It’s Never Too Late For Quality : Slow Down and Learn By Bob Thomas Last month | | =z tried to define quality. I suggested we all keep war- ranty log books and listed what I consider to be the four basic reasons for a warranty return. You must re- member that keeping a record of all your warranties is the only way you can ever get a handle on them and you must do this honestly. This is your tool, not an IRS tax form. If you are not absolutely sure of the cause of the warranty, write down all the possibili- ties. The more information you put down, the more this record will help you down the road. Now let’s talk about warranties that were a result of mistakes we made ourselves. I’m sure you all agree this is one area we should have total control over. Can we eliminate them? I doubt it. | am not perfect and I have yet to find the perfect employee (although a few believed they were). Being human is a privilege, not an excuse. So where do we start? To begin with, we need to slow down. Don’t try to short cut a rebuild because a customer is pushing you to hurry. Over the years I have learned to remind those requesting a rapid turn- around that they are asking for a prob- lem later. I explain that 90 percent of all mistakes are made in haste. How quickly they change their tune. Spend a little extra time looking at everything inside an alternator before final assembly. Insist your employees do the same. When a mistake is made, spend some time constructively think- ing about why it happened and how it can be prevented from happening again. Ifan employee keeps making the same mistakes, suggest he or she look for a government job, where such behavior seems to be more acceptable. Remember the old carpenter’s tule, “Measure twice, cut once.” Guess what, it applies to rebuilding, too. When I do an installation on a vehicle, the last thing I do before closing the hood is double check every nut and bolt I touched. It usually only takes a minute or two and when I find one I missed, I have saved my customer and myself both time and money. Same goes for the inside of that alternator or starter you are rebuilding. We often find ourselves ina rush because of cost pressures. If you are not charging enough to take the time to do the job right, you need to raise your prices. Long ago I noticed that the independent garages in our area that charged the highest prices also seemed to be the busiest. They always had lots full of cars waiting for service. Are you surprised they also had the best reputations? Why? What hap- pened to all those shoppers looking for the cheapest price? In the end, many of them went for quality service. Most consumers want the best service they can afford, and in today’s economy, most of them can afford whatever we charge them, so long as we are not higher than the dealerships. Notice I said not higher. You don’t have to be 50 percent off! Slow down, charge for your time and you will doa better job with less stress. Learn as much as you can. A pilot once said, “Learn from the mistakes of others. You won’t live long enough to make them all yourself.” That goes NOVEMBER/DECEMBER, 2000 for electrical rebuilders, too. Earlier this year Joe Davis put on one of his WAI seminars in Orlando. To my knowl- edge, every rebuilder in the state of Florida was invited, but only about 50 people showed up. It was free, witha free meal! What is going on out there? This industry is changing at a rapid rate, yet evidently a lot of you think this was not worth your time. Oh, you’ve been to one before. When? Four years ago? You know what, most of what Davis talked about was on an engineer’s drawing board four years ago and to- morrow it could be on your doorstep. What then? Folks, both WAI and Ace Elec- tric have put on free seminars over the years and we owe it to them and our- selves to attend them. We cannot af- ford to pass up educational opportu- nities when they are laid out before us ona red carpet. The really sad thing is, if we don’t show up, these compa- nies will think we are not interested and spend that money on something else. Both theAutomotive Parts Rebuilders Association (APRA) and the Electrical Rebuilder’s Exchange have annual events that include a num- ber of seminars. Maybe you cannot afford to fly cross country to make all of them, but these are moved around and odds are, one or the other will be within a day’s drive every other year or so. If you have not been to one, you owe it to yourself to find out what you’ve been missing. Anyone who has been in this busi- ness for ten years or more has prob- ably been to one of Bob Goulding’s seminars. His two-day schools were especially rewarding, for novice and expert alike. Goulding passed away last year and left a big hole, but theAPRAis making plans for something called the Training and Electrical Page 1 of 2