Sometimes weeks seem like they're scripted--they follow too tightly to a theme to be random. The script at CRM this week seemed pretty interested in information management.
In the past seven days, just about every piece of data that's passed through our office has died and required a
resurrection. In some cases we were prepared, in others less so. Which all drove home the importance of having a plan in place.
As collision repairers, you're sitting on an ever-growing mountain of data. Hopefully, you have iron-clad
safeguards
in place already to protect your information (
CAA SCO made big steps in this direction this week).
But data management is more exciting than back-ups and failsafes. Earlier today I visited Vancouver's
AutoMind Collision. They've made considerable strides to streamlining operations and
eliminating unnecessary
communication by finding creative ways to store and share their data. As a result, they're quite a bit further down the "lean" road than they would be otherwise.
Data management is certainly not a be-all and end-all solution, but it's something that--if you plan for it--could save your operation some time, headaches and money down the road.
Just a thought.
Take care,
-Joe Rayment
Editor
editor@collisionrepairmag.com
Collision Repair Magazine
