I-CAR Launches New 'Production Management' Role To Increase Shop Efficiencies

I-CAR has launched its new Production Management curriculum that provides end-to-end instruction designed to drive bottom-line improvements in productivity and profitability throughout the collision-repair process. Available now, Production Management is a part of I-CAR’s Professional Development Program (PDP), filling a curriculum placeholder that was planned when the PDP was launched in 2010.

The new role and curriculum, which goes beyond technical training, was developed using direct industry input, collaborating with production managers, shop owners and experts from the collision repair industry. According to I-CAR, it was designed to provide insight into critical issues and multiple areas of the shop floor, while enhancing critical-thinking and problem-solving skills, enabling participants to quickly address complex problems shop personnel face in collision-repair production.

“The broad-based process focus designed into this new Production Management Role allows shops to empower all of their resources, fine-tune their KPI’s and realize maximum ROI on shop-wide training investment,” said John Van Alstyne, CEO and president of I-CAR. “Effectively managing production is one of the key success factors seen in collision shops that are thriving in the midst of the ‘Technical Tsunami’, rather than just surviving it. And ‘Learning Culture’ insights, a focus within the new role, will help shops further multiply the benefits of production best practices. In short, organizations with true ‘Learning Cultures’ can achieve better and continuously improving levels of performance that can become a real competitive advantage.”

This new course of study will deliver content designed to bring people and processes together. Knowledge gained will allow the facility’s production management leader(s) to utilize advanced problem-solving tools, root-cause analysis, process mapping and others, to identify waste and defects in their local workflow process at their facility and improve efficiencies and ultimately their profitability.

“This industry has a strong, immediate need for production management training,” said Josh McFarlin, I-CAR director of curriculum and product development. “By working directly with shop owners and experts across the shop floor, we were able to build a unique curriculum that accurately reflects critical areas and challenges the industry faces.”

The Production Management curriculum follows a blended learning model, featuring courses that are optimized for their delivery method and designed to build on each other. This reduces overall redundancy and length of time for courses. The courses feature interviews with industry experts and interactive exercises through a mix of live, online and new virtual formats. The architecture of the Production Management curriculum follows I-CAR’s new “Purpose Built” curriculum design principles.

A core component of the Production Management curriculum is the Learning Culture Overview, the first course of the sequential series. Understanding and embracing a culture of learning and knowledge-sharing as a long-term strategy is key to enhancing and maximizing a facility’s success rate in KPIs.

Courses available now are part of the ProLevel 1 pathway for the role within I-CAR’s industry-recognized PDP. Additional courses are under development for subsequent ProLevels as students progress through the curriculum. This role introduces the idea of pre-requisites to the PDP, as each course in the Production Management role must be taken sequentially, thereby minimizing course-to-course redundancy and maximizing learning effectiveness.

Production Management Role courses include:

Learning Culture Overview (PM101E01)
Before the Repair Starts (PM105E01)
Matching the Repair to the Team (PM110V01)
Workflow Essentials (PM115E01)
Synchronizing Workflow through Team Communication (PM120L01)
Problem Solving for Workflow Changes (PM125V01)
Quality Is Your Business (PM130E01)
Optimizing Processes, Equipment and Compliance (PM135E01)
Developing the Team and the Business (PM140V01)
Refining the Team and the Businesses (PM145L01)

Students can review detailed information, register for classes and track their training progress for the Production Management curriculum online on the company’s website now. To watch a video about I-CAR’s Production Management role, visit youtube.com/watch?v=DauZjmikqWA.