The Diagnostician

I am going to share a story of my experience early in the shop.

So… I made my fair share of mistakes alongside many of the other newer technicians; it’s to be expected of anyone who is learning a new trade.

For example, I remember this time I accidently cross threaded a bolt into the side of engine and had to get help removing it from one of the senior technicians. It took us hours, but I was so thankful because, he saved my butt on that one and I learned an important technique.

However, I came in the next day and, as a joke, one of the guys placed the broken bolts and parts he had collected and hung them on my repair order hook. Cheeky fun right! It wasn’t really at the time, my confidence as a technician took a hit, and I have seen many people leave a repair shop for less. I just wanted to work on cars, make some decent money, and get good at it with a little support from those who paved the way.

Pride, ego, and attrition were at an all-time high in every shop I worked in. EVERY SINGLE ONE. The shop was riddled with reactivity and distraction because it was always go, go, go! Impact guns ugga-duggin, hammers slamming, three different radios playing different stations, and people yelling at each other was the norm.

The shops I worked in were often poorly lit, high stress, and one safety incident away from OSHA shutting them down. Some shops might be likened to a dungeon. If it wasn't the stressful work environment and poor shop culture that drove me to the next opportunity, it was the fear of not producing enough work to support my family because of shop politics about who got what work.

There was typically one senior technician in each of the shops I worked in that had a bad attitude, wasn't helpful, and always seemed angry at the world. Heaven forbid you had to ask him a question about something he was versed in, you were likely to receive a condescending comment such as "did you read the manual" and “I’m busy”. ?

He would eventually help but only after the service manager intervened and usually in a way to where I felt like a complete bother to him. Seriously, the attitude was so toxic we had a sign on the wall for how many days since our last incident, relating to a safety incident you would assume, but nope, we were referring to the last time he blew his top.

Now this wasn't always the case, for every Senior Tech saying “Sink or Swim” there was usually one great teacher in each successful shop. I can attribute most of my success to a few people in my career that were patient enough to walk through the problem with me and help me develop my understanding.

We are in the business of time and because time is money in the flat-rate system, even these guys would feel the drag of attrition in the shop as newer techs came in needing support. There was never a shortage of cars, only a shortage of technicians.?

This is the environment I started in. Most of what I learned was self-taught at the beginning and I kept to myself, rarely asking for help in fear of looking foolish or stupid in front of my peers as I was learning something new.

Now follow me to a nice hot summer day in Florida. For some of you who are experiencing colder temperatures right now this sounds nice. So, close your eyes so you can really feel the heat.

I just wrapped up a brake job on a large truck when the service advisor steps into my bay and hands me the next repair order.

He tells me that the customer is in the waiting room with their kids and that the rear sliding glass window is not working. At this time in my career, I rarely received repair orders with diagnostics on it because they typically went to our two senior technicians in the shop who were severely backed up in other work.

I was excited! This was my shot at practicing my understanding of electrical systems and possibly receiving more work like this in the future, if I fixed it. I thought to myself, "I've replaced window motors before and that’s probably what it is". Let’s Go!

Diagnosticians are much like scientists. We start with a base understanding of what we are looking at and have a theory about what might be causing it. We then perform research to develop our understanding further and determine how we might begin to prove or disprove our theory.

We start with, what is not working? Currently, it is the rear sliding window that is not working. There is an observable problem here that we should be able to fix because we know how it works, right?! Or at least that is the perception of our customer when they bring their vehicle into the service department.

Let's be honest with ourselves here, many still have no idea how the internet works or what the cloud is. It’s this imaginary space above our heads like that scene from Willy Wonka where YouTube videos and social media are ported to our fingertips.

Understanding the complex systems of our new vehicles can feel very much the same way at first. There is multiplexing and programming, advanced driver assist systems, and vehicle dynamics. Electric Vehicle technology is also taking the industry by storm (no pun intended) so developing ones understanding requires many resources and A LOT, I mean A LOT, of conscious processing to identify a pattern or the root cause for one feature not working where multiple systems are involved.

In these cases, I have personally found myself staring at the proverbial wall, asking myself "what the hell do I do next?"

For our case of the rear sliding glass not working, the system is not nearly as complex. We will often have a window motor and regulator assembly, a switch, some wiring, and a computer of some sort that controls everything.

The computer is designed to tell you when there is a problem with the component or circuitry, but that is not always the case. In this case I had no problems being reported by the computer.

My first inclination was to see if the window motor was even receiving the power from the switch. So, I ask myself, “what can be tested and how can I do it in a way that saves me time because my customer is waiting” and like I said earlier, we are in the business of time.

I checked the fuse then tested for power at the motor with the switch pressed and found power. Just as any new technician would do at this point, I take my repair order to parts and ask them to order a window motor. In the meantime, I detach the glass and close it for our customer since we will be waiting on parts. On to the next job!

The next day the motor comes in and the customer brings their truck in for the repair. As the customer is waiting in the lobby, I install the motor promptly, reassemble the rear seats and then retest it.

UH OH! The Window still doesn't work. What did I miss? Did I get a bad or wrong part? Our customer is surely going to be upset and lose faith in my ability to repair the vehicle, as will my service advisor who gave me the work.

I begin to sweat; I feel a bit defeated because I'm not sure what I missed. I also know from here on out on this repair, I'm probably working for free. From the customer’s, service advisor’s, and manager’s perspective, I misdiagnosed the vehicle.

Again, I have seen technicians roll their toolboxes out because of a vehicle that has them defeated or the customer loses trust and takes the vehicle to another shop, never to be seen again. Everyone loses in this scenario and its sad, very sad.?

I didn't quit and with a bit of shame on my face, I went and talked to the service advisor and then to the customer to explain the current situation and ask for more time. At this point, I needed support badly before I started chasing the rabbit down the rabbit hole.?

My shop foreman, Wayne who was in his 60s at the time, was extremely helpful in finding what was causing our problem. It turns out the switch was bad, it allowed just enough power through it up to the motor, but it was not capable of working the motor.

I learned a very valuable lesson about switches that day and where to find the correct testing information in the future from Wayne.?From my experience, not all shops are as blessed to have someone like Wayne who have the patience to teach others the way he did for me on this day.

We need a Wayne in every shop, but the reality of the matter is that we are losing droves of our senior technicians to retirement, health issues, and other industries that are less taxing on the mind and body.

Realizing this I was hit with one big, perplexing question. How might we attract the next generation while also setting them up for success as they learn this very demanding trade?

I immediately felt that it won't be by reading manuals word by word, and we surely don't have the capacity to continuously remove one tech from one job to help another technician, especially if it's not Wayne where there is clear value in his assistance.

Initially, my focus was on training the next generation of gearheads, but I came to understand a much bigger problem. Who is going to be around to train and mentor them in the future if we already have huge shortage now?

My vision is a repair facility where our repair specialists have everything they need at the tips of their fingers and they learn on the job, where it has the most return on investment by saving time and improving retention. I understand that we will want to still ensure the utmost accuracy in a repair as well.

So, imagine that all the repair manuals, wiring diagrams, online learning courses, support teams, and engineering drawings were in a one stop spot on a handheld tablet, a laptop, or device of your choosing. Simplifying everything down into what you need.

All you would have to do is enter the VIN and describe the problem and then an augmented demonstration appears with the nuts and bolts of the system along with graphics for how things operate. It would mimic the shop foreman in a sense of, let me show you how it's done theoretically while also giving them an interactive safe space to test in, very much like in-class lectures are done today.

Additionally, a guided and augmented reality (AR), web-based application will provide a substantial amount of data around what is being seen in the repair facilities and where the most help is needed. This will improve shop capacity tremendously by not having to send repair technicians to classes and missing their productivity in the shop while also minimizing repeat repairs because there is a step-by-step visual guide to eliminate misunderstandings.

Research indicates that only 10% of learning occurs through reading. How many of us can say we have experienced a time where they read a page in a book, got all the way to the bottom, then asked themselves “what did I just read?”. Right back to the top. How much time and energy is spent rereading things to the point of understanding or better yet, more confusion?

It’s time to start getting our hands dirty because a majority of what we must learn currently as an automotive technician comes through reading manuals & online training courses done months in advance of the actual customer-facing repair. Our customers deserve best in class service so that requires our technicians to have best in class training.

#automotivetechnician #augmentedreality #automotiveindustry #automotivenews