July/August 2019

BY Neil Pattemore L ast year I wrote about the changes facing independent workshops. Since then there have been further developments, and now the rate of change is increasing exponentially. You will be familiar with today’s challenges and probably aware of some of those of tomorrow’s, especially if you are a regular reader of this revered magazine. However, the workshop of the future will need to change significantly to stay competitive as well as being compliant with both commercial or legislative requirements. If I look as some of the likely changes, they are quite wide-ranging, but together they will put increasing pressure on the management of the workshop and the business more generally. The IMI has recently stated that “management and leadership within the sector is not evolving quickly enough” and that “a skilled, competent and professional workforce, able to keep pace with the demands of new technology and changing markets and remain competitive” are necessary, which are being supported through the IMI’s ‘Campaigns for change’ initiative. Greatest challenge Looking at the workshop level first, then the greatest challenge remains the access to, and the use of, in- vehicle data. Taking the access to the vehicle first, it will be controlled to meet the needs of cybersecurity – needed as vehicles become ever- more electronically controlled on the way to fully autonomous vehicles. This also means that today’s OBD connector will be both restricted in the way that it can be accessed, already requiring electronic certificates to authorise access and to define what data/functions are then available, but also the width and depth of data which is also being reduced due to the very design of the OBD connector being unable to support the bandwidth needed for high-speed in- vehicle systems. The access for these systems will be via wireless communication, which is both faster and more secure, but also more difficult for the workshop to access – even if this is going to be possible at all. Vehicle manufacturers already deny independent service providers access to data via any of their telematics systems and are restricting the OBD port. To obtain the required electronic access certificates even for the OBD port, independent workshops have to be registered and authorised by the vehicle manufacturer before paying them for the required certificate. This is especially a requirement when working on ADAS systems, as the vehicle manufacturer needs to know if the repaired system is re-calibrated and working correctly, so access to the system, the re-coding of replacement ADAS components, as well as confirming the vehicle is working correctly again, is likely to be certificate based. All these access authorisation requirements are likely to need new legislation to provide independent access to the vehicle and its data. Assuming that access is possible, the next evolution will be the use of data with supporting partners, such as the diagnostic tool manufacturers and spare parts providers. This will be necessary to quickly and accurately identify what work is needed on a vehicle and the corresponding replacement parts on increasingly complicated in-vehicle systems. This will be done by exchanging data with these service providers to provide a ‘just-in-time’ delivery of the technical support and parts needed – without this partnership support small independent businesses would struggle to repair tomorrow’s vehicles, let alone make a profit from doing so. Vehicle ownership As vehicle ownership moves away from individuals to ‘mobility service providers’, where the use of the vehicle will be available as short-term rental (i.e. by the hour, day, month etc.), your customer becomes the vehicle provider and they will drive down prices to be competitive in their own mobility services, so workshop efficiency becomes paramount to remaining competitive in this changing market. In a wider context, the way that vehicles are supplied through authorised dealers is likely to change, as direct sales to mobility providers develops. As this happens, the authorised dealers are more likely to become service and repair points, and this is where the difference between authorised and independent repairers becomes more blurred. Both types of workshop will need similar levels of competence and be competitive for the service and maintenance they provide. This brings in another change for the independent workshop, where there will be an increasing need to have business management data 14 AFTERMARKET JULY/AUGUST 2019 BUSINESS www.aftermarketonline.net TOMORROW NEVER KNOWS? Neil Pattemore considers the workshop of tomorrow, and how it will impact on the business of tomorrow