I want to relate an experience I had to demonstrate the importance of training technicians for quality. There was an emissions problem with a vehicle under warranty, which seemed to be electrical; with the fleet’s mechanics not specializing in electrical issues, they decided to send it to the experts at the dealership for repair.

So the truck was towed to the dealership and into the shop, drawing a $200 triage charge along the way. After a few days, it was determined that there were some chaffed wires in the harness, the part was back ordered and we would have to wait two weeks.

After the two weeks, the dealership fixed the harness, and the truck was back on the road.

Six months later, the same problems returned, and the same process started all over again. The triage charge came again, the same repair was made by a different technician, who explained that the first fix had resulted in unsuitable repairs to the wires in the harness, spaghetti repairs with connectors and corrosion had set in. The eventual charge was $2,000, all to fix a problem that never should have been necessary to fix in the first place.

So was the first repair made because of a lack of parts, fleet pressure to get the truck back, or quick flat rate butcher repair that went unsupervised by the “expert” factory trained tech?

Either way, it was costly for everyone, since the second repair did not fall under the truck’s warranty. The fact remains that a factory-trained expert’s work was shoddy, and ended up being an embarrassment for everyone.

Both the fleet and the dealership ended up losers in this story. That’s why it’s important to train quality, not perceived productivity.