Professional_Tool_And_Equipment_News_0619 - 50

Inspecting the

pre- and post-scan
The practice of recording information before and following a repair is not new,
but the methods and technology to do so have improved over time.
By Scott Weaver, Contributing Editor
gonzosae@aol.com

I

Photo courtesy of Bosch

find it rather interesting that this
subject of pre- and post-scans
seems to pop up these days. It's
as if somebody is saying that we
didn't do anything like this in the
past and they are trying to tell us to be
more careful today than in years past.
I'm not so sure the grapevine has gotten
this story correct, because every shop
that I know has always done some sort
of pre-scan, as well as a post-scan of
the repairs they performed. We may
not have called it that, but we did it
just the same.
So, what gives these days? What's the
big concern with it all? It comes down
to how we are acquiring this pre- and
post-scan information and delivering
that information to our customers. With
the changes in technology, the customer expects to be informed on not only
what was wrong and how you corrected
it, but they also want that information
delivered as quickly and precisely as possible. That's where the technology plays a
major role in how this is accomplished.
First, let's take a nostalgic look at how
it had been accomplished in years past.

IN THE BEGINNING
Back in the day of the paper and pencil, a service sheet was filled out and a
technician would be assigned to the task.
The technician would then diagnose the
complaint and write up what they found.
Then, the service writer would inform
the customer of the results and a decision
was made as to when or how the repair
would be handled. Eventually, the work
order would be checked, initialed, and
OK'd by the customer, and that mere

50

PTEN

JUNE 2019

piece of paper would be sent back to the
technician to have the actual work done.
Upon completion of the repair, it was
customary to take the vehicle for a test
drive, noting anything odd or unusual,
and then writing that down on the repair
order (RO).
Then came the computer age. Many
of the duties that involved passing the
invoice back and forth became electronic. As we all know, the electronic
age moves a lot faster than the pad
and pencil days did. Now it's the internet, smartphones, cloud-based storage
capabilities, endless information sources,
and immediate answers to nearly every
conceivable problem.
Technology has certainly changed
how we handle the whole customer/

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repair situation. However, that is only
part of the issue. We also have to consider how the technology has changed
the automobile itself. With all the
interaction between different systems
that are now interconnected, it's hard
to determine where one system begins
and another ends. This emphasizes the
essential nature of the pre- and postscan in the repair process rather than
its previous designation as a courtesy to
the customer.
I asked Danijela Haskin, product
manager of diagnostics at Bosch, about
the importance of full health checks
and pre/post scans on today's vehicles.
Haskin said, "Pre- and post-scanning
has become a very important topic,
especially for body shops, over the last
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