Turning disaster into opportunity

After facing the effects of 2.2 metre high Queensland floodwaters, Ray Iversen from Trend Smash Repairs took the opportunity to improve workflow and practices while he rebuilt the workshop.

“As a member of AkzoNobel’s Acoat Selected program, we decided to rebuild our workshop according to Acoat’s central principle of a Process Centered Environment (PCE),” Iversen said.

Iversen had previously visited collision repair workshops in the US that operated according to AkzoNobel’s PCE principles. Having seen the program’s benefits, the decision to establish his own was easy.

Creating a Process Centered Environment meant Iversen had to develop a series of connected and standardised operating processes for both his workshop and business practices, something he achieved in close cooperation with AkzoNobel Australasia’s National Service Manager, Robin Taylor. These processes smooth the flow of vehicles through his workshop and optimise the use of available resources while eradicating activities that don’t add value to his business.

“Firstly, we re-designed the layout of our entire workshop,” Iversen said. “The amount of space we now operate in is exactly the same prior to the floods but the way we use it is different, and we don’t waste any.”

“With the new layout, customer vehicles undergo minimal movement from job start to finish, which maximises continuous flow through the workshop.

“To optimise the use of space we installed a track system - resembling a railway line - to allow the cars to move through the painting process with minimal movement utilising a side-loading booth system.

“We even optimised the use of tooling to maximise our work efficiency.

“Other steps included introducing repair planning to our daily practices so we avoid ‘discovering’ problems when the vehicle is flowing through the workshop and prevent disruption to the work flow.”

According to Iversen, the benefits are obvious and include improvements to productivity, workshop throughput, repair quality and profitability.

To learn more about AkzoNobel’s Acoat Selected program call 03 9644 1711.