Page 53 - Australasian Paint & Panel magazine Nov-Dec 2021

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JUDGE POWELL
This repair centre has undergone a big
transformation and with the help of a business coach to focus on the
business. Coastal are heading in a new direction including a Tesla badge and hopefully more to come.
U
towed in from a large catchment area. Tidman has recently enlisted with a business coach and that’s helping him to improve the production process and to free up time for him to work on the busi- ness. Coastal uses Planning Plus and iBodyshop with screens around the
workshop for the team to refer to.
They have to new Car-O-Tronic and bench with EVO 1, 2 and 3. They have also been busy with Havals (an SUV brand from Great Wall Motors). Haval only brought them into Australia with a 500 kilo tow rating – a bit below par for Aussie needs. The factory supplies Coastal with brackets which need to be welded onto the chassis to increase
the tow rating.
Looking at the shop, reception is
simple but pleasant with an office off to the side for the estimators. The team consists of two admin, two esti- mators, four panel beaters (one is an apprentice),threepainters,adetailer and soon to be a full time parts guy. On average they repair around 30 cars a week with a mixture of heavy and light repairs – which is a fair output. One of the panel techs predominantly works on the heavy vehicles.
The workshop is extremely clean and well organised. There’s a detailing, parts and equipment storage area. Once the parts are checked in, there’s a lift to take them up to the parts mezzanine floor. Currently this detailing area can be curtained off for aluminium work but the expansion plans include a designat- ed aluminium bay with electric cur- tains. Along the side of the workshop is a large side passage where the parts trol- lies and oversize parts are kept – this will be utilised for the new paintshop.
Once the renovations are carried out capacity should increase with a couple more techs added on to the team. The shop is a bit hampered for car parking space which is one of the reasons to re- ally work on the production cycle to minimise the time each car is onsite. Tidman has looked at moving to a big- ger premises but the current location is in such a good spot with Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, Audi and Lexus dealers all within a kilometre.
The big bays are marked out in a
way we haven’t seen before with
the bay areas painted a darker shade
of grey than the workshop floor which looks really sleek. Each has its own dust
extraction, an airline, storage for con- sumables and a fan for summer.
Tidman is promoting from within so that he has a workshop manager, which should free him up from some of the day to day running of the business.
We like the fact that Tidman collabo- rates with other repairers locally to ex- change ideas and information, as well as within the Car Craft network.
He is a Suncorp approved repairer, I- CAR Gold class and is being courted by other insurers. Once the renovations are completed we’re sure the business will continue to grow and Coastal will find ‘the sweet spot’ of how many cars they can repair to their high standards profit- ably. Tidman understands that more isn’t always better and that it is all about efficiency and processes.
JUDGES’ COMMENTS