Mitchell Releases Integrated Repair Procedures Now with Three Levels of Integration
SAN DIEGO, CA—Mitchell, a leading provider of technology, connectivity and information solutions to the Property & Casualty (P&C) claims and Collision Repair industries, today announced enhanced integration capabilities during the creation of estimates and repair plans, within an update to Mitchell Cloud Estimating. Initially released in early 2018 at the category level, this latest update integrates OEM repair procedures and service information directly within an estimate.
Mitchell's Integrated Repair Procedures (IRP) automatically searches for and displays relevant OEM repair procedures during the creation of estimates and repair plans. The solution works seamlessly within Mitchell Cloud Estimating for all OEMs. The latest release of IRP adds two additional layers of integration capabilities for select OEMs. The second level of integration maps repair procedures to individual repair lines, allowing estimators and technicians to see the exact repair procedures that relate to a specific line on the estimate. The third layer of integration adds a Table of Contents option, so that the user has immediate access to the entire catalogue of repair procedures for the OEM. General Motors is the first OEM to have their full suite of service information made available with all three layers of integration in IRP.
“The biggest problem with OEM procedure compliance in the past has been the time required to search for and access the correct content,” said Darrell Amberson, President of Operations at LaMettry's Collision, a nine-location, multi-store operation (MSO) in Minnesota. “Now using Mitchell's cloud-based applications, our repair planners have the OEM information come up right on the page as they develop the estimate, assisting us in getting the repair plan right the first time, and in less time.”
Industry expert, Mike Anderson, President and Owner of Collision Advice, a consulting company for the auto body/collision industry, reports that time spent researching OEM procedures before finalizing an estimate and repair plan can take two or more hours. IRP is designed to reduce much of that time. This simplified workflow helps guide repair facilities to the correct parts and procedures, all within the same applications used to develop an estimate and execute a repair. As an added benefit, the GM repair procedures are updated weekly.
“Over the last twelve months our collision repair experts and technical staff have worked tirelessly to design and deliver a solution for the collision industry,” said John Gilmartin, SVP of Content Management for Mitchell International. “Recognizing the importance of proper and safe repair, Mitchell has taken care to integrate the OEM repair procedures in a very specific and detailed way, eliminating the extra steps and clicks required to find the right procedures.”
While vehicle manufacturers have traditionally made repair procedure information available to collision repairers via various websites, Mitchell's IRP places this critical information directly into the estimate. This eliminates the complexity technicians have historically encountered in both researching and accessing the relevant repair procedures.
At a recent industry event, Collision Industry Conference (CIC), the CIC Governmental and Emerging Technology committees, along with other industry associations, urged industry information providers to integrate and follow OEM repair procedures in their proper and safe repair, and challenged them to make OE procedures available at the estimate line level.
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ƽ Mitchell International
Headquartered in San Diego, California, Mitchell International, Inc. delivers smart technology solutions that simplify and accelerate claims handling and repair processes, driving more accurate, consistent and cost-effective resolutions. Mitchell integrates deep industry expertise into its workflow solutions, providing unparalleled access to data, advanced analytics and decision support tools. Mitchell's comprehensive solution portfolio and robust SaaS infrastructure connect its customers in ways that enable tens of millions of electronic transactions to be processed each month for more than 300 insurance companies, over 30,000 collision repair facilities and countless other Property & Casualty industry supply partners across the Americas and Europe. For more information, please visit mitchell.com.