MONTREUX, Switzerland – The world's collision repair community has two avenues for change to impact vehicle reparability –
legislators and consumers. According to Sir Nick Scheele, retired president of Ford Motor Co., consumers, more than legislators,
are the ultimate key to making vehicles repairable.
"If consumers want it, the industry will provide it," says Scheele. "But the industry will need to make a clear, consistent
and compelling case at to why vehicle reparability is vital."
Scheele's comments were made as the opening speaker of the sixth International Bodyshop Industry Symposium (IBIS), which took
place May 31-June 2 in Montreux, Switzerland. Held on the banks of Lake Geneva at the Montreux Palace Hotel, the event was
sponsored by 3M, Akzo Nobel Car Refinishes, Allstate Insurance Company, Audatex, AUTOMOTRIZ Colisiones, AXA, Car-O-Liner,
Nobilas International, PPG and The sia Sika Alliance. More than 300 delegates from over 30 countries attended.
During his address, Scheele discussed the primary influences impacting the design of future vehicles. In particular he explained
how legislators and consumers have their own agendas that impact the final products produced by vehicle makers. Legislators,
for example, must be concerned with popular, high profile rulemaking, such as improving emissions, recycling of materials
and establishing various standards through government or insurer-based laws and regulations. Consumers, meanwhile, tend to be interested in more personal issues. The primary concerns "alter in relative importance over
time, but the three key drivers are cost, quality and style," he stated. Reparability, meanwhile, is not a key concern. Consumers
tend to think about the positives related to a new car purchase, not the possibility of getting in a crash. And that's not
expected to change, "because the accident rates are declining fairly rapidly, and that likely will continue."
European Editor of Automotive Design and Production William Kimberley echoed Scheele's comments that vehicle reparability is not on the radar screen of most car companies, in
particular the designers who create the vehicles.
"Reparability? I don't think I ever had a conversation about this subject with any senior executive or engineer. Why? Because
automotive designers, engineers and executives were not interested," Kimberley told the audience. "If anything, they thought
the more cars that got damaged in an accident the better. They cannot say so publicly, but the unspoken message was that –
laying aside that no one gets hurt – when a car is damaged, everyone profits."
Kimberley later called for the current method by which insurance ratings are set and cost of ownership calculations compiled,
to be amended to include structural repair.
In his presentation "Future of the Repair Sector – The Battle for Value" consulting firm McKinsey's Director of Automotive
Services Glenn Mercer estimated that the current global value of the collision repair sector was in excess of $100 billion.
While both technology and driver training are likely to continue to drive down accident levels in highly developed markets
such as Europe and the U.S., and as vehicle sales mushroom in markets such as China, India and Russia, Mercer expects the
global collision repair market to continue to grow significantly into the next decade.
IBIS Chairman Chris Mann opened proceedings with a controversial plea for greater cooperation between the industry, environmental
agencies and governments, arguing that much of the legislation currently impacting the repair industry is ill-conceived and
ineffective.
Picking up on Mann's plea for a more structured and unified approach to legislation affecting the collision repair industry,
Khaeruddin Sudharmin, managing director and CEO of Motordata Research Consortium in Malaysia, outlined a model that had been
developed for an equally fast changing industry, the IT and telecommunications sector in Malaysia. The model for that sector,
he argued, involved all of the various stakeholders and resulted in the successful development of a structured industry protocol
that safeguards all sides of the market. Sudharmin went on to propose that a similar protocol could be developed for, and
adopted by, the global collision repair market.
A common theme from all presenters was the importance of embracing change and investing in training programs at all levels.
With so much of the world's economic attention focused on China, many of us forget about India, with a population in excess
of one billion (only slightly smaller than China). IBIS speakers Pankaj Kapoor (CEO of Audatex India) and insurance expert
Kumar Bakhru, said India's economy is not only expanding as rapidly as China, but, as a result of its long tradition of democracy,
they argued that India offers levels of consistency and sustainability way beyond that of its Asian counterpart.
Next year's IBIS will take place in Cannes, France, May 30 thru June 1, just three days after the Monaco Grand Prix weekend.
For further details contact Lynette Waite via phone at +44 (0)1296 642804 or email: lynette@ibisworldwide.com
