Businesses using a more thorough estimating process called “blueprinting” are able to build a better bottom line as they become more efficient with their shop scheduling strategies.

The program was recently endorsed and certified by the University of Toyota for its estimating curriculum, and Sherwin Williams – which created the procedure – is offering instructional sessions for independent collision shop owners throughout the nation.

“We’ll be in 15 major cities with it this year,” reports Steve Feltovich, business consulting services manager for Sherwin-Williams Automotive Finishes Corp. The company also has six training centers in the country, and two blueprinting overview seminars will be presented during the NACE show in Las Vegas this fall.

“We’re moving the industry from getting it right 20 percent of the time to getting it right 80 percent of the time,” says Feltovich, explaining how a more-complete damage estimate will save time and money by allowing the technician to be more prepared prior to starting the repair.

“You have the critical parts (on hand) before it’s loaded into the production area. All the hidden damage is worked out and all the parts are ordered and received.” The process avoids delays while awaiting additional approvals, and the technician can focus on one car at a time – thus finishing at a quicker pace, according to Feltovich.

“With blueprinting you do more dismantling work and you have a pre-planning process,” he says. “You want to eliminate supplementals” that lead to delays and higher costs.

“Body shops often provide employee training on everything from accounting practices to paint application; but they rarely include estimating in the training process,” says Jason Crager, Sherwin-Williams’ OEM account executive.

“Most estimators fail to capture all the necessary repairs on their initial estimate and our mission is to remedy this situation,” Crager notes. “In fact, we have found that the attendees in our ‘Estimating Solutions for Profit’ class have increased their estimating accuracy on average by 28 percent.”

Feltovich points out that “the goal is to get it right the first time. We preach taking out all the variables” by doing an enhanced inspection of the vehicle. “Find out in advance all the surprises that you find in production.”

Research indicates that a technician’s average “touch time” per vehicle during an 8-hour shift is a paltry 2.3 hours. “For the shops that nail this (blueprinting) down, their touch time is 6.5 hours a day,” he reports.

“In a perfect blueprinting world the technician works on one car at a time,” Feltovich says. “The reason they can’t (currently) work on one car at once is because they don’t have all the parts and okays.”

A poor collision repair experience often results in customer dissatisfaction, which ultimately lowers the profits for Toyota dealers, according to a company service study.

The blueprinting course will be available to all of Toyota’s 1,200 dealerships nationwide, which represent about 450 collision centers within the dealer network. Non-Toyota dealerships or independent body shops’ estimators interested in attending similar classes can visit www.sherwin-automotive.com/company/training for more information and a class schedule.

The program is approved and accredited by the Automotive Management Institute; it offers 12 credits toward an AMI diploma.

Estimating Solutions for Profit – a seven-hour, hands-on workshop – provides estimators with techniques, skills and information necessary to write more profitable estimates, according to Feltovich. The class comprises real-world estimating scenarios and industry-specific issues pertaining to body shop operations and insurance relations.

“There’s a little more time upfront to do the blueprinting procedure, but that time is more than gained in the repair process,” says Feltovich. “The gain for insurance people is that you drive down additional supplements and additional shop visits.

“It avoids the start/stop process that plagues the industry. It’s no different than the way Dell builds a computer; they pull every part before the computer goes on the line to production.”