Keynote address excites audience

NACE organizers went for an “inspirational” focus for the 2007 event’s keynote address, inviting Chris Gardner to share his rags-to-riches story that served as the basis for his 2006 autobiography and the subsequent film, “The Pursuit of Happyness.”

Though Gardner did not reference the collision repair industry in his speech, even many of those familiar with his story said his message reverberated with them. A series of circumstances in the early 1980s left Gardner homeless in San Francisco and sole guardian of his son – who was only 16 months old at the time (although portrayed as an older child in the film).

Gardner, however, said at an early age he had decided that he would be “world-class at something,” and that any children of his would have their father in their life. So while working to provide food and shelter – sometimes in a church shelter or even a restroom at a train station – for his son – and despite his lack of connections or college degree, Gardner doggedly earned a spot in a Dean Witter Reynolds stock broker training program.

He became the sole trainee that year to land a spot with the firm, and Gardner showed off with pride his slightly bent pointer finger caused by the 200 phone calls he would make each day at work. Less than six years after being homeless, Garner founded his own successful brokerage firm in Chicago.

Gardner’s NACE address on the importance of perseverance, taking personal responsibility and breaking negative cycles brought NACE attendees to their feet.

As was pointed out at the start of Friday morning’s general session at NACE, many attendees say they often learn the most at such gatherings when talking to other shop owners in the halls – or bars – outside the convention. The NACE general session, sponsored by Akzo Nobel Coatings, tried to capture that atmosphere by staging a discussion among three actual shop owners in a “barroom setting” on the NACE stage. The subject: “lean processing,” an increasingly frequent buzz phrase in the industry that centers around streamlining shop operations to reduce costs, improve quality and speed production.

Gary Steele

Moderator (or “narrator”) Garry Steele, a business consultant in the United Kingdom, outlined each of four key principles of lean processing, after which the three shop owners discussed how they have implemented each principle in their business.

Lean, for example, often starts with a “housecleaning” known as the Five S’s: sort, set in order, sweep or shine, standardize and sustain. Michael Giarrizzo, CEO of DCR Systems Accident Repair Centers, said his company’s model for dealership collision repair shops establishes clearly defined places for tool storage, for example, and elimination of clutter, such as those collections of “nuts and bolts you’re sure you’ll need someday.”

Ken Friesen, owner of Concours Collision Centers in Alberta, Canada, said his company practiced the Five S’s before he’d even heard the term. A “visual file rack system,” for example, helps the shop’s office staff quickly see at a glance not only where all necessary paperwork is stored but also where in production every vehicle is.

John Beckworth, co-owner of Collision Works, a shop in Beltsville, Maryland, with annual sales topping $6 million, said part of his company’s “standardization” includes limiting how many vehicles are scheduled in each day to regulate the flow through the shop and eliminate the logjams created by having too many torn-apart vehicles – and parts – were in the shop at any given time.

Steele cautioned shop owners that “lean” is an ongoing process, something you should always be doing, not something you can ever view as being “done.”

NACE 2008 will again be held at Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay Convention Center, for the first time along with ASA’s CARS mechanical repair industry event, next November 5-8.