Driving the Conversation

Hosted by Stacey Moellering, Associate Vice-President of Marketing and Segment Development, this episode features discussion with Jake Rodenroth, Director of OEM and Industry Technical Relations at AsTech—Automotive Service Technicians. This podcast dives into the details, opportunities, and challenges associated with Jake’s expertise in Automated Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS). Additional details can be found in The ADAS Issue of I-CAR’s Collision Reporter magazine. (Go to www.i-car.com/collisionreporter/ADAS)

The following “Driving the Conversation” roundtable moderated by David Smith (Senior Vice President, Supply Change Strategy, Caliber Collision, Inc.) represents edited highlights of a recorded panel discussion with several Gold Class collision repair shop owners of various sizes and locations.

This podcast episode is all about supporting the industry’s talent trajectory. Focused on topics like recruiting, training and retaining our next generation of industry professionals.

Learn more about BodyShopology.com, a free collision repair body shop locator for consumers and why this new shop locator tool, powered by I-CAR, is beneficial for consumers and the collision repair inter-industry.
With the BodyShopology locator We are creating a new conversation with consumers about the importance of considering a shop’s training and credentials as important factors when selecting a collision repair shop following an accident.
We talk a little more about the importance of bringing awareness of training and credentials to the collision repair consumer with our special guest, John Lynch; Fixed Operations Director of Gezon Motors in Grand Rapids, MI.

This episode features I-CAR President & CEO, John Van Alstyne, and I-CAR Director, Marketing, Stacey Wesselink, reflecting on the insights gleaned from the Collision Reporter THE 40TH ANNIVERSARY ISSUE, Driving The Conversation Roundtable with Industry/I-CAR experts Lori Barrington, Lou DiLisio Jr., Jeff Hendler, Bob Jansen, Clark Plucinski, Doug Roach, Jeff Silver, and Chuck Sulkala. Notable quotes are played on the podcast, and John and Stacey reflect on the insights in light of I-CAR’s 40th anniversary.

The published podcast is an approximately 10 minute recorded conversation.

Three experts on the materials side of the automotive industry talk about their biggest takeaways when it comes to advanced materials. Each panelist offer their unique perspective: Michael Hoke, of Abaris Training Inc. in Reno, Nevada, explain that attention to detail can make a large difference when working with advanced materials. Jody Hall of Steel Market Development Institute in Southfield, Michigan, shares the importance of communication amongst everyone in the industry, and Doug Richman, of the Aluminum Association’s Aluminum Transportation Group, underscores the industry’s commitment to quality because it’s what’s best for consumers.

Founded in 1979, I-CAR is an international not-for-profit organization dedicated to providing the information, knowledge and skills required to perform complete, safe and quality repairs. You can learn more about how I-CAR is supporting the industry with innovative collision repair training products and services by visiting I-CAR.com.

Our three materials experts explain how they believe the automotive industry is working more collaboratively, upstream, to design for collision repair with the new advanced materials that make up today’s vehicles. In addition, they also share what we can learn from this collaboration between the automotive companies and material producers. One thing all of our panelists agree on loud and clear is the increasing role of collaboration and the importance of everyone working together as a team. As materials in the collision repair industry continuously advance at an accelerated pace, there will be new ways to collaborate to achieve superior performance. There is no room for silos. Everyone needs to have a seat at the table and communicate with each other in order to ensure complete, quality and safe repairs.

The panelists also offer some insights for what colleagues in the industry can learn from the collaboration already taking place between material producers and automotive companies, including the timing of delivery repair procedures and reading through the recommended procedures for each model in the OEM guidebook - really sitting down and thinking it through - and providing a road map on how to do the job right.

You will hear from three experts on the materials side of the automotive industry about their excitement of how advanced and complex materials are rapidly developing in many of today’s leading vehicles. You will also hear some of their concerns about the materials evolution in the automotive industry. Each of our panelists raise interesting points on how these new advance materials are a major benefit in the automotive industry: Jody explains how her company, Steel Market Development Institute in Southfield, Michigan, works closely with automotive companies to provide a better opportunity to deliver more performance and light weighting vehicles. Michael, of Abaris Training Inc. in Reno, Nevada, notes how the automotive industry is edging out the aerospace industry in advanced technology to make quicker and less expensive vehicles. And Doug, of the Aluminum Association’s Aluminum Transportation Group, explaines how advanced technology and new materials have played a major role in how cars have become safer and more comfortable and handled better on the road.

We'll also touch on a few of their concerns in the industry – from fuel economy and greenhouse gas emissions to the lack of proper training in handling these new, advanced materials for collision repair technicians, as well as the need to have these trained technicians accessible at collision repair shops in smaller, suburban communities.

Three industry experts provide a comprehensive lens from a tooling and equipment perspective on what you need to do now, pay attention to, forget about or embrace for the road ahead. We’ll also break down what readiness means, and how tooling and equipment helps shops get ready for the advanced materials and systems in vehicles. The experts weigh in on which of these “readiness attributes” are most important and how they interrelate.

Moderated by Jason Bartanen, I-CAR’s Director of Industry Technical Relations, the following represents an edited highlight of one-on-one Skype interviews; full recordings and transcripts can be found at I-CAR.com/CollisionReporter, along with their bios.

Elise Quadrozzi, I-CAR’s Director of Business Development, hosts a discussion about the important subject of Diagnostics. Collision repair industry experts Jake Rodenroth, Mike Anderson and Gerry Poirier share their thoughts about what the future holds. Looking ahead, what can the industry anticipate one year from now? Diagnostics has become a pressing industry issue, and is sparking the development of best practices industrywide.