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Paint your wagon
New paint-and parts-mapping systems make Charleroi auto body shop lean and green
mbradwell@observer-reporter.com
CHARLEROI - When George Grillo passed away nearly three years ago, his wife, Deborah, and sons Frank and Brian Grillo made the decision to continue operating the body shop he had started in the family's home in 1970 and later moved to North Charleroi in 1986.
But Brian Grillo believes his father might be a little surprised if he saw the changes the family has made over the past couple of years, particularly with their efforts to steer the business to both lean and green operating philosophies.
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During a recent tour of the shop on Route 88 just north of the Charleroi business district, Brian Grillo showed how damaged cars are meticulously deconstructed in a process known as "car mapping," with each removed part numbered for reassembly. He said the 11-person shop repairs an average of 17 cars a week.
According to Grillo, the mapping is part of the shop's move to the "lean" manufacturing philosophy made famous by Japanese manufacturers that stresses the creation of value by eliminating waste in a production process.
While acknowledging that mapping helps speed up the process by which cars are repaired, Grillo also noted that both lean and green concepts are at work in the shop's paint booth, where it recently installed a system using water-based paints that reduces volatile organic compounds by as much as 80 percent.
Kristopher Eibel, territory manager for PPG Industries' automotive refinish division, who helped the Grillos set up the new painting system, said the company has done about 18,000 similar installations around the country and in Canada, but noted that the Grillos' unit is one of the first PPG has installed among independent shops in Western Pennsylvania.
Eibel, who said other shops in the area are adding the water-based systems, said EPA regulations are driving the transition, noting that California's auto repair industry will have the new systems by the end of this year, with the Northeastern United States expected to put them in place by 2011 or 2012.
The average shop moving from solvent-based paints to water-based ones and eliminating most VOCs, Eibel said, is the equivalent of each taking the emissions of 1,000 cars off the road each year.
PPG's computerized system replaces an electric mixing machine with a computer tracking the amount of paint used as well as the costs associated with each painting job.
"It's a recipe," Eibel said, explaining that PPG also provides extensive training for its customers that make the switch to the new system.
The switch to the more environmentally friendly system also improved a wastewater disposal system that Grillo said now does a better job of separating paint remnants from the water.
While Grillo is happy to be turning greener in his approach, he said the new painting system also ties into the shop's commitment to running leaner. That gives it a competitive edge, he said, since many insurers and customers also are looking at ways to become more efficient to keep costs down.
"It's also helping us to take the 'the twos' out of the system," Grillo said, explaining that being lean helps to eliminate the need to do something twice.
Before moving to the new concepts, Grillo said, "We weren't making money down here. With the lean strategy, truly, it's the only way to make a living."
