By Palak Palak
Toronto, Ontario — February 10, 2014 — AkzoNobel is set to host a two-day performance group meeting for heavy truck collision repair facilities from March 19 to March 20, 2014 in Houston, Tex. The event will take place at Fairfield Inn Marriott.
This will be the second meeting for the newly expanded Heavy Truck Performance Group. The inaugural meeting for the launch of the new Heavy Truck Performance Group took place in Chicago. Both American and Canadian shops attended the launch, in addition to representatives from the distribution network and AkzoNobel.
AkzoNobel had been providing a performance group that was limited to International Truck dealerships since February 2005. However, since October of 2013 all brands of truck dealership and independent truck collision facilities have been included in the Heavy Truck Performance Group discussions.
| The Chicago meeting of the Acoat Selected Heavy Truck Performance Group brought together large vehicle repair specialists from across North America. |
The Chicago event began with a welcome by Bob DuBreuil of AkzoNobel. Other facilitators included Jimmy Harris and Michael White. DuBreuil has been helping AkzoNobel create these performance groups involving heavy truck body shops since 2005. DuBreuil explained that the group had been formed to provide management training to the heavy truck collision repair managers. This was necessary, as there was very limited support available to them from all sources. A sizable number of these managers were skilled technicians and estimators, but had not been provided with management training.
The meeting began with introductions and a team-building exercise. Group members then reviewed their financial performance for the first six months of the year with the aid of a comparative report. This report was had been assembled from financial data that the members had provided previously.
A discussion on human resource topics was carried out by Lacey Meer, HR Manager for AkzoNobel. A “Jeopardy†style game was conducted following this discussion wherein the subjects which Meer had talked about were reinforced. The first day was rounded out by a a presentation on AkzoNobel’s BTLV650 products designed for the truck and bus repair industry.
The second day began with a 7 a.m. bus departure to Plymouth, Ind., to visit the collision facility at Wiers International Trucks. The visit including a presentation on the company and a guided tour of the facility. After the initial tour, the participants split up into smaller groups to discuss 5S and the audit of the facility’s key departments.
The next meeting of the Acoal Selected Heavy Truck Performance Group is scheduled for March 19 to 20 at the Fairfield Inn by Marriott in Houston, Tex. Rooms carry a special rate $119 per night for participants. Please click here to register. The event will include a tour of International Trucks of Houston. For more information, please contact Bob DuBreuil, Group Facilitator, at 604-831-4010 or via email to robert.dubreuil@akzonobel.com.
