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Talking Training: What is Your Investment Strategy?

Initial purchase cost is not an accurate indicator of a product’s value. Do the sums and a great price tag can actually turn out to be false economy that costs you money.


Would you buy a new car purely on price? It’s never that simple. People take into account a whole host of factor – practicality, fuel efficiency, service costs, performance, driving enjoyment, etc – because these are important in the overall ownership experience. It’s the same for many products we purchase, such as clearcoat, says John Hristias, PPG Business Support Manager Asia / Pacific.
 
The true price
The sticker price of some clearcoats can make them look very attractive but there are hidden downsides. Typically, the cheaper the price, the older the technology and that tends to come with significant drawbacks in the production process. Let’s face it, older technology is cheaper for a reason. The latest technology clearcoats may be more expensive to purchase per litre but, in the case of PPG clearcoats, what they bring to the overall production cycle far outweighs the higher initial price.
 
Investing in clearcoat
Rather than simply looking at the initial purchase price, you should be asking yourself – which clearcoat is the best one for my business to invest in? It may sound strange to talk about ‘investing’ in a clearcoat but it’s effectively what you are doing by choosing one of PPG’s modern, high tech formulations. Yes, your investment will cost more at the initial stage but you will get the return on investment when you factor in the overall costs. In other words, which clearcoat will allow my business to sell more, save more, produce more? The local PPG technical team has put a lot of effort into researching this and the results are clear (pardon the pun!) – the latest technology clearcoats are far more cost effective to use and it’s not even close. For an average collision centre, the simple choice of clearcoat can make a big impact on annual sales. Even if you don’t believe it’s true, it’s worth looking into, right?
 
Comparing investment strategies
For the sake of comparison, we have pitted the long running AUTOTHANE® HS Clearcoat against one of the most up-to-the-minute formulations, LVC-104 EnviroFLOW Clearcoat. However, you can expect a similar result from any of PPG’s high-tech clearcoats, such as LVC-136 EN-V Performance Clearcoat. Rather than just use theory, the PPG technical team actually used real job type scenarios to measure every aspect of the process.
 
  • Initial cost – At the beginning it looks like no contest. Per litre invoice pricing shows that EnviroFLOW Clearcoat is over 2.5 times the buy price of Autothane HS Clearcoat.
  • RFU – By the time each product is Ready For Use, the gap has narrowed to the point where EnviroFLOW Clearcoat is approximately twice the price per litre of Autothane HS Clearcoat.
  • Consumption – For the purpose of this exercise, a Commodore bonnet was used. Several technical team members applied both clearcoats and the amount of material each of them used was recorded. When it was averaged out, the recommended coverage with EnviroFLOW Clearcoat actually took around 40% less material than Autothane HS Clearcoat. Lower consumption brings the material cost per job down and this is before we factor in the significant labour time saving.
  • Labour impact – When talking about the overall process, there are a number of aspects that dramatically impact the amount of labour time requires. For example, application time – EnviroFLOW Clearcoat is used in tack and wack mode which is one light coat immediately followed by a wet coat, whereas Autothane HS Clearcoat requires two full coats. Flash-off between coats is another big factor – Autothane HS Clearcoat requires a 10 minute flash-off, while EnviroFLOW Clearcoat requires none at all. Add all this up and Autothane HS Clearcoat actually takes an extra 24% labour time!
  • Cycle-time savings – Along with the labour time savings of using a modern, high tech clearcoat, comes substantial reductions in total cycle-time. We are talking reduced application time, as well as reduced bake time, not to mention lower energy costs. Bake time can be slashed even more by switching to LVC-105 EnviroFIVE Clearcoat which has the remarkable ability to cure in as little as five minutes!
 
Invest in performance
When you ignore the initial purchase price but actually map out the entire cycle-time of the process, it becomes clear that PPG’s latest clearcoat formulations are a far more cost effective solution. This is not really surprising given the massive technology leap modern technologies have over older products. Indeed, we are able to show people the detailed calculations which clearly highlight the dollars and cents advantages. We are talking around 20 to 30 minutes trimmed from an average booth cycle-time, day-in, day-out. Taking that extra cycle-time and utilise it to process more jobs per day, week, month, etc. has the potential to boost collision centre turnover by hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. That seems like a pretty effective investment strategy to me!
 
For detailed information, contact your PPG Training Manager or MVP Business Solutions Manager.