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New
SCRS Committee Formed to Address Scarcity of Clips, Fasteners and
Other Attachment Parts; March Taylor to Chair
Membership
is opened to other interested collision repair professionals.
January
9, 2000 - Tri-Cities, Wash.
A new Society of Collision Repair Specialists (SCRS) committee has
been formed to address the scarcity of clips, fastener, bolts, screws
and other pieces used to attach parts to the vehicle and to other
body and mechanical parts.
The
shortage of such small, but important items is a relatively new
phenomenon, as it was once common practice for them be included
with the parts packages available from Original Equipment Manufacturers
(OEM). Over time, this practice by OEMs came to an end, leaving
other vendors plus OE dealer parts departments to fill the needs
of the collision repairer.
Recently,
attachment parts have not been readily available even from these
sources. This has had several adverse effects on the repair, including
lost productivity (when the technician stops work to track down
these items), delays (when the parts are not immediately available)
and expense (missed billing on overlooked pieces). Customer satisfaction
diminishes when the car is tied up for unexpected amounts of time
and the rental car expense of the insurance company increases. In
addition, the incorrect re-use of some of some attachment pieces
- steering suspension and steering torque bolts, for example - can
result in serious safety problems.
"Body
shop professionals from New York to Hawaii called this problem to
our attention, so we began to look into the issue to see if we could
come up with a solution," explains John Loftus, SCRS Executive Director.
"It became obvious there was no quick fix, so we thought the best
approach was creating a committee that could focus on the issues
for an extended period of time."
SCRS
member March Taylor (Hawaii), owner of Auto Body Hawaii has been
selected to head up this committee. As an integral part of the Collision
Industry Conference (CIC) committee on estimating, March has been
instrumental in bringing attention to this often overlooked concern,
and will help ensure SCRS and CIC efforts are coordinated.
"Fasteners
have a profound effect on an estimator's productivity and a technician's
efficiency, key concerns in an industry that is committed to improving
cycle time," says Taylor. "Not only is it important that these parts
be supplied to the repairer with more consistency, but we need more
specific information regarding how they should be used. In addition,
the information providers must make a concerted effort to account
for these items in their automated databases."
The
SCRS committee will dedicate itself to fostering improvement in
each of these areas, although making fastener "kits" available on
commonly used crash parts will be a primary focus at first. Though
the committee is in its first stages of formation, much progress
has been made to date, beginning with NACE 2000 in Orlando, when
SCRS leadership met with Randy Boyd of General Motors, who agreed
to work with CIC and SCRS to improve the situation. SCRS will continue
to support CIC's related efforts.
To
expedite its efforts, SCRS is actively looking for collision repairers
to help join the committee. Those interested can contact SCRS at
(877) 841-0660 (phone) or scrs1@aol.com (e-mail).
March
Taylor can be reached at march.taylor@autobodyhawaii.com.
"The
industry has never been more precise about way it does business,
which makes the unsatisfactory handling of fasteners and attachment
parts intolerable," adds Taylor. "With the help of the OEMs and
the information providers I am sure we can make things better, and
prove, once again, that working together is the most important work
we do."
Through
its direct members and 32 affiliate associations, SCRS is comprised
of 8,900 collision repair businesses and 75,200 specialized professionals
who work with consumers and insurance companies to repair collision-damaged
vehicles. Additional information about SCRS including news releases
is available at the SCRS web site (www.scrs.com). You can e-mail
SCRS at the following address: scrs1@aol.com
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