Fixed Ops Journal - June 2018 - F38

FIXED OPS JOURNAL

Interview by Richard Truett

minutes with ...

 John Eck, collision manager, customer care and aftersales, General Motors
bilities for repair. Shops will need a dedicated
space with dust mitigation, where technicians
can sand and work on aluminum panels.

When General Motors launches its certified
collision repair program for dealerships and
independent shops this summer, it will use the
lessons learned from the Cadillac Aluminum
Repair Network it rolled out two years ago to
service the CT6.
Although CT6 sales are modest - Cadillac
has sold about 23,000 of the sedans since its
launch - the network has helped GM understand the problems that shops face in repairing
vehicles made of aluminum and other lightweight materials. The automaker's John Eck
provides an update.
On how the Cadillac Aluminum Repair
Network is performing
The process is working very well. We have
about 100 to 125 shops. There might be a market or two that we'd take a look at adding.
From sales and distribution and the repairability that we see coming through the shops,
we have coverage.
We built in the extra towing requirements
that it would take to get the vehicle to the repair shop. Typically, you're saturated in the
market and you don't have to tow very far. But
knowing that we wouldn't have that many
shops and we'd have to tow farther, we built
that in to cover the cost. We are getting the vehicles to the correct shops and vehicles are
getting repaired to the standards.
On lessons that will carry over to all
GM brands and lightweight vehicles
We've learned a lot through the process that
has helped us. We're looking at our general
structural repair program for what we call our
collision repair network. There are other vehicles that will require special attention (GM's
autonomous vehicles, its new generation of
lightweight trucks and possibly the midengine

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JUNE 2018

On how GM's collision repair program
will help keep tool costs down
There is a significant investment in tools and
equipment needed to fix today's technology,
and that is not lost on us. We're not a testing
organization. We don't test every piece of
equipment. We're working very closely with
the engineering teams.
We write to a specification versus a very specific brand whenever and wherever possible,
so that we are not mandating a GM-only tool.
Writing to a specification allows a shop the
flexibility to use what they already have or
what we know will work.
Our focus is really on technicians, to make
sure they are skilled and trained and use the
appropriate tools to make the repair.
Chevrolet Corvette). How we handle that is
going to be different from how we handle a
general repair.
We're setting up for structural repairs in the
network. We've also learned there is a legitimate need, especially for the fleet market, for
repair facilities that are moving away from
structural repairs and that focus on cosmetic
and light repairs. There's a need for that,
which doesn't mandate the need for the structural tools and equipment and facility investment.
On repairing the next generation of
Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra
pickups
Because shops will be repairing more aluminum, not just replacing a hood or a decklid,
the shops will have to have aluminum capa-

On collision repairs performed by franchised GM dealerships vs. independent shops
Our repair network will accommodate both
GM dealers and non-GM dealers. We know
the volume of GM vehicles involved in an accident. We know that not all of that volume
can fit through the dealerships that have body
shops, so we need the independent market.
Regardless of who is touching the vehicle,
we need to have the same criteria and expectations - that the shop has the facilities, that
technicians working on the vehicle are trained
at the level they need to be, that they are using
the right tools and equipment. And that they
are doing the scanning and calibration,
checking the GM recall database and doing
everything they can to restore the vehicle before it goes back on the road. 

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Fixed Ops Journal - June 2018