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WORKSHOP INTERVIEW Pot
Page 138
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'Unique' GEA gears up quality for '92
President Dave Thompson calls for more liaison as the components industry prepares for even more competition in the Nineties
• Dave Thompson, president of the Garage Equipment Association, trained at Metropolitan Vickers, but came into the automotive field when he joined Automotive Products as a design draughtsman for filters. He found that a very interesting experience, since it is one of the few areas, as he put it, pulling across all areas of transport.
Today his business card reads "general sales manager, power tool division, Ingersoll-Rand," and he is based in Horwich, Bolton.
He is very much concerned with the prospects for the components industry in particular in Britain when the Single European Market arrives at the end of 1992. If there are successful businessmen who reckon they are more likely to lose than gain in that even more competitive climate, he is not among them.
Thompson said, however, when I ques tioned him, that he does not necessarily agree with the comments of Valeo's Mon sieur Noel Goutard (Workshop, March) re ported at the Financial Times Motor Conference as saying that without 20% of the market, a components manufacturer is "dead". "Quality," says Thompson, "is what will count."
In recent months he has twice been to the United States to research background, as the European Community and North America are going to be similar in single market size. "American affluence is obvious at once," he said. "They have a 250 million market and you can drive a truck right across with no borders, no Customs, no language and no currency problems.
"We must grasp the opportunities in 1992. In components, manufacturers must become smarter and look beyond Europe to a global scale."
As GEA president, he has been in a privileged position to assess prospects. It is a well established trade association that was formed in 1930 as the service and garage committee of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, and became independent as the Association of Manufacturers and Distributors of Garage Equipment. Since 1972, it has been back in the SMMT fold.
The GEA's council meets every two months. It fosters high standards of technical assistance and has a major role in developing the Automotive Trade Show.
The president believes members should go to their customers and say: "How do you perceive quality? We may, in some instances, put too much quality in; in other areas, it is the other way around.
The way forward is more co-operation, and liaison with such bodies as the National Tyre Distributors Association."
As Dave Thompson pointedout, the GEA is unique as a trade body within a trade body. It has, he explained, four groups: manufacturers; distributors; servicing; and importers.
We must bear in mind, he said, that Continental names in garage equipment relatively unknown here five years ago have made great progress. "The message is that we must adapt to a changing world — get ahead of the game and anticipate what will happen in three years' time.
To this end, his own company has introduced vendor days to involve suppliers in all aspects of its business. Ingersoll Rand gave a press briefing at which the Swan Lane plant manufacturing manager, John Routledge, explained: "It is important for local suppliers to realise their components are travelling the world in our tools. Ingersoll-Rand ranks number 75 in the list of UK net exporters; therefore, we cannot afford irregularities."
INGERSOLL-RAND
Ingersoll-Rand's company philosophy, "biomechanics," arises partly from research reducing size and weight of tools fusing with "occupational engineering," which investigates such issues as the forces produced by tools on the hand and body.
by John Durant IN The GEA is one of five national European garage equipment associations comprising the European Garage Equipment Association, formed in 1980, two years after the German association convened an informal meeting with counterparts. The other members, besides the UK and Germany, are from Belgium, France and the Netherlands — with, it is hoped, the Italians rejoining.
The EGEA seeks to promote unity of purpose in the garage equipment industry and has recently published and lodged two documents with the European Commission, namely: • Guidelines relating to Exclusive sales agreements between suppliers and sole distributors:
• Recommendations for the Safe operation of motor vehicle crash repair equipment.