Featured Story from the July/August 2003 Today's Tire Industry
Past
Featured Articles
TIA
Enters the Age of Web-Based Training
by Kevin Rohlwing Editor and TIA Senior Vice President
of Education and Technical Services
For
the first time in the history of the tire industry, every
retail tire dealer with Internet access can receive unlimited
web-based training for passenger and light truck tire
service technicians.' Every segment
of the tire industry has its own history of training employees.
For example, in the early days of retreading, individual craftsmanship
played such a crucial role in performance that successful companies
were required to provide their employees with as much training as
possible in order to ensure some degree of quality control. The
process has evolved to a level where current training is centered
more on the operation of computerized sophisticated machinery rather
than on the principles of retreading. It's not at the point
where a button is pushed and a retread pops out, but it appears
headed in that direction as companies look for ways to reduce labor
costs through automation.
Likewise, the tire and rubber recycling industry is in the middle
of a technological revolution, so the level of training required
will likely center on how to operate a machine. Shredders and separators
can handle incredible volume with consistency and reliability that
was unheard of just a decade ago. With new markets for products
containing recycled rubber content emerging on a continual basis,
the lifecycle of new technology is expected to decrease as more
research and development into scrap tire management takes place.
Once again, the dependency on automation will ultimately have an
effect on the level and type of training that is necessary.  Without a doubt,
tire repair material manufacturers have led the way for years with
nail hole and section repair training in the service sector. Hands-on
training seminars in the field continue to be provided by suppliers
and are often done free-of-charge. Self-study videos and CD-ROM
are also readily available from the manufacturers. As new products
and technology become available to dealers and retreaders, it's
all but certain that the proper training will accompany it in the
field and in the classroom.
From an industry perspective, the gaping hole in employee training
can always be found in the service department. It doesn't even
matter what type of tire is being serviced, because the majority
of technicians learned their craft by watching someone else. Very
few employees receive formal training on their first day and even
fewer have completed a structured training program in their career.
The question is, why? Perhaps it's
the high turnover rate for new technicians. Training definitely
requires an investment, and paying good money to educate someone
who might not come back from lunch doesn't seem like a very
effective business practice. Even the threat of OSHA violations
isn't enough to make most tire dealers see the value in training
or the risk in allowing technicians to work without documentation,
because the probability of an inspection is slim in most instances.
Granted, there are more and more dealers that recognize the liability
of unqualified technicians, but even the most diligent are likely
to have one or two slip through the cracks for a few days.
In today's
litigious society, one or two on any day is all it takes. It's been
proven time and time again in a court of law that the best protection
for a tire dealer in the event of an accident is documented proof
of training for the technician that performed the service. This
also applies to technicians working without training as they are
the ones generally associated with higher settlements. It's
almost impossible to prove that a technician serviced an assembly
properly, but it's easy to show he was trained to follow the
correct guidelines and procedures. Likewise, a trained technician
who makes a mistake will be treated differently than one who was
never trained in the first place. In the eyes of the legal system,
employees without documented training are just guessing when it
comes to the proper methods for servicing tires and wheels. 'With
just a 28k modem, users will not have to wait for anything
to download, so the transition from one training module
to the next will be seamless.' But that doesn't
change the fact that turnover is a tremendous problem for all types
of tire dealers. Service technician is not the most promising career
and doesn't pay particularly well, so the overall quality of
job applicants is marginal at best. Even with unemployment rates
continuing to rise, most people won't consider a job where
they're guaranteed to work hard and get dirty. It takes special
people to crawl under garbage trucks in muddy landfills, and not
all of them get to grow up and write articles about their experience.
With more than 40,000 points of sale in North America alone, the
retail tire industry, undoubtedly, faces the most serious challenge
to educate technicians. Traditional self-study video and CD-ROM
training programs create tremendous paperwork burdens on companies
with locations spread over large geographical areas. Smaller companies
often lack the resources to employ full-time safety or training
personnel, so the job usually falls on already overwhelmed managers
and supervisors. The retail tire industry can come up with thousands
of reasons why documented proof of technician training is so difficult
to achieve on a collective basis, but the solution to the problem
has remained elusive to this point.
Focus
Groups Help Design ATS Model
Soon after the merger of the International Tire & Rubber Association
and Tire Association of North America was announced, the new Tire
Industry Association (TIA) Board of Directors created a Training
and Education Committee to set the direction for future training
programs. With the combined resources of both organizations, we
could finally address the most pressing training need in the industry.
The solution to the problem of providing economical and efficient
documentation of training for more than 100,000 passenger and light
truck tire service technicians was obvious. Internet access is becoming
almost as common as a fax machine in a typical retail tire dealership,
so a web-based training program could instantly eliminate the problems
of geography and paperwork. But most locations have dial-up access,
thereby eliminating the chance of downloading any videos during
training. Getting over that hurdle would be the key.
In March of 2002, TIA brought together a focus group of large, independent
tire dealers from the United States and Canada. Over the two-days
they were in Louisville, Kentucky, for the meeting, plans were discussed
for a proposed Automotive Tire Service (ATS) Program that would
provide different levels of training for new hires and experienced
technicians. The results from that meeting were presented at the
first TIA Board Meeting just a few months later, which ultimately
resulted in approval to move forward with the project.
TIA also wanted input from smaller independent retail tire dealers,
so it turned to state and regional associations to send a representative
for a similar focus group. With the refinements from the previous focus group incorporated into the ATS model, we wanted to see how
it would meet the needs of tire dealers that don't have the
advantage of a training or safety department. Once again, we gained
valuable insight, and as a result, the final outline of what would
become the Basic ATS Program was ready.
But we still had to get over the hurdle of web-based training on
dial-up connections. Delphi Integrated Service Solutions (ISS) is
the training division of Delphi Automotive, a billion-dollar supplier
of components to the vehicle manufacturing industry. Its Interactive
Compact Disc (ICD) training concept turned out to be the solution
to the problem. 'The
combination of the TIA web-based Basic ATS training program
and the database gives every size company the ability
to have a complete educational system for passenger and
light truck tire service technicians.'
Technology
Simplifies Web Training Concept
By utilizing ICD technology, all of the high bandwidth components
are captured on a CD-ROM. The Internet connection merely "directs";
which video or interactive exercise should be on the screen during
training. With just a 28k modem, users will not have to wait for
anything to download, so the transition from one training module
to the next will be seamless. Since there are a few companies that
have broadband connections, they can link directly to the server
and complete the training experience without an ICD. For the first
time in the history of the tire industry, every retail tire dealer
with Internet access can receive unlimited web-based training for
passenger and light truck tire service technicians.
That's right. We use the word "unlimited."; It's
impossible to address the issue of employee turnover if companies
have to pay a fee every time an employee is trained. TIA's
Basic ATS Program is only available as a package that includes an
unlimited 12-month subscription, a student workbook, ICD and a VHS/DVD
for those without Internet access (permanent or temporary). Each
location with a subscription will have all of the materials to train
a new hire or an experienced technician in need of documentation
as many times as necessary. 'Web-based
training is a giant leap in technology for any organization,
but TIA is committed to providing it as an unlimited-access
member service.'
How
It Works After purchasing a subscription, a location
registers on TIA's website, www.tireindustry.org, using a designated
user name and random password. At that time, the manager or supervisor
enters in the necessary information to register the location. The
manager or supervisor also becomes the local administrator of the
database that is built into the program. Within three to five working
days of registration, the Basic ATS package will be shipped, and
as soon as it reaches the location, the web-based training can begin.
When each technician signs on with a name and Social Security Number,
he is automatically entered into the database as a participant,
so electronic documentation is immediate. Once the student completes
the training and final test, the option is available to print proof
of participation. Students with a score of 70 percent or better
receive a TIA Letter of Completion and are eligible for a TIA Certificate
of Completion. If the score is below 70 percent, the student receives
a TIA Letter of Participation.
TIA
Launches Web-Based Training Basic Automotive Tire Service
Program Offered Online At the end of Summer 2004, TIA introduced the first phase of the
most comprehensive online Automotive Tire Service
(ATS) Training Program in the industry for new hires
and experienced technicians. Basic ATS covers the
minimum skills necessary to service automobile, sport-utility
and light truck tire and wheel assemblies. The Program
is divided into eight modules, each dealing with a
different aspect or step in the process.
- Module 1 covers the basic principles
of passenger and light truck tires and wheels. A complete
discussion of sidewall information is accompanied
by wheel nomenclature and design characteristics.
- Module 2 is dedicated to the procedures and safety guidelines
for raising and securing the vehicle using lifts,
portable floor jacks and jack stands. An emphasis
on lifting points and positioning the vehicle on the
lift is included.
- Module 3 covers tire and wheel assembly removal and installation,
and includes rotation patterns for different types
of vehicles and tire designs. A discussion on wheel
lug torque and clamping force provides technicians
with a basic understanding of how they can keep assemblies
attached to the vehicle.
- Module 4 includes the step-by-step procedures for demounting,
mounting and inflating tire and wheel assemblies on
center post and rim clamp tire machines.
- Module 5 provides basic information
on tire balancing, as well as the procedures for performing
a static and/or dynamic balance on all types of tire
and wheel assemblies.
- Module 6 outlines
procedures for diagnosing tire and wheel problems
and includes guidelines for measuring runout on and
off the vehicle. A discussion on common tire wear
patterns and their causes accompanies the Module.
- Module 7 covers the step-by-step procedures for installing
one- and two-piece nail hole repair units in addition
to the guidelines for nail hole repairs.
- Module 8 includes frequently asked questions related to a number
of subjects regarding automotive tire and wheel service.
With TIA total tire training, your customers can feel
confident that their tires and wheels are being serviced
correctly and safely.
See page 15 for complete details about TIA's
new Basic Automotive Tire Service Program.Since the web-based
training component includes unlimited access, technicians can participate
as many times as they want. Each time they log on with their name
and Social Security Number, the program records it on the database.
For those students who do not successfully complete the test, this
feature becomes very important because progress can be easily tracked.
From the administrative standpoint, the manager or supervisor will
have access to all of the information on the database for that particular
location. However, a designated corporate administrator will have
access to every branch location and the ability to sort the records
by city, state and zip code. Both administrative programs include
statistical analyses that automatically compute average score, number
of technicians trained and number of technicians that passed the
exam. As an added feature, both administrators will also have the
ability to download the information as an ASCII file that can be
copied into almost every database management system.
The combination of the TIA web-based Basic ATS training program
and the database gives every size company the ability to have a
complete educational system for passenger and light truck tire service
technicians. With automation built into every level of the training
and the administration of the database, it basically runs itself
without any paperwork. A corporate training manager could access
the entire technician database of the company from any Internet connection by logging on to www.tireindustry.org. It can't
get much easier than that.
With fixed costs
for technician training, regardless of the number of participants,
retail tire dealers can easily ensure that every employee receives
the proper training. Electronic documentation is automatically included
for the web-based component of Basic ATS, so the administration
of a training program for multiple locations is done entirely on
the Internet. Each student also has the option of printing immediate
documentation on-site for a hard-copy to be kept in the employee
file or submitted for a TIA Certificate of Completion.
In building the Basic ATS Program, we hope we've thought of
everything, but we've been developing training for the industry
long enough to know that we'll learn some valuable lessons
when it is released this summer. Web-based training is a giant leap
in technology for any organization, but TIA is committed to providing
it as an unlimited-access member service. Since annual subscription
renewal includes a lifetime warranty on the ICD, VHS, DVD or workbook,
members can finally invest in their last technician training program.
When new technology results in the need for an upgrade, TIA member
subscribers will receive their new materials at no charge and their
annual subscription fee will not change. For $12.50 or less per
month, a TIA retail tire dealer member can participate in a comprehensive
passenger and light truck tire technician web-based training program
that includes a complete database that lasts forever.
For subscriptions and information to
TIA publications,
please visit our Publications page.
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