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A f te rm a rke t D a i l y N e ws 1 5 Tu e s d a y, N o ve m b e r 4 , 2 0 1 4 THE BONE CREEPER TURNS 20 By Jeremy Adams, S.V.P., Dale Adams Enterprises. This year, The Bone™ creeper turns 20! It is hard to believe that the creeper that changed the industry by eliminating the annoyances of standard creepers with its huge five inch, outboard mounted wheels that keep it from tipping and a comfort- able, ergonomic platform has grown so much since its initial launch in 1994. Back then, we sold them at our muddy booth at the big antique auto flea market that is held in Hershey, Pa., every year. I was 13 at the time, and remember hand assembling them one at a time under our tent there. We of course have to thank our won- derful customers for the Bone's success, but most of all we thank the people worldwide who have bought our creepers and have told their friends and cowork- ers. The Bone is truly an example of word of mouth advertising at its best. Our continuing goal with the Bone (and all of our products) is to offer high quality, pre- mium products with an excellent warran- ty and personal customer service. Over the years we have received countless calls, e-mails and letters from people that own our creepers, and always enjoy the stories we hear. We've received photos of dogs sitting on creepers, and twin girls using them as sleds to lie on while creating elaborate chalk pavement art. U.S. service men and women overseas sending group pic- tures posing with our creep- ers, and police from the U.S. and Canada call in to say how much our creepers have made their jobs safer and easier. We've even sent a set of warranty wheels to the folks that use Bones to maintain the roller coasters at Dollywood! These past 20 years have been a wild, wonderful ride for us at Dale Adams Enterprises. Every time one of our creepers is purchased, you can feel confident that your money is staying in America, and going to support American businesses and citizens. While we are just a small 15 person family company, when you add in the employees of our suppliers, we have calculated that each one of our creepers purchased helps support over 800 Americans. Our competitors may try to beat us with bargain basement prices, but to do that they have to import their products. We want to thank all of you out there that buy American prod- ucts, and to remind you that every American product you buy helps keep America strong! The Bone carries an MSRP of $155.95. Product information is also available at www.bonecreeper.com. For more information, stop by booth #10161 or visit www.bonecreeper.com. COLORBOND LVP ONE-STEP AEROSOL AUTOMOTIVE COATING ColorBond LVP is a one-step aerosol automotive coating that penetrates below the surface to form a molecular bond and will restore or change the color of leather, vinyl, ABS, PVC, polycarbonate, acrylic, lexan, fiberglass, TPU, TPO and metal. There are 148 contemporary OEM colors available. ColorBond LVP will not crack, flake, peel or fade. ColorBond LVP can change colors over and over with- out fear of obscuring the grain simula- tion or affecting the suppleness of the leather or plastic. It is dry in 45 sec- onds and fully bonded in 10 minutes. An OEM finish is achieved directly from an aerosol can. A formula based mixing system composed of 11 bases is also available. ColorBond LVP can be used virtual- ly anywhere on a car or boat. The list includes: seats, kick panels, dash panels, steering wheels, mirrors, hubcaps, trim, carpets and convertible tops. Seven years of rigorous testing earned Colorbond LVP two worldwide OEM perform- ance specifications from The Ford Motor Company and can be used anywhere from Saudi Arabia to Antarctica. Its auto- motive customer list includes The Ford Motor Company and tier one manufacturer JCI and Visteon. Every ColorBond LVP aerosol is color-matched to OEM interior stan- dards. Its OEM list includes: Ford, GM, Chrysler, Mercedes, BWM, Porsche, Infinity, Lincoln, Cadillac, Acura, Harley Davidson, Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Sea Ray. Its customers include: paint and body shops; trim shops; jobbers; marinas; golf cart rehab centers; new and used car dealers; elec- tronic installers; detail cen- ters and performance shops; car washes and more. ColorBond manufactures clear coats, adhesive promoters, engine paints, tire paint and more. For more information, visit www.color bondpaint.com, call 877-882-6567 or stop by booth #23787. RUBBER SLIDE MAKES RUBBER SLIDE LIKE BUTTER Have you ever pushed or pulled a rub- ber part with all your strength, yet failed to put it in place? Have you ever exerted such force on a rubber part that it pinched, rolled or tore while you tried to install or remove it? Have you ever scraped or bruised your hands while trying to force a rubber part into place? Now there is Rubber Slide to help you work with rubber parts with ease and precision. Rubber's non-slip quality can turn a simple assembly process into a difficult task. The slip resistant nature of rubber makes it relatively difficult to install, remove or manipulate. Rubber Slide ® significantly reduces friction thereby reducing the installation force required to assemble parts and fittings. Rubber Slide provides temporary lubrication that makes rubber easy to install, remove or otherwise manipulate. Rubber Slide makes rubber slide like butter! Rubber Slide helps avoid slip- page related and repetitive stress injuries, reduces rejects and improves product performance. Use it to install grommets, o-rings, hoses, tires, seals, plugs – any rub- ber or soft plastic parts. Rubber Slide is compatible with rubber, metal and most plastics. Perfect for automotive, truck, appliance, pump, electrical or HVAC repair. Also useful as a rubber cutting agent. Rubber Slide will be the best new tool in your tool box! Rubber Slide provides a high degree of lubricity when wet, but because it does not contain silicon or other per- sistent ingredients, once dry the slip- ping action goes away. Rubber Slide is also free of petroleum distillates and solvents, so it will not dry, crack or otherwise harm rubber parts. Rubber Slide is compatible with most metals, natural and synthetic rubbers and most plastics. Rubber Slide is manufactured in the U.S.A. For more information, visit booth #16420 at SEMA, go online to www .rubberslide.com, call 609-386-8770 or email orders@rubberslide.com. 'IMPROVING THE PROCESS IN YOUR REPAIR SHOP WILL MAKE YOU RICH' By Patrick Egan, Vice President, AutoVitals OK, so maybe it won't make you rich, but improving how things get done in your shop will certainly improve the bot- tom line. And, yes that could make you rich too. You have probably encountered the results of inefficient processes in your life and in your business. Unhappy cus- tomers, stressed team members, missed deadlines and increased costs are all symptoms of a poor process. So, two questions you might be asking right now are: 1) How do I improve the process in my shop; and 2) How do I know what my process is in the first place? To begin, your process can be formal or informal. It might be well documented or just an accepted norm in your shop. But your process is how things get done in your business from the time a cus- tomer pulls into your lot until she drives away with a smile on her face, and beyond. So to improve on how things are going in your shop you need to first take a look at what is changing in our industry that could make things less efficient than they used to be. First, the customers have changed. They are tech savvy. They use the Internet to educate themselves, and the wide spread use of smartphones has changed the way motorists communicate and expect to be engaged. Second, cars have changed too. Modern vehicles are similarly getting more technologically advanced and at the same time more reli- able. Shop owners need to adopt new methods for partnering with their cus- tomers and invest in new technologies that can make the process at their shop reliable every time. In many industries, business- es have used workflow automa- tion tools for years that increase quality, reduce waste and increase profits by improving their business process. The auto repair industry should be no exception to this trend since so many tasks in the shop are generally repeatable and could easily be standardized or improved through automation. Workflow automation helps by bringing together your people, your cur- rent processes and your organization's goals into a software application where those processes can be recorded and tasks can be assigned to each team member. Then as each team member performs their part in that process, daily progress and resources in use can be displayed and recorded pointing out potential bottle- necks or problems. Auto shops around the country are using AutoVitals' SmartFlow technology to improve their workflow and remove their paper racks. Tablet based digi- tal inspections and work order tools give technicians the tools they need to communicate with the front office and perform their work, tak- ing notes and pictures of the job as they go. Visual display tools, and automation of tech dispatching gives the service writer increased visibil- ity into the daily schedule, saves a ton of time and enables them to communicate better with their customers with emails, text messages and pictures of the cus- tomer's own car when approval is needed for a job. Most shops report increases in car count and ARO exceeding 20 percent in the first few months after adopting SmartFlow. You can read more about repair shop workflow automation and SmartFlow at www.autovitals.com or find them in the SEMA exhibit hall at booth #38204 where they will be giving away iPads with the purchase of SmartFlow through- out the show.