Finding the time for training can be one of the biggest challenges repair businesses face when they look to plan the year ahead.
Axalta Drivus has two new courses that can help eliminate waste and ensure the gains made through training are long-term.
The pressure on repair cycle times in today’s collision repair industry can leave little time for training. And even when time and resources are dedicated to training, the focus is often on practical repair skills.
One of the underlying trends in the repair industry, noticed by the Axalta Drivus business services team, is some frontline managers and supervisors are promoted without adequate training. They may excel technically and fit well within the work culture, but sometimes lack the skills to drive essential changes in the workplace.
The Axalta Drivus team have made filling this skills gap a key focus for the year when interacting with repair businesses. In order that bodyshops can realise their goals in 2024, the Axalta Drivus team has developed a combination of relevant educational courses, supported with proactive structured plans for individual shops.
Robin Taylor, Axalta Drivus manager for Australia and New Zealand, says building business improvement is in the spotlight for 2024.
“Our focus this year is ‘Coaching in Collision’. The goal is to bridge the gap between Business Owners’ expectations and the current reality,” Robin Taylor says.
“The key strategy is coaching and mentoring first-line management, including supervisors and team leaders, to enable successful implementation of business improvements”.
To support this, the Axalta Drivus team plans to run two training courses during 2024.
Lean Fundamentals
The first is ‘Lean Fundamentals’ focusing on coaching first-line managers and supervisors to use Lean Principles to enhance performance, productivity, and efficiency; the 3Ps from Drivus, Profitability.
Lean Fundamentals provide a foundation for removing waste and improving processes, ultimately driving profitability. It helps overcome the situation where short-term gains or improvements can be made, but process improvement either stalls or regresses.
Robin Taylor details how the course will provide the concepts and tools to help challenge and refine processes while upskilling staff.
“It is about the removal of waste within the system to ensure value delivery to the customer, emphasising quality, speed, and cost. The course equips frontline team leaders with concepts and tools to challenge and refine processes while enhancing the skills of their team. While many issues faced in a collision repair facility are common across the industry, and the solutions are similar, the way those solutions are implemented can be quite different from bodyshop to bodyshop for many reasons. Through a better understanding of the fundamentals of Lean, frontline team leaders can work towards the common goal of decreasing cycle times and increasing productivity”.
Lean is the tool to drive improvement, not the goal.
The second course, ‘Coaching for Performance in Collision,’ is new for 2024 to meet the specific requests of business owners. It concentrates on coaching techniques for first-line managers and supervisors to effectively coach their teams for improved performance.
Axalta Drivus courses use a highly interactive guided learning model to keep attendees engaged. Hands-on exercises related to the collision industry reinforce the principles taught. Axalta’s training alliance with I-CAR ensures that participants, upon completing any Axalta Drivus course, receive credits applicable to I-CAR Gold Class Professionals, Platinum Individual designations, or role-relevant annual training requirements.
The “Lean Fundamentals” course will take place in capital cities across Australia and NZ in the first half of 2024.
For more details and training dates, visit axalta.au/drivus