The workshops that will fix your car before it breaks down | Trends

The workshops that will fix your car before it breaks down | Trends


Antonio Gómez (Jerez de la Frontera, 1966) recalls how his father was able to detect a fault in a car by listening to the sound of the engine. "Now they do not sound ... at least the latest generation," he says sarcastically. This mechanic, turned into an entrepreneur with three businesses in Alcalá de Henares (Madrid), has experienced the transformation of this sector. In the last 30 years he has seen the arrival of the first oscilloscopes (instrument for the measurement and visualization of electronic signals) and computer systems that detect a breakdown with a click.

The whole life workshop heats up engines before a new era. Now the road is marked by the instruments of remote diagnosis, telematic management of vehicles and predictive systems that anticipate breakdowns. All spiced up with big data and Internet of Things solutions, storage of information in the cloud, applications with AI and manufacture of spare parts with 3D printers. In short: sheet metal and paint for a sector forced to reinvent itself.

The post-sale business amounts to 240,000 million euros in the EU

"Workshop 4.0 is a reality," says Venancio Alberca, founder and CEO of Cojali. This company, created in 1991 in Campo de Criptana (Ciudad Real), has embraced with impetus the technological revolution. The firm, which started manufacturing refrigeration systems for trucks and buses, has developed a remote diagnosis program capable of detecting any breakdown in real time. "It's similar to what Formula 1 cars have," says Alberca. Thus, managers of fleets, mechanics and drivers can be aware (through your mobile or computer) of what happens in the vehicle, from which you can extract information such as tire pressure, the state of the battery, the brakes and the engine. But Cojali wants to go further.

Next year, it will start making predictive failure analyzes. For this you will use the analysis of data stored in your cloud. "This saves many costs for the owners of the vehicles. It is not a panacea, but it helps us to have information in time and form to make decisions, "he emphasizes. The company, which operates in more than 100 countries, has launched its remote diagnosis in Spain, France, Italy and Portugal. In 2019 it will reach a dozen nations.

An employee of Cojali checks a truck with the Jaltest diagnosis tool, developed by the company from La Mancha.

Nobody wants to stay behind. The after-sales business is juicy. It amounts to 240 billion euros in the EU, the second largest market in the world after the US, according to McKinsey. A figure not negligible and of which everyone wants a piece. Bosch, for example, has launched a predictive analysis service that collects vehicle information: battery status, fuel filter and braking system. From an analysis of the data, it notifies the driver of the status of the car and indicates whether a part has to be replaced.

Also several companies, including car manufacturers, have developed early diagnosis systems so that the customer can know when to go to a workshop. And rubber giants, like Goodyear, work on smart tires that record data on rubber temperature and pressure.

The speed of coupling to new tools, however, is not the same for everyone. "Adapting is not easy. It requires time, money and training, "argues Xavier Iraragorri, representative of the Spanish Commission of Automotive Repair and Related Workshops (Cetraa). The sector of the workshops is composed of some 43,000 companies that are mostly family companies with fewer than four workers, according to the figures of the Spanish Federation of Automotive Entrepreneurs (Conepa).

In the future there will be less nuts and more keyboards

Nuria Álvarez, Conepa

"It is a sector of small and medium enterprises that has been able to weather almost all technological changes and economic crises," says Nuria Álvarez, Conepa. But perhaps this last gale could mark a before and after. "They are immersed in a struggle to survive in a very competitive sector," he adds. Despite this, Álvarez believes that there is still room to do business, due to the age of the vehicles. The average age of the park in the country does not stop increasing. Many of the cars that, by age and condition, should be scrapped are still in use and mean that, in the case of passenger cars, they are longer than 12 years on average.

Despite this, Gómez, the Jerez mechanic, does not trust him. He is studying a higher degree in information systems, within the branch of engineering, in the UNED. "There is no doubt that an update is important," he says. Its objective is to be able to understand the data analysis. "Because in the future there will be fewer nuts and more keyboards", warns

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