September 2019

BY Neil Pattemore T his year’s summer was good, but as usual, was over too quickly – so back to work and a reality check! However, during my summer travels some of today’s necessities of life were conspicuous by their absence. I hired a car, only to discover that the USB connection I needed to use to charge my phone and link to my favourite music playlists didn’t work. The local radio station’s dubious choices in music didn’t help relive the tedium, but when I got to the hotel my woes were compounded when I discovered that they wanted to charge a ridiculous amount to use their wi-fi – I mean seriously, who in their right mind can justify charging hotel guests for basic wi-fi – unless the hotel is run by Ryanair (who seem to want to charge everyone for everything), which it wasn’t. So, with no wi-fi in the hotel room, I had some time on my hands, so I started thinking about the connections we expect in today’s connected world and in turn what connections are needed to run today’s workshop. This got me thinking about the problems it would face if these connections were either expensive, were restricted, didn’t work as they should or didn’t exist at all. Form over function Back in the 1990s I remember well being handed a new portable diagnostic tool which could connect to the internet via the mobile phone networks. Subsequently, it was able to conduct remote and bi-directional diagnostics on a vehicle anywhere in the world, when the vehicle was also connected to the internet – effectively ‘PC anywhere’ technology. However, I also clearly remember complaining to the development engineer within a couple of minutes because the functionality was too slow. He was visibly shocked and was clearly offended by my negative feedback on what was his pride and joy. Then I realised what had made me comment negatively – it was not the impressive technology, but the speed of use and the corresponding ability to run the diagnostics I wanted to conduct. In IT terms, this is referred to as system ‘functionality’ and ‘non-functionality’. Simply, the ‘non-‘functionality’ is the design of the system and the ‘functionality’ is what it can deliver. It might be easier to remember this in layman’s terms as being ‘Form over function’. When applied to the workshop, this directly applies to a wide range of electronic connections that are needed to support your day-to-day business, and if these connections do not work as needed, how this can quickly and detrimentally impact your business activities. Don’t miss the ‘bus’ The ubiquitous Universal Serial Bus (USB) connection is a good example. A ‘bus’ within a PC are wires that transfer data between components inside the computer, or between the computer and its peripheral devices. We have all come to use this connection for a wide variety of tasks, from using it as an auxiliary power source for many different gadgets, to a vital communications port for various functions such as printers and other data transfer requirements. However, if it does not work correctly, physically or electronically, then simple tasks suddenly become major issues. This wired technology has moved on and most of us are now connected by wi-fi in the office environment, but increasingly also in the workshop to connect diagnostic tools to the internet. Data transfer speeds depend on the technology used and the latest generation (soon to be 802.11ax) is super-fast, which becomes more important as software updating of vehicles involves the transfer of massive data files. Generally, wi-fi connections work well, but when they suddenly stop working, it is more difficult to diagnose as it is not a physical connection than can be more easily tested. This may happen after a software update and a recent experience showed me how simple a problem can be, but how difficult it was to discover, when my PC was updated and a simple setting was changed. Over three hours of technical support was needed to discover that it was a simple tick-box setting which needed to be re- enabled. These wi-fi problems move into understanding the IT environment of certificates, configurations, permissions, log-in and passwords between the router and the various 14 AFTERMARKET SEPTEMBER 2019 BUSINESS www.aftermarketonline.net A REALITY CHECK Neil Pattemore finds that time away over the summer has given him time to consider the factors influencing the future of the workshop environment