Page 36 - Australasian Paint & Panel magazine September-October 2022

Business Optimisation
36
PAINT&PANEL SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2022
PROFIT FROM BASF APPROACH
LEFT TO RIGHT: BASF recently welcomed process specialists Kayley Goh and Natalia Pineda into the team to help customers understand the KPIs which affect profitability.
BASF AUSTRALIA HAS INTRODUCED A
new role into the business to help cus- tomers reach key performance indica- tors to influence their profitability.
BASF recently welcomed process spe- cialists Natalia Pineda and Kayley Goh into the team. Based in Queensland and South Australia respectively, both Pine- da and Goh come from engineering backgrounds and since joining BASF have been undergoing training and meeting with customers to better under- stand industry and business specific needs and challenges.
As process specialists, Pineda and Goh identify problems, map inefficien- cies and work with bodyshop owners and managers to resolve problems to in- crease paintshop efficiencies.
“Business costs are inflating and re- pairers are looking for ways to find more efficient ways of working to help miti- gate these costs,” explains Ian Johnson,
technical sales support manager, BASF Australia. “When outlining this role, we looked for diversity in skillsets outside of the industry to provide our customers with support from colleagues who are process driven and problem solvers to assist them in identifying and resolving areas to help them control their costs and increase their throughput.”
BASF supports businesses with both the tools and expertise they require to ensure their bodyshop receives the max- imum value from everything from paint room costs to the training requirements for paint shop staff.
Bodyshops run on profitability and meeting specific key performance in- dicators (KPIs) to ensure they are prof- itable. The ability to identify areas where improvements can be made in the paint side of a bodyshop business - like cycle times, number of vehicles per day per booth, efficient and pro-
ductive labor utilisation - help busi- nesses meet these targets.
“The process specialists’ role was de- signed to understand the KPIs that influ- ence profitability and look at the shop floor level of a bodyshop and identify where the shop can gain some efficien- cies through change," said Johnson. "Through the introduction of best prac- tices, control of waste and the ability to identify and understand wasted time in a spray booth, businesses can maximise output and get better utilisation of la- bour within the shop.”
Since joining BASF, the process specialists have
already produced positive outcomes for customers.”
BASF‘s process specialists first work with the bodyshop owner or manager to understand the needs of the individual shop and their challenges or concerns. They then run an audit to identify gaps or process improvement areas like skills gaps before implementing corrective measures with support from BASF’s net- work of BASF’s Technical Sales Represent- atives and Technical Process Specialists.
Since joining BASF, the process spe- cialists have already produced positive outcomes for customers. One example is a QLD bodyshop whose audit results in- dicated the booths were being under- utilised. In presenting the audit results to the owner, the process specialist was able to demonstrate the percentage of available hours being under-utilised from the booth. This information lead to new plans being introduced and once re-audited, the utilisation of labour time and cycle time were improved.
“In this instance it wasn’t about changing the quality or how this par- ticular bodyshop went about the job, it was just utilising their labour and in- creasing the number of vehicles per day,” said Johnson. "This is just one ex- ample of what a process specialist can do in consultation with our customers.”