Andrew Batenhorst, body shop manager at Pacific BMW Collision Center in the Los Angeles, CA, area, is a leader with a vision for how to embed safety in the day-to-day practices of body shops.
With about 25 years of experience in the collision repair industry, Batenhorst also serves as Glendale/Foothill chapter president for the California Autobody Association, is a member of the Executive Committee for the Society of Collision Repair Specialists and is on three Collision Industry Conference (CIC) committees.
He appeared on The Collision Vision podcast, driven by Autobody News and hosted by Cole Strandberg, to discuss his strategies for building a strong culture of safety and reducing risks on the shop floor -- and how prioritizing safety can ultimately improve a collision repair business.
Safety-First Mindset
Batenhorst said his team is reassured by how seriously he takes their safety. Beyond providing the “bare minimum” requirements, like having standard operating procedures in place, he also audits the shop and makes sure they have all necessary PPE and get regular training.
“They see that I'm vested in it to the to the max that I possibly can be. I think that gives them a level of comfort, a level of peace to a degree, because they know this is dangerous work,” he said.
The effort needed to establish that mindset is much smaller than the safety risk if it isn’t. “After you get through that portion of it, and it's regularly maintained, I find that it's not that difficult,” Batenhorst added.
Take small steps, he advised.
“I always joke with my staff on any project you do, we don't want the ‘snake swallowing the pig’ syndrome where you just bite it all off in one shot. It's all about tiny bite-sized segments,” Batenhorst said. “Spread the project out into a wide range of steps to achieve the end goal of having that safety culture.”
If a manager doesn’t have the bandwidth to do it themselves, they should hire a third-party company.
“At our dealership, we use KPA. I've been really, really happy with them,” Batenhorst said. “They give a lot of flexibility and customizing the safety protocols that we need, and helping us answer questions on stuff we aren't familiar with. And then they also assist with auditing.”
Positive reinforcement of good behaviors, like awarding a gift card or free lunch, works better than punishment for bad behaviors.
Strandberg acknowledged some techs may think safety protocols slow down their work, and asked if Batenhorst had examples of the opposite effect.
Tooling is a great one, Batenhorst said. Techs have a tendency to apply a “Band-Aid fix” to a piece of equipment to get through a job, but “that's where things could go dramatically wrong,” he said.
“You as a leader have to have some type of mechanism in place to ensure proper maintenance of tooling, so people don't do funny ‘Mickey Mouse’ things to the equipment that gets them through the job, but maybe doesn't resolve the problem for the next person who's going to use that tool,” he said. “I’ve had a lot of experience with that.”
Collision shop safety will continue to evolve as vehicle construction does, Batenhorst said. He recalled when the BMW i3 was released, and working on its carbon fiber frame required “the whole spacesuit” with a hood, taped wrist and ankle openings and special booties.
“The technicians thought this is ridiculous,” he said.
One technician refused to wear the suit and had an allergic reaction on his skin to the dust created when working on carbon fiber.
“He never did that again. He made sure he wore his PPE,” Batenhorst said.
Batenhorst predicted advancements in adhesives, materials and joining methods, as well as in equipment that operates at higher pressures will similarly present new safety risks.
“As leaders, we have to have an eye on the future and be aware of what's coming down the pipe, looking at repair instructions…to make sure we are properly equipped,” Batenhorst said.
Batenhorst said he currently sees issues with making sure body and paint techs have proper respiratory gear, and that filters are changed on time.
He also sees issues with welding PPE. “I still hear about guys that are closing their eyes when they weld, so they don't get the arc flash,” he said.
Organizations like CAA, SCRS, CIC and SEMA are working to reinforce the safety message through education.
“I think there's a good part of the country that has just kept old habits from their past, from older technicians that are passed on to younger guys like, ‘Oh, you don't need any of that; you're going to be fine’ mentality. And that is not the case,” Batenhorst said.
The Importance of Tool and Equipment Maintenance
“A properly operating piece of equipment is going to do what it's intended to do,” Batenhorst said. Making sure equipment doesn’t fail while performing a job improves shop productivity.
Failing to maintain equipment can also erode employee morale, he said.
“My dad always told me when I was a kid, ‘If you're going to do a job, use the right tool and make sure that tool works.’ I've always tried to keep that mentality as I became a manager, and I knew that was going to be my responsibility,” Batenhorst said. “But I think there are managers that look at that as a nuisance and an additional cost.”
Regular maintenance is usually relatively inexpensive and not time-consuming, “but if that gets ignored and years go by, and it's not taken care of now, the cost is very, very high,” he said.
Batenhorst recommended writing schedules and keeping maintenance logs, or paying a third party to handle it.
Dent-pulling equipment, welders, plastic repair tools, seam sealers, caulking guns, paint spray guns, fresh air systems, paint booths and prep stations are among the tools and equipment Batenhorst’s shop regularly checks, either on a weekly, monthly or semi-annual basis.
He said digital tools -- like the calendar in his email service, or BitRip’s barcode tracking system -- help him keep track of maintenance schedules and ensure they are completed, and in some cases can even generate messages letting him know when a piece of equipment needs to be fixed.
“When the guys see me out in the shop doing this stuff, they are also more prone to be careful with the tools and to take care of them, because they know I'm the one fixing it,” he said.
EV Safety Risks
“There's tremendous risk” when servicing EVs, Batenhorst said, due to the high voltage batteries.
His shop has added infrastructure to address those risks, like safety barriers around an EV, signage to indicate when an EV has been safely locked out and a “buddy system” to make sure a technician never deactivates the high-voltage system alone.
The shop’s techs also test EV gloves with an air pump in front of Batenhorst before using them, so he can personally see they don’t have any pinholes. The gloves, which have a six-month lifespan, are replaced as needed.
To address fire risks associated with EV batteries, the shop has fire suppression blankets and halon fire extinguishers.
There is also a “significant investment” in EV safety training and reinforcing it to create that culture, Batenhorst said.
“Once they see the seriousness that I'm putting behind it, that sets the tone for the rest of the team,” he said. “Because if I slack off on this, they're going to think that it's not that important to Andrew.”
Using a Culture of Safety to Attract Talent
Batenhorst said his shop has been fortunate to not struggle with hiring enough qualified technicians. He partly accredited that with telling interviewees they will be provided all the necessary PPE.
“When people come through for interviews with me and they tour the facility, a lot of them are shocked to hear I'll give you a welding jacket if you're going to be welding,” Batenhorst said.
“It disturbs me to a degree that that separates me from other shops,” he added. “That only motivates me more to help the industry and show that these are all minimal things.
“I hope I can lend a perspective to other managers that this is something that should just be a standard, not something that’s a perk or a luxury of working here,” he said.
Providing proper PPE and maintaining equipment prevents injury, which means techs are in the shop working, instead of recuperating.
“Once you start to make these kinds of cultural shifts in your operation with safety, you'll start to see that the interruptions each day start to diminish, and then morale starts to become a lot better,” Batenhorst said.
His shop is “all about work-life balance, and I don't want to add any more stress to the work that we're doing” by making it less safe than it already is, he said.
Instilling a culture of safety also reduces the liability risk for the shop owner, as well as the chances of being sued by an employee or fined by OSHA. “There's the fear motivator” for managers, Batenhorst said.
For a shop manager trying to get started, Batenhorst recommended auditing the shop to find deficiencies and then starting with the “low-hanging fruit of the common things” like equipment and procedures related to welding and refinishing.
Then set up a safety budget that includes staff training -- either when needed, like heat illness prevention as the weather warms up, or to address prevalent problems in the shop.
“Then begin just walking the floor, looking at the equipment that they're using, making sure it's safe and that it doesn't need repair,” Batenhorst said. “Look at the technicians and make sure that stuff they have on is not worn out or broken or even just missing.”
Batenhorst reiterated his advice to take small steps.
“Break it down, take your time. The team that you're running will start to feel that you're making concerted efforts to improve the situation they're in,” he said.
Abby Andrews