In a prior column, I wrote about the importance of making sure you have the “right people in the right seats” as industry job roles evolve. Preparing that column reminded me of a similar but somewhat different situation I encountered at another collision repair business I was working with.
I think a lot of business leaders assume “no news is good news,” that if employees aren’t voicing concerns, things must be going fine. But I’ve found that in many collision repair shops, problems don’t begin when people speak up. They begin when they stop speaking up.
Process breakdown leads to communication burnout
One shop where this was an issue was one that had been making process improvements, but some of the changes weren’t being sustained over time. A few years earlier, for example, the shop implemented a 100 percent disassembly process, but over time, that didn’t stick. The team had drifted back to old patterns. When I went in to work with them on customer experience concerns, we determined the root issue was process breakdown.
Here’s what was happening: The back-end production manager/estimator had stopped writing complete repair plans because of ongoing pushback from technicians who didn’t want to fully disassemble vehicles upfront. Over time, it just felt easier for him to wait until reassembly to identify certain items that were needed as part of the job.
At the same time, the parts manager stopped mirror-matching parts because parts weren’t consistently being placed on carts as the process called for, making it difficult to find the parts to mirror match.
When I spoke with each of these employees individually, both were clearly exhausted. Each had reached a point where they had simply stopped pushing. It felt easier not to say anything.
Value and support truly matter to your shop culture
As we worked through the conflict, deeper issues surfaced. Some technicians felt they hadn’t been included in developing the disassembly process. They had interpreted that as not being valued or respected.
The back-end writer didn’t feel supported by leadership when attempting to hold technicians accountable.
And the parts manager, who had been with the company a long time, was close to quitting. He was overwhelmed with multiple orders and returns, felt blamed for supplement delays, and was barely keeping his head above water.
Initially, there had been good compliance with 100 percent disassembly and parts mirror-matching. But over time, friction without alignment created an environment where people stopped speaking up. The result was poor internal and external customer experiences, extended repair times, and ultimately, an impact on sales.
It made me think about a 2023 study of collision industry technicians conducted for I-CAR and the Society of Collision Repair Specialists (SCRS) by Ducker Carlisle. That study looked at the top five reasons technicians leave a shop — and the No. 1 reason was bad culture, one in which they didn’t feel valued.
It also pointed to the importance and value of the “Andon cord” philosophy that is part of the Toyota Production System. The “cord” — whether it be a physical cord or button, or just a software signal — is something that any worker can activate to immediately alert management to a production issue or defect, pausing the line if necessary to prevent further errors.
A key aspect of the philosophy: When a team member uses the cord because they see a problem, leadership responds by fixing the system rather than blaming the individual who signaled the alert. In high-performing environments, raising a concern is encouraged and respected, not seen as slowing things down.
Once we had spoken with individual team members and identified what was leading to the process break-down — and why good team members had “gone quiet” — the shop leadership was able to address the concerns. The processes, and all team members’ accountability for them, were reinstated. Most importantly, the effort to listen and respond to the concerns helped improve the culture within the shop.
