Ready Or Not… Changes Bring Need For Excellence By Traci Matt Editor’s Note: With the excitement of the new century and the accelera- tion of changes in the automotive in- dustry, we thought it appropriate to exit the year with a look at what to expect for your business in the near future. Although change is looked upon as the enemy by some, our title “Ready Or Not…” is areminder of the reality that in ten years the electrical rebuilding in- dustry will not look anything like it does today. Indeed, it has never remained static. Yet the enemy is not change, it is a lack of preparedness. We hope that this series will help you take the next step toward success in the 21st century. Part three of three. It’s interesting to consider that if Henry Ford had stopped trying after his first or second car business went belly up, we might be looking at a long horsey ride home after work today. If you’re a cancer survivor, you’re no doubt grateful that Marie Curie didn’t put a prohibitive price tag on her ra- dium discovery. And if George Wash- ington Carver had been defeated by racism, the world would be without more than 1,000 products, many which you ve probably already used today. It’s truly amazing to consider what the world was like in December of 1899. Cars, planes, antibiotics, satel- lites, computers, and even peanut but- ter were not merely improved upon or tweaked in the past century—they were discovered or created. Today the most startling revelation of future technology is that much of it already exists. The critical steps of working out application bugs, testing for safety and feasibility, determining ownership rights, examining environ- mental impact, and gaining public ap- proval are 21st century roadblocks to inventive creativity that would make poor Benjamin Franklin turn over in his grave. Global Positioning Systems (GPS) are space-based radio positioning sys- tems that provide velocity and time in- formation to users anywhere on or near the surface of the earth. Global Navi- gation Satellite Systems (GNSS) are extended GPS systems which provide users with critical navigation informa- tion. This technology has been around for years, and the NAVSTAR system, which is operated by the U.S. Depart- ment of Defense, was the first GPS system widely available to civilian us- ers. Many top-end cars include GPS applications and they are most likely to be as common as air bags within the decade. Mohammad Samii, owner of Sammy’s Auto Electric in Champaign, IL has become familiar with GPS through his piloting. He said that today GPS use on the earth’s surface is pri- marily limited to emergencies, but that is changing with increased navigational applications. Samii foresees some challenging, ifnot ominous, possibili- ties for the use of these tracking sys- tems. “The technology is there so that if the EPA pushes it, they can tie into a car’s computer so any malfunction is detected,” he said. “This way Big Brother can catch gross polluters.” This would be more than a nui- sance for the Buster McNutts of the world who insist on driving their 1970s station wagons into the ground. It would involve a central computer which could not only detect the pollu- DECEMBER, 1999 tion, but direct the car right into the dealership network for service. “This would take away from in- dependents because whoever controls the information makes the decisions,” said Samii. Although progress on this is being monitored by various organi- zations that would advocate for the small businessman, Samii said it could be quite a battle with the flag of pollu- tion-reduction being waved high in Washington. “Who can dare to say ‘I’m not for the environment’?” he said. Another potential challenge of GPS use is increased liability on the part of the rebuilder. Samii painted the following scenario: Suppose on a large farm, an on-board mapping system decides how much fertilizer should be deployed in which spots to ensure the best result. Picture what could happen if the alternator developed enough ex- tra ripple voltage to confuse the map- ping system during the application pro- cess. “Imagine the ramifications if the alternator goes haywire and that much fertilizer is misapplied,” said Samii. “Tf you’ve got a system that delicate, we as rebuilders must make these units within the same frequency interference parameters as OE. We’ve got to do our job more precisely, including more precise testing for parameters we may overlook now.” But rather than spelling trouble for rebuilding, Samii said the more com- plicated things become, the more the rebuilder will be in a position to pro- vide the units. He said it should gener- ally be healthy for rebuilders who stay up on technologic advancements. “The more delicate the system, the more trouble-free the alternator has to be. It means better quality work, qual- ity parts and more sophisticated test- Page 1 of 3