization.  Good organization skills can save you time and headaches, if you take the time to take the necessary steps.  If you have a place for everything and know where it will be every time you need it, this will save a considerable amount of time for you and the other technicians in the shop.  

One way to stay organized is by using rolling carts or stands.  You may consider buying enough rolling stands to be able to assign one to each vehicle in the shop.  When a job is started, the technician should put all the parts to the car on this stand.  Be sure to bag and label all small parts, clips, screws, etc.  I recommend having a separate labeled bag for each part (R. Fender, Ft Bumper, etc.) taken off the vehicle.  Once the technician is done with the vehicle, the stand moves to the next work area with the car.  This will allow the vehicle and the parts to stay together at all times.  This will eliminate walking back and forth the shop if another technician is taking additional parts or moldings off.  When the car is ready to reassemble, everything will be right there ready to be installed.  

This is just a small step your shop can do to produce a more organized system that will improve cycle times and help you take another step towards a lean working environment.  

As I learn more about lean and how it fits into the collision industry, I’ll post it on this blog.  If you have any questions, comments, or advice about the lean process, we’d love to hear from you.  Leave us a comment.

There is no letter (I) in the word team - working together in a lean working environment.

I’ve been hearing about the collision industry going lean.  Therefore, I thought that I better check into the lean process to stay up with current trends and to determine what lean means for the collision industry. 

I’m still learning about this process, but I believe that we’ve been teaching some of the concepts already.  For instance, utilizing employees to produce higher results.  This is achieved by teaching team building activities.  I’ve always emphasized to work as a team, but it may become more important as many collision repair facilities go lean.  

Shops going lean are looking for team players that can work together in a systematic, simplistic, fast paced, working environment.  We’ll be discussing what that looks like for a collision repair facility in upcoming blog posts, as I learn more about the process myself.  

I don’t thing we can achieve full lean and six sigma status in an educational environment.  However, I think it’s important to address many of the principles.  We need to produce employees for traditional shops while teaching some of the current trends as well.  However, the idea of teamwork is a win/win for everyone.  I believe that these skills will work well for traditional and lean working environments. 

My favorite acronym for TEAM is this: Together Everyone Accomplishes More.  I believe this is one of the key ideas of lean...working together to improve each segment of a business. 

Lean and six sigma methods are not new, but incorporating them into a collision repair business are new to me.  Check back to explore and discover how these methods fit into the collision repair industry.  

If you’re knowledgeable about the lean or six sigma process, we’d love to hear and learn from you.  Leave us a comment.

Summer is Here - Back to the Mustang Project

Summer is here and we're starting to work on the Mustang.  

Here are the first three parts of our project.

Part 1 - The Start

This project is not being performed at the college, but at home with my boys, Jordan and Jacob. We bought this 1966 Mustang last summer as a father-son project. We don't have the time or money to do a full restoration. Therefore, our plan is not to build a show car, but a nice looking car that you can drive on a daily basis. We will have to repair as much as possible, because we have a low budget for the project. 

We decided to do this low budget project and video some of the steps as a guide for other parents that may want to do a parent-child project. Again, if you're looking to do a full restoration (show car quality) these may not be the steps to follow. You're probably going to completely disassemble the car and rebuild piece-by-piece. 

Part 2 - Wash

The first thing that you need to do is wash the vehicle to remove all silicones. For this application, regular dish soap works well. It strips the waxes and greases, which is the purpose of this pre-wash. Car soaps are designed to protect the car waxes on the surface. This step can save you many problems and headaches later down the repair process. If silicones are not completely removed, they may be smeared into the substrate and cause fisheyes during the painting process. 

After you have properly washed the car, you may even want to use wax and grease remover to assure all contaminates are removed from the vehicle.

Part 3 - Remove Front Fenders

The front end parts were already removed when we bought the car. I will have to find and replace those parts when we start putting the car back together. Next, we removed the front fenders. As we mention in the video, one of the most important steps is keeping your hardware and parts organized. Whether you are going to have a car tore apart for a few weeks or a few years, this will make the reinstallation much easier. 

One way to do this is to get some zip lock bags and label one for each panel that you remove. Put all the hardware and small parts into the bag and label the bag accordingly. Another way is to screw the bolts back into the bolt hole after the part has been removed. This work well, but may get in the way when working or painting the parts. Whatever method you choose, just make sure everything will be easy to lay out and put back together when the time comes.

You may have to remove adjacent parts to get to the part you are wanting to remove. On the mustang, we had to remove the rocker panel molding, to give us full access to the fender. Once the molding was removed, we removed the right front fender by using a 1/2 socket, 1/2 wrench, phillips screw driver, and the bags and marker to properly store the hardware.

Tips:

Some of my students have been confused which is the right side and the left side of the vehicle. The way you determine which side is which is to sit in the vehicle. When sitting in the car, youll notice your right hand is your passenger side, which is the right side of the car and your left hand will be the drivers side, which is the left side of the car. 

If you project is going to be tore apart for a long time you may consider taking pictures before you tear it apart. This will help you remember how things go back together. 

If you have bolts that are hard to remove, you may try to heat the nut or bolt using a small torch. Be careful not to burn any wires or get close to anything flammable.

BCRN May Newsletter Blog

This is a newsletter blog that is May in Review and a Preview of June

Another Year Gone

Do you remember when you were young and the days and years moved so slow. I remember I felt like I had all the time in the world to accomplish everything that I wanted to. I often heard my parents talk about how fast time goes by, and I thought they were crazy. Well, after graduating high school, time started speeding up for me. I think as we gain responsibilities, marriage, families, and jobs our lives get busier, which result in less time to get all of our to-do's completed. This starts our realization that our time is limited each day and year. I once heard it put this way. If you're old enough to remember VCR cassette tape, you will remember that we used to have to rewind or fast forward them. When you put it in the VCR player and hit fast forward it would start out fast forwarding the cassette very slow. As it get towards the middle it starts getting faster and faster. By the time it get to the end it was spinning at a very high speed. I guess life is kind of the same way. I'm stuck in fast forward and it's getting faster...I guess my parents were not crazy after all. Some of the days still go by slow, but the years are starting to fly by.

Anyway, another school year behind me. August will be here soon and I'll be ready to do it all over again. 

The Collision Repair Class of 2009 - Read More 

Butler’s Gratitude to Chicago Pneumatic Tools and Tomorrow’s Technician Magazine.

If you have been following our class blog, you know that Butler’s Collision Repair and Auto Tech programs were named among the top 20 schools in the nation by CP Tools and Tomorrow’s Technician Magazine. If we had made it to the final four, we would have received $25,000 in tools to be divided between the schools. The school named “The School of the Year” was recognized in person by CP Tools, Tomorrow’s Technician along with celebrity car builder, Rich Evans. Read full blog post

ASA Starting a New Collision Repair Chapter in Wichita, KS

Read about last months meeting

Next meeting is June 23, 2009. It will be located at 301 S. Grove - Wichita Area Technical School in Wichita, KS. We will meet at 7:00PM. David and Craig Baltz will present P Page logic and it's importance in the collision industry. 

To learn more or join our chapter contact:

Brad Shelton, Shelton Collision Repair

(316) 788-1528 / brad@sheltoncollision.com

A New Network for the Collision Repair Industry

I am active with a Facebook Collision Repair Group and several other networks. I recently joined a new network, called Collision Hub, that you may be interested in. I invite you to join me on this group at http://collisionhub.ning.com/profile/DonnieSmith I look forward to seeing you there.

Looking Forward

Time To Enroll

If you're interested in a collision repair career, you may consider getting enrolled into our program soon. Enrollment is limited to the first 15 students.

For more information about enrollment and to determine if collision repair is right for you, visit enrollment post.

Finding Your Passion

Still not sure if collision repair is a fit for you. Check out our post about finding your passion and learn how others became passionate about their careers.

Career Tips from the man...Chip Foose

Training

I am going to attend an I-CAR class CYC01 in Yukun, Oklahoma next week. This class is about cycle times in the collision industry. I think this will benefit the students by incorporating some of the concept into our program. Even though we don't operate a business, we still use business concepts to give the students a taste of the working world. My interests for the next year are working on ways to go green, lean and improve cycle times.

Mid June I will attend ASA Midwest Collision Industry Forum in Columbia, Missouri. There will be a full day of information packed seminars. If you're involved in the collision repair or insurance industries, I encourage you to attend. Learn more by opening the above link.

BCRN in other places

Join us on FaceBook. We have a group "Collision Repair Network" for technicians to network. Join this group

You can watch all of our videos on our YouTube BCRN channel 

Collision Hub Network

Contact Information

For more information about the Collision Repair program contact:
Donnie Smith
Lead Collision Instructor
(316)323-6890
asmith73@butlercc.edu

For more information about the Auto Tech program contact:
Jeremy Carlson
Auto Tech Instructor
(316)322-3287
jcarlson5@butlercc.edu
================================
No facts, quotes or questions this month. I'll get new facts, quotes and questions kicked off in August when the students return.

===============================

Where Does it End?

I recently wrote a blog about insurance companies requiring shops to cut corners to lower the auto repair costs. This really happens; however, I like to give my students as many opinions and point-of-views that I can. There is a lot going on out there in the automotive/insurance industries, which makes it hard to determine what is right and what is wrong. It feels like we’ve turned into a gray society, which can become confusing and give us mixed emotions.

Here are a few more twists to consider when forming your opinions.

It seems like there is a scam every time we turn around.  Auto accidents are no exception, as there are reports of individuals staging auto accidents to collect insurance money.  If insurance companies do not fight against this type of fraud, this will result in higher premiums for everyone.  However, there are also reports of insurance negligence.  Insurance companies are denying claims, which is resulting in many innocent individuals paying the consequences.  Both insurance negligence and accident fraud are reality and is something you will need to consider in the collision repair business.  As an auto appraiser for an insurance company or an estimator for a body shop, you will have to deal with insurance companies and vehicle owners.  It may be a good idea to research and form some beliefs to know where you stand.

Let me know what you think by leaving us a comment.

Take a few minutes to view the two videos below. 

Accident Fraud


Insurance Negligence


This is a deep subject for my current students to think about over the summer. They will have to form their own opinions about the industries.

If you would like to learn more about working on cars that have been involved in an accident; frame repair, automotive welding, body repair, plastic repair, panel replacement, prep and painting, and estimating, then you may consider enrolling into our collision repair program. You too can start forming your opinions and decide what angle and industry is a fit for you.

If you're interested in enrolling our collision repair program at Butler, feel free to contact me.

Contact Information:
Donnie Smith
Lead Collision Instructor
Butler Community College
316-323-6890
asmith73@butlercc.edu

Here is some additional information to help you with the enrolling process

Butler Collision Repair Web Page
(Limit to 15 Students)

To learn more about Butler Community College and the enrolling process, visit our advising page at http://www.butlercc.edu/advising/

Apply and enroll online by visiting http://www.butlercc.edu/admissions/enroll_now.cfm

Planing Ahead

It looks like all of the US car makers are in trouble.  According to an article in the Wichita Eagle, General Motors filed for bankruptcy, which is the forth largest in US history and the largest for an industrial company.  

The recession has definitely took it's toll on US car makers; however, Ford planned ahead in 2006 by mortgaging their assets to build a financial cushion.  Therefore, by planning ahead, I believe that Ford is the strongest of the US car makers.  Take a minute to read this article from the Wichita Eagle and let me know what you think.  What do you think is going to happen?

Here is a video discussing the outcomes if GM files bankruptcy - (This video was before we knew about the bankruptcy.)