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What Have We Learned So Far?
by Dale Malcolm

Editor’s Note: The following update on the Auto Glass Replacement Safety Standards Council Inc.’s (AGRSS) validation reviews was provided by AGRSS education committee chair Dale Malcolm, technical services manager for Dow Automotive in Dayton, Ohio.

Earlier this year Jeff Olive from Glasspro and I were asked to look at the results from the first seven clusters of the Auto Glass Replacement Safety Standards (AGRSS) Council Inc.’s validation reviews. Jeff is a member of the panel of industry experts that review validation nonconformance items found by the AGRSS validators, and Jeff and I both see ourselves primarily as trainers and our categorization of the items reviewed is based on that perspective. Jeff brings a retail perspective and I have an adhesive manufacturer’s perspective and retail experience. While other people may see the issues differently, we felt we had to start the analysis from our common viewpoints. The goal was to group items to identify the most common issues to assist shops in prioritizing the areas on which they need to focus.

The AGRSS validations checked a total of hundreds of thousands of items across companies and technicians. There were a total of 68 non-conforming items in the first seven clusters of validations (though it should be noted that this was 68 total—for example, one particular business may have experienced a number of these, while others may have not had any of these occur). The items were each given a primary reason and a secondary reareason. A good example might be that in some cases the technician did not record the DOT number of a piece of glass installed; in these instances, the primary reason for the nonconformance would be poor record management by the technician and the secondary reason would be one of shop commitment for not better monitoring of the records being submitted after each job. Out of the total 68 non-conformance items, 76 percent were in the top ten most common categories

“Training is critical, and many technicians interviewed have barely even read the Standard, let alone have a thorough understanding of all its requirements.”

Common Items
The top ten non-conformance items were:
1. The shop was missing some or all historic NAGS and/or DOT Numbers (seven occurrences);
2. An incorrect safe drive-way time was quoted and/or used by technician;
3. The technician lacked current adhesive system manufacturers instructions (six occurrences);
4. The shop was missing some or all historic adhesive system lot number records (six occurrences);
5. The technician did not use the adhesive system manufacturer’s required form (five occurrences);
6. The technician did not use the adhesive system manufacturer’s instructions regarding marking time on urethane when placing in heater (five occurrences);
7. The primed area was touched by technician during installation (not allowed by adhesive system manufacturer) (five occurrences);
8. The technician said he would use urethane to seal leaks in gasket/sealant system (four occurrences);
9. The technician did not shake primer as long as required by the adhesive system manufacturer (four occurrences); and
10. The primer dry time was not known or was misquoted/misused by technician (three occurrences).

Other items included, but were not limited to technicians who:
• used expired products;
• did not clean the glass correctly;
• used an improper bead height;
• did not do a leak test;
• did not have means to determine temperature/humidity;
• were unfamiliar with Section 6.2 of the AGRSS Standard, which says that the open life on opened product must be marked/recorded; and
• did not have records of having completed the required training.

Lessons Learned
While much can be learned from these items, several key areas of emphasis can be found. Training is critical, and many technicians interviewed have barely even read the Standard, let alone have a thorough understanding of all its requirements.

Companies need to communicate the importance of adherence to the Standard to all employees. If it isn’t important to your company, why would it be important to your employees?

Keep good records, and monitor them to ensure accuracy and consistency. Contact your adhesive system manufacturers for current technical information and training.

We intend to update the observations and trends and present them at the annual International Auto Glass Safety (AGRSS) Conference in October (see related story on page 38).

AGRR
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