By the time most readers receive the print edition of this magazine, there will be just one week or so until we close nominations for our awards. So, don't delay in getting in your nominations!
Each year, the staff at the brands that make up the Vehicle Repair Group here at Endeavor Business Media pore over dozens of high-quality and detailed entries for the award nominations. I'm moved at the outpouring of support for our readers' colleagues and peers for both our FenderBender Award and the Best Repair Planner/Estimator, which is sponsored this year by the Ford Certified Glass Network and PPG Refinish.
That said, I challenge you to make our task even more difficult by us sending us even more nominations! Although previous winners are ineligible, I encourage repeat nominations, if that person remains your favorite! The competition is close, and perhaps you think of other criteria to include for this year's nomination for both awards presented by FenderBender. Thank you for all you do, especially for helping recognize these deserving people! For more information, go to: fenderbender.com/awards.
The Best Repair Planner/Estimator Award, as I've written about before, came about to help highlight the need for complete, safe, and quality repairs. It's a theme that was repeated throughout the I-CAR National Conference, covered elsewhere in this issue. As any stakeholder goes through his or her day, speakers urged, they need to consider every action they take that affect their ability to deliver a safe repair to protect the consumer.
Collision Advice's Mike Anderson, whose team will help judge the estimate exercise portion of the award selection process, was one of those speakers. He recalled the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, which was determined to be caused by faulty o-rings in the solid-fuel rocket boosters, as a failure of everyone who knew the o-rings could be a problem at low temperatures not speaking up and scrubbing the launch on that cold day.
"I understand in this industry, we have to look at the KPIs like cycle time and severity," he said. "But cycle time severity should never, ever trump human lives. And again, so ladies and gentlemen, when you look at this, if you do any research, you find that it was the culture of NASA that led to the deaths of these astronauts. There was a culture that said, 'We've got to launch on time, and we can't go over budget."
A culture of committing to safe repairs can be taught, he said, just as if our parents taught us to wash our hands after we use the restroom, or to brush our teeth before we go to bed.
"Once that's ingrained in you, when someone comes along and tells you you don't have to do that anymore, you can't deviate from that once you know it's right. Every single person here should be focused to ensure the quality standards are basically the quality in the way we take care of the consumer, right, our customer experience, the way we greet them, the way we answer the phone and the cleanliness of our facilities; it should be the quality of the repair plan, that we only bill for what is truly needed on that vehicle… nothing more, nothing less. We have quality documentation, and a quality repair."
