Page 114 - Australian Paint & Panel Nov-Dec 2020
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CAR CRAFT GROUP
BEST PRACTICE AWARDS
PAINT&PANEL NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2020 WWW.PAINTANDPANEL.COM.AU
                  INNOVATION AWARD
                        THE INNOVATION AWARD HAS BEEN GIVEN FOR TOTALLY DIFFERENT CONCEPTS EACH YEAR. GETTING IN ON THE GROUND FLOOR WITH RECALIBRATION IS A WORTHY AND NECESSARY INNOVATION FOR THIS INDUSTRY.
  than innovation. However before the pandemic came to T our shores Car Craft had cre- ated an industry first by setting up a mobile calibration company called Ad-
vanced Automotive Calibration.
Car Craft general manager Peter Mc- Mahon said: “After spending a drive day with Holden in a pretty standard vehicle a couple of years ago, the technology built into this under $40K car raised questions for us. How would the smash repair industry firstly understand ADAS and secondly how could we improve our cycle times or key to key times as there would be a queue to get vehicles recali-
brated and quickly.
That was nearly three years ago and it
was then we started researching a new business that could be mobile and address nearly all vehicles equipped with ADAS and recalibrate the vehicles for our cus- tomers quickly and efficiently,” he said.
“We asked our business partners Ezi- Methods who assisted in the research and then partnered with Hella Gutmann to produce a mobile calibration business with the latest equipment to take on any marque, this is how we started Advance Automotive Calibration.”
There was a hiatus during lockdown but the service was soon up and run- ning again.
The mobile service is initially offered as an exclusive benefit to Car Craft mem- bers. Barry Liddle is the technical wiz- ard behind the service. He’s a first class mechanic with a background in motor- sport including as technical support in the World World Rally Championships and for Australian Motorsport teams.
HIS YEAR, FOR MANY HAS
    been more about survival
  ABOVE: Advanced Automotive Calibration is initially exclusive to Car Craft members.
He is invigorated by the challenges each new model presents for ensuring all the ADAS systems are restored to factory settings. “It’s a constantly evolving business. New equipment keeps arriving from Hella Gutmann in Germany. We have a great relationship with Steve Cook at Hella Gutmann Australia and between us work out how to get the best out of the new equipment.”
One of the issues with any recalibra- tion system in Australia is covering the huge range of vehicles on sale. “With additional software and equipment Ad- vanced Calibration Service has near 100% coverage.
“I’m the only person outside of deal- erships that is offering this type of ser- vice in WA. There are plenty of chal- lenges, for example VWs are totally different to a Ford or a Hyundai and
then there can be a huge difference be- tween the same make and model from the same year,” Liddle said.
“Our service to members means that we have them covered. Any issues that the car might have had that aren’t accident re- lated are documented and they have re- cords and a report to show that every as- pect of the ADAS systems are working to manufacturers’ specifications.”
Here at Paint & Panel we’ve been writ- ing about recalibration for some time but until recently there seemed to be very lit- tle awareness in the industry – with a ‘we’ll just send it off to the dealer’ attitude.
Peter McMahon said “There are still a worrying amount of business owners, estimators and possibly assessors leav- ing themselves open to possible litiga- tion if these fundamental safety systems are not checked and calibrated properly. In days gone by the standard practice by
      









































































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