Automotive Industry Challenges: Skills, Solutions, and Success

Anthony Perl: So Andrew, in the last few episodes, I think we've spent a lot of time talking about some of the problems and we're going to talk to a little bit to the problems again, but I think we need to focus a little bit more on some of the solutions as we move forward.

So this is exciting in itself, isn't it? To be able to get to that. What can we actually resolve?

Andrew Uglow: Yes, I go back to Charles Kettering, where he said, , a well stated problem is a problem half solved. And having clarity on the problem is so important. Once we're at that point of clarity, it's right. Now, what do we do? , we now start to work through, what are our options? What's going to work, what hasn't worked, what else is left kind of thing.

And get down to the point where we can actually go and make the changes that make the difference that position is for the success that we're looking for.

Anthony Perl: Yes, and I, you absolutely right there. And I think that's, it's an important part, isn't it? In this industry is that because it's moving so quickly and because there's so much development all the time, but actually being able to take a step back and understand the problem and state those questions clearly is in itself a task.

Andrew Uglow: It, and you're right. It certainly is. And there's a, a weird, parallel, or duality to the industry and that there's some parts of it that are just absolute leading edge in terms of the technology, in terms of the materials being used , it's akin to like the, the, the. The computer race that we, used to in the eighties.

That by the time you bought your computer and got it home, it was already obsolete because something new had already been replaced ? Uh, and at the same time, there's these, these, these areas that are the absolute laggards and, and, uh, throwbacks that are, are, are, are, are, are, are. profoundly stubborn, uh, and just simply don't want to change.

And, uh, the, the, the contrast between the two is sometimes not just amusing. It's, it's actually bizarre.

Anthony Perl: Yeah, absolutely. And, let's get into it, though, because, I think that one of the things and we spoke very briefly off air about this, but to me, it's interesting. People often use this word wording of a skills shortage versus the idea that there's a skills problem. And in my mind, the idea of a skills shortage tends to infer that you need to train new people from scratch. Whereas when there's a problem, It's more about thinking about are there different solutions? Are there different ways of approaching it than just totally finding new people?

It's actually both. And this is one of those weird parallel, um, What do you call them? What's the word for those? Parallel events? Parallel drivers? I'm not sure quite what the term is. Um, it's, it's, a weird duality in that it's both would be the best way to, to, to answer that in that the time that it takes to train someone from scratch.

Andrew Uglow: So I, I'm a, I'm a workshop, uh, or a dealership. And I look at my, um, Customer demand. I look at my productivity and efficiency in the workshop, and I say, Well, look, I definitely need more people given the demands that are placed on me, placed on me for all of the different inputs that there are. And so I go, Well, I go looking for a new tech, a new technician for my workshop, and I put my ad in seek and wherever else I put my ad, and I put my feelers out to my networks, and I go, I need a tech.

And I know of businesses that have been doing that for literally 9, 10, 12 months and not had so much as a bite. Um, and so the question then goes, well, okay, can we put on an apprentice? And they end up with a similar sort of situation where the people that apply are not suitable. They're not engaged there.

Potentially could make a good mechanic or a good technician, but it's going to take a whole lot of work. And that becomes an additional workload on top of all of the other workload that I've already got. And so it plays out as, as really a three part problem. First part being a labor shortage, as in, I can't find the right type of person or a suitable type of person to work in the business.

Um, Then it becomes a skills issue as in the difficulty in training someone because there is a lot to know and it's not getting any less anytime soon. Um, and, and so the time then for me to get someone from zero or near zero up to speed is, is really quite arduous and there's no guarantee that they'll stay.

I could get halfway through that and I could pull the pin just as they're starting to become profitable for me and, and worthwhile me employing them. Um, So the time taken, the amount of information taken, and the third element of this is, and this is something that businesses I think are, um, a little bit blinkered to, is, is, it actually worth the person staying in the business?

Like, so they hire someone, and from the manager's perspective, I'm, I'm focused on my outputs, I'm focused on, You know, pleasing the customers, serving, servicing, servicing the customers, meeting customer need, customer demand, um, making sure that my booking time doesn't blow out to six months because I've got so many customers and so few workers kind of thing, um, And so I become very output driven and now I'm not necessarily paying enough attention to the culture, to the business.

I start to shortcut things. I start to make choices that get me a better profit, but at what price to my people, you know, and, and that whole, um, Pressure, um, pressure monkey starts to, to climb up onto people's shoulders and it's how much longer, quick, quick, quick, faster, faster, faster, why isn't it, why isn't that done?

And that's not a fun place to work in. And particularly if you're new in the trade, like that's a really high stress. And on top of that, I'm supposed to learn all this stuff and it's all weird and it's all new and it's all bizarre. And, and then people go, you know, I've, I've had enough. I can, I can earn as much money holding a stop slow sign, wearing some beautiful orange clothing, uh, as I can doing this.

And, and often, perhaps too often that happens. So it's, it's, it's not a, it's not a single thing. There's, there's a real, like, like we said, it's a real dynamic. There's a lot of, uh, multiple concurrent drivers all pulling, uh, in sometimes competing directions and sometimes pulling you away from, from what is, uh, the core of your business.

Anthony Perl: Yeah, it's well, and I think that's the great thing that we're going to be exploring and unpacking a lot of this as we come into the coming episodes and not just this one. But let's, let's start perhaps by, um, characterizing what we're dealing with here. What, what are the, what are you seeing is the key? Um, skills where there are problems

Andrew Uglow: So I've, I have done a lot of mental laps on this. Um, and just to zoom out very slightly, and I know we've mentioned this in, in some previous episodes. Um, I've come into this from, uh, the view of a technician and then the view of a trainer of technicians. And, um, In the previous episodes, we've discussed about how critical, uh, technicians are to the effectiveness of a business.

If you don't have good technicians, then, um, you, you're essentially trying to push water uphill with a toothpick. And that's possible, but boy, is that hard work. Um, and anyone that's done it will know what I'm talking about. And so I've, I've, I don't really play in the labor space as in the quality of people available or the quantity of people available.

Um, that's not really something that, that it's, it's a critical part of the skills issue, but it's, it's, it's about a third of what's going on. Partly that could be solved by addressing the learning component or the skilling components of this. In that, if it didn't take us 16 years to produce automotive gurus, if we could do that in, in less time, um, this guilt, the availability of people would, would improve, right?

If let's say for, we could wave a magic wand and we could go, well, instead of taking 16 years to go from zero to awesome, uh, we could do that in eight years. We could hit that awesome mark at eight instead of 16. That would have a huge impact in the amount of highly skilled people that are available, right?

Cause we've, we've, we've essentially halved their time. And so it would also address that, um, that gap that, uh, employers work employee. It would also address the gap that employers find themselves In when they take on a new person now, whether that is a new technician to their business, cause it will take a new tech, even if they're really good, it'll take a new tech two to three months to get up to speed.

Um, they'll get to about that 80 percent mark reasonably quickly, but it'll be a good three months before they really start to hit their straps. Um, or. If they take on a new person, it's, I'm going to argue for that new person to be genuinely productive in the business from scratch. You're probably looking at 12 to 18 months, depending upon the person.

I've seen them come good at six months. But I've also seen people at three years later and it's just like, um, you know, they can stand upright and they maintain a pulse. And really that's the, the, the, all of the value that they bring to the business. And it's just, it's just not suitable. Now you can't, you can't carry that sort of weight.

Um, so really focusing in on that, that skill learning part, I think would go a long way towards solving or at least relieving some of the pressure in the industry. Um, and the third part is that the whole management leadership part, and that that's almost another discussion, but it certainly plugs into a lot of what we know that is needed to become a good technician.

A lot of those skills, a lot of those qualities also play out for what's needed to be a good workshop owner or a good workshop manager. Um, and so there's, there's some, some crossover there that we can, we can touch on as we go through these.

Anthony Perl: and I guess, you know, just going back to the point you made earlier, um, but, but I think it's worth restating, um, that traditionally the approach has been very, um, narrow focused, one dimensional, even if we can call it that.

Andrew Uglow: it absolutely has. And Personally, I found it, both frustrating and heartbreaking at the same time in that, my experience has been at a personal relational level with a lot of the technicians and I would see people come into technical training and, you know, they're new to the brand, they're new to the business, they're new to the, the automotive world.

And, uh, they kick off and they start doing really well and then you, you know, you might see them maybe two times, three times a year. And after two years they come in and it's like they're angry and bitter and twisted and, and, and all out of shape. And it's like, What's, what's going on. And they start to explain the work environment that they found themselves in and, and it's not just, um, it's not every business, but it's certainly some businesses and arguably too many.

And the way that we go about addressing that is, is simply been to do more technical training. And there's nothing inherently wrong with technical training. I think it's, it's, it's profoundly necessary, but it isn't. It isn't a magic fix. It doesn't solve all of the issues. And how we do technical training, as you said, has been very one dimensional and that hasn't been, that hasn't been sufficient.

And, and perhaps, um, a good way for me to explain what I mean about one dimensional is, is to just convey my experience. Uh, the first time I was ever doing, uh, technical training by myself. So a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, uh, as, as, as we start all our stories, um, I'd been working as a motor mechanic.

I was the senior diagnostic person in the workshop. Um, I was frustrated with the pay and the conditions and the management and decided that I wanted to do something else. So I chose training because I wanted to, um, use the skill and the ability that I had. So I went and did a training certificate and then started to apply for jobs.

Um, as a technical trainer and, um, story short, I ended up getting a job working for an American company who had a contract with the Jeep group or the cries, the Jeep group, uh, in America doing technical training, um, training through Southeast Asia. And. Um, up until this point in time, I think I'd been overseas once, uh, to Hong Kong for a holiday.

Um, and so I'm, I'm, I'm like, not just wet behind the ears. I've, I, you know, it was about as green as they come and they were, they were crazy enough to, to, to put me on. So I figured I'd be crazy enough to have a go, you know, what's, what's the worst that could happen. And so. They, um, they shipped me off to Manila with one of their other trainers.

And we run a, um, uh, a multiple course, two week training event for the people that work on the Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, Ram product in Manila. And. It was an absolute eye opener for me, um, the, the, the Philippine people are just some of the nicest people you would ever meet in a day's walk. And they were so eager, uh, for any information, for any help that they could get.

And so we, uh, they almost sort of sucked the information out of us. And um, The deal was that if I performed successfully in Manila, I would be sent off to another market and the trainer would then go on and do a separate market. So like two different things happening at the same time. And the trainer, the trainer's gone, yep, you'll be fine.

Off you go. So he goes off to, to, to wherever it was that he went. And I get sent to Indonesia, which Was great because I studied Bahasa at school. Well, studied is probably a strong word. I was sat in the classes when they were teaching Bahasa. That would probably be a better way of saying it. And so I had some vague ideas of the culture.

I had some vague ideas of the language. And, um, again, the Indonesian people are just like lovely, lovely people. Had an absolute ball. Uh, so I rock up in, in Indonesia, um, and. As I rock up there, I, I have my first meeting with the training manager the day before the training. We do all the setup, all that sort of stuff.

And he says, Oh, by the way, you'll be training trainers. Not technicians, and I'm going, oh, well, well, that's interesting. So here's this guy, green, wet behind the ears, and he's training trainers now. So no problems. I think again, you know, the story of my, I guess one of my philosophies has always been bite off more than you can, more than you can chew and then chew like hell.

And so that's kind of what I plan to do. And so the next day stand up in front of the class and I'm teaching some fairly experienced people a new brand. It wasn't so much new technology, but a new brand. And so every brand has their own ways and methods and means and names and labels and acronyms. And so there was a lot to learn.

And so we do the initial, uh, session and that goes really well. And then we start to dig into some of the more technical things. And at the times at the service information was published on CD ROMs. This is how long ago this is. And so every month there would be two CD ROMs, two discs. One had all of the software for the computers systems on the car that you could update.

And the other had all the technical information on how to work on the car or the service manuals essentially. And. I had to introduce these CD ROMs to the people and explain how they work, because they were, they were written in American, and American is like English, but it's not English. Uh, and these people spoke, um, sort of English.

Uh, Indonesian English, which is closer to Australian than it is to American. Anyway.

Anthony Perl: Yes.

Andrew Uglow: Bye. Of course, they don't know any of this. They don't know about the discs. They don't know about any of that. This is completely new. So I go and write up in very large letters on the whiteboard to introduce the CD ROM. In very large letters, I write the acronym for the CD ROM. Bang, bang, bang, up on the board.

And I'm not going to say what it is because, well, you'll see why in a minute. And I then turn around to the room, point to this acronym, and I go, has everybody seen this? And the room goes weird, awkward quiet. Like uncomfortable, weird, awkward, quiet, and I'm really not quite sure what to make of this. And so having done a certificate for in workplace training and assessment, the thing is you go for engagement, right?

So I picked the, the, the young guy at the front, who's super engaged, super keen, super enthusiastic, enthusiastic. And I, I ask him personally, I go, Oh, have you seen this? And he sort of goes this weird red color and starts to slide down his seat and will not make eye contact. I'm just going, Oh, this is just getting better.

You know, this is, this is not good at all. I'm just thinking, Oh man, what do I do? So I push forward, right? What else am I going to do? Um, and so I then write down the whiteboard underneath each letter, the words that make up the acronym and I did it, and then I hold up the CD rom and I go, have you all seen this?

And there's this, there's this weird pause where like, it's everything just froze for a second. And then it is havoc. It is absolute havoc. I have got people who are laughing so hard. They can't sit upright in their, in their, in their seat. They tears running down their face. I've got other people that are ready to, they look like they're ready to leap out of their seat and throttle me.

It's like, they are really angry. They're really, really angry. And just as all this kicks off. They have a siren that would go off for morning tea. And so the morning tea siren goes off. One of the people in my class dashes out the door before I can say, you know, let's be back in 20 minutes for, you know, the break kind of thing.

And before I know it, the, the national training manager standing at the door. Um, so they had like managers over the different training centers and then had the national training manager. He's standing at the door and he goes, Oh, Andrew, do you have a minute? Could I, could I just have a quick word with you?

And I'm thinking this, this is only going to end well, right? This is, this is going to be great. So he takes me to his office and like, you know, how there's this overarching weirdness sometimes when you, with people that they know something that you don't know, and there's something going on, but no one will tell me.

Like, no one will tell me. And so I get there and he says, um, we need to talk about the, the name of the disc. And I go, Oh, and he said, um, that particular acronym in Indonesian is the name for female genitals. And I've, I just realized that I have written in large letters on a whiteboard, the name for female genitals and asked a room of fairly devout Indonesian people if they've seen this.

And I'm, I am mortified. I was like, how do you ever come back from this? Like, this is like, and I've just gone, Oh man, I'm so sorry. And, and, and here's, this is the reason that I tell the story, right? Apart from the fact that looking back on it now, it's funny. It was perhaps a bit less funny at the time, but here's the reason that I tell the story.

Up until that moment in time, I had no concept. That that acronym could mean anything other than what it meant. If I'd asked anyone I know, what does this acronym mean? That if told me, it means what I thought it meant. So all of my external references for testing what this means, for all of my ways of being able to interpret it, even when you put the CD ROM into the computer and fired it up, it came up and told you what it was.

It comes up with the acronym. So I had no way of knowing. That it actually meant female genitals in another language and, and more to the point, I had no way of even conceiving that I should ask if it meant anything in another language. Like that wasn't even a question that came up on the horizon for me.

And here's the parallel. It is exactly like that for the automotive industry in how we go about doing our learning. We've only got one way of doing it. We've only got tech like what it's technical training. This is how we do technical training. There's a formula and we do it. Well, don't get me wrong. I'm not criticizing, but it's like, it's the only reference we've got.

It's a single dimension and that dimension we do great, but there's more to it, but we've got no way of being able to know that there's more to it. It doesn't even occur to us to go and think, gee, I wonder if there's, More to this, because all of the things that we test to see if there's more to us, all of the measures that we hold up against it to go, well, I wonder if there's more to this, tell us that there isn't

just like this acronym on the CD ROM.

Anthony Perl: And I've said, the industry is a bit renowned for that. I, again, I won't mention any, any brand names, but there's certainly been stories over the years about names of cars that have been given in one country and meant

something different in

Andrew Uglow: dear. It's,

Anthony Perl: uh, so at least we've got Google now that we can at least do some research relatively easily.

And

Andrew Uglow: and this is why I'm not naming the CD ROM. Okay. The people who have been in the brand long enough will know exactly what I'm talking about. And those that haven't, I'm sorry. I'm just not, I'm not saying it.