DuPont Performance Coatings (DPC) is partnering with The Body Shop@, an expert on 'lean' collision repair. The agreement covers the sharing of The Body Shop@'s Star-Link Collision Repair System, a Kaizen centered 'lean' business model that was developed by John Sweigart and Brad Sullivan during the past 12 years.
The model is practiced in all of The Body Shop@'s Pittsburgh and New Jersey locations, as well as in other independent repair shops in the United States and Canada. DPC is partnering with The Body Shop@ to offer a refined version of the model.
The Body Shop@ operates a customer focused group of collision repair centers with plans to continue rapid expansion over the coming years. Sweigart and Sullivan created the Star-Link Collision Repair Network, made up exclusively of repairers who are truly committed to genuine improvement through Kaizen. This group exists to promote a substantially better offering to the customer, and to work together through shared learning for the sake of a better collision repair industry.
"We realized very quickly that DuPont Performance Coatings shared our vision," said John Sweigart, CEO – The Body Shop@. "We effectively help existing repairers create genuine improvement using a lean model and the answer is not just in the application of lean tools and courses, but through a hands-on, 'learn by doing' approach. The key to transform repairer operations is to focus on teaching, learning and problem solving."
"DPC chose to partner with The Body Shop@ because of the organizations companywide commitment to process improvement and the ability to practice it internally and transfer it to others. We visited The Body Shop@ locations 6 times in 12 months and significant process improvement occurred between each visit," said Steve Trapp, manager – DuPont Collision Services Development. "The Body Shop@ practices what they preach, they are continuously improving. Our customers will learn a lot from John Sweigart and the Star-link team."
DPC will offer courses at NACE, SEMA and other events featuring the learning from exposure to The Body Shop@.
To learn more visit www.pc.dupont.com.
