Some bodyshops are slow for stupid reasons
Not because the technicians are not skilled. Not because the repair itself should be quicker.
Because everything surrounding the repair has been made more difficult than it needs to be, sometimes without a good reason.
The job card was locked inside the car
When I ran the workshop, I sometimes had to unlock the car just to get the printed job card.
Imagine an insurance claim repair involving a wing and door respray with a handle replacement. I would shuffle between three pages of small, uniform text trying to find the one piece of information I actually needed.
Yes, I know it is not the end of the world. But why should something take long enough to interrupt the work when a few small changes can make the answer almost immediate?
Tiny friction is still friction
People dismiss small inefficiencies because individually they look stupid. Then the same technician repeats them across job after job.
Unlocking a car, finding the card, reading each line and working out which instruction matters is not skilled repair work. It is friction sitting between the skilled person and the work you are actually paying them to do.
Complexity does not equal professionalism
Body repair is not simple. It requires expertise. There are technical processes that absolutely need to be technical.
But we also use acronyms, terminology and wording that sometimes adds no value to the person doing the work. Making an instruction harder to understand does not make the repair more professional.
Design the information around the technician
The technician usually needs a small part of the whole claim record at that moment. Show the repair instruction, the relevant panel, the part, the image and any important change clearly. Keep the rest available without making it compete for attention.
The repair can be complicated. The process of professionals managing that repair should be very, very simple. Currently, a lot of the time, it is not.
Bodyshop information check
- Ask a technician to find one repair instruction while standing at the vehicle.
- Check whether the important line looks different from the surrounding claim text.
- Keep the latest instruction and revision obvious.
- Put related photos and parts with the work they explain.
- Remove acronyms and wording that do not change the repair decision.