“Ding..Ding” Another email o
rder comes in from the Collision Edge Website. We are addicted to the satisfaction that comes from helping shops. The solutions we have brought to market came from many visits to great body shops across the country. We love to just go there and “Stand in the Circle”. So before you ask if we are nuts on the whole “Standing in the Circle” thing, Let me explain..Famous Toyota Executive, Taiichi Ohno, used to draw a circle on the ground and tell people to stand in it and observe a process for hours until they fully understood the challenges.
My name is Tim Briggs. I’ve had the unique opportunity of spending time with some of the most forward thinking people in the Body Shop Industry. I imagine by now you’ve probably seen at least one post from various Collision Edge social media sites. We started this whole deal to educate our kids on business and put them through college. My days are spent with customers, my nights are spent living with the bee like hum from a head full of insights and problems that plague our industry. This cycle has led my wife and I to invest in, innovate and launch several products that are focused on making a difference in the Collision Repair Industry. Our goal has been increasing shop profits by focusing on emerging processes like “Blue Printing Discovery” and “Point of Use” tools.
The first problem we saw was the constant debate over “Blend within”. As a paint guy I’ve spent a countless hours trying to panel match colors that legitamatley needed to be blended but weren’t because there was not a standard process for defining the need to “Blend” adjacent panels. The Blend Stick is a high contrast, easy to read photo tool that assist the shop in documenting the need to charge for blends on adjacent panels.
Closely following The Blend stick where the Dent Sizer and estimating sticks. These tools are used to add scale to photographs of panel damage. Right away people began using the tools to photo locate decals and emblems in the discovery process. How many times do you have a tech waste a half hour coming to the office for a photo showing emblem locations? I’ve watched it happen, and the process usually involves 2 or more people!
Next on the list…“Subjective Damage”. How many hours should I charge for this and can I support the labor time with a photo? Soft dents, creases and rolls are hard to capture in photos. We developed the Dent Viewer to solve this problem. The key innovation here was using a light gathering film commonly found on street signs.
The film grabs the flash at a 90 degree angle and reflects a line grid back onto the panel in the photo. Nothing hides from The Dent Viewer.
One day I was standing in a shop watching a guy mask a fender. He put the tape in his mouth and under his arms until he finally laid it on the fender. You know what happened next right? It slides off the fender and rolls 20 yards across the shop floor and flops in a puddle of water! I went home that night and laid awake thinking of how to solve that problem. At 6 am I was standing in front of Home Depot armed only with a roll of tape and the desire to fix this problem. I walked the isles that morning and spent over $100 on anything that looked like it might help me solve the problem. The result is now known as The Tape Thing. It’s a magnetic tape core device that allows tape to freespool effortlessly from the users hand.
Collision Edge is committed to bringing new solutions to old problems. Our products sell because they all offer a nearly an instant return on investment. We are all in with our little company. Our profits are split between the college funds and R&D for the next innovation. We will keep “Standing in the Circle” and bringing you new products.
Thank you for your support, we look forward to hearing from you.
Tim Briggs
The Collision Edge Blog 