My guess why OPT does not offer a wax is their line has a strong focus on efficiency. As great as waxes such as Collinite are, they are time consuming to apply and therefore not very efficient. Perhaps the wax market is now so mature there is little room for significant improvements.
This is all a guess, maybe Dr G just prefers polymers?
@Heijneker If there is one thing which is a good predictor of success in improving efficiency it is willingness to change. The various techniques such as 5S, 7 Wastes or SPC charts can all be learned but without the desire to change, they are generally worthless. You have the desire so you will do amazing things in your business.
One word of warning, the Lean world constantly talks about waste (things which do not add value), once you start to see them, they are everywhere, in every product or service you buy and you cannot un-see them.
Here is a quick video from Paul Akers at Fastcap showing how a simple process can be significantly improved. As an aside, Paul Akers publishes a huge range of stuff on non technical Lean, including free audiobooks.
It is quicker and easier plus it also has the advantage of keeping the mind engaged on the task. When we do something repetitive for a while, our brains loose interest but switching from compounding to polishing the same panel will keep the brain engaged.
@Heijneker If there is one thing which is a good predictor of success in improving efficiency it is willingness to change. The various techniques such as 5S, 7 Wastes or SPC charts can all be learned but without the desire to change, they are generally worthless. You have the desire so you will do amazing things in your business.
One word of warning, the Lean world constantly talks about waste (things which do not add value), once you start to see them, they are everywhere, in every product or service you buy and you cannot un-see them.
Here is a quick video from Paul Akers at Fastcap showing how a simple process can be significantly improved. As an aside, Paul Akers publishes a huge range of stuff on non technical Lean, including free audiobooks.
Hey @Lowejackson, thanks for the reply! I've read your posts on LEAN processing with great interest, so very nice to have you commenting on this post. You are very correct in that I walk around a lot, which I should minimize. It doesn't help that this cramped garage isn't my normal workspace and I threw my tools and products wherever there was space haha. I need to have a trolley so I can keep everything with me. It would be fun, and probably most efficient to, like you said, complete a panel at a time.
For interior detailing this is the same. Right now I'm at going around the car at least three times for the interior, which should be two.
Thanks for the advice on spaghetti diagrams, I'll have a look into that! Once I fine-tuned the process some more, I'll upload a new video. Would be fun to compare the two processes side-to-side.
I like it. Not analysed the video but just looking at the front passenger door, you appeared to move past it about 4 or 5 times. By processes and efficiency standards this is quite high. Have a look for spaghetti diagrams as a tool for recording motion to help visualise the amount of physical motion. You don't need anything fancy, pen and paper works very well but do it for every aspect of the exterior detail and you may be surprised at how often you have walked around the car. Excessive motion is considered to be a waste, i.e. it does not add value and should try to be kept to a minimum.
It is extremely common for people to think that moving around is productive work but it is often not the case .
The less walking you do, the quicker the polishing will be
@Lowejackson County Detailing Supplies sells them in the UK - look under Tolco in the brands list and they are in that section. They also have a wide range of OPT products.
My understanding is the Opticoat line is specifically designed to work with the OPT coatings whereas products such as ONR will work on any surface. Not tried the opticoat range so cannot say how significant the difference is but clearly OPT think there is an advantage.
I have tried various rinseless washes and liked them all. If ONR was suddenly discontinued then I would be content to use any of them. However, I did not feel compelled to swap ONR for any of the other products. Maybe as the market grows and the products improve perhaps that will change but for now, I am happy with ONR.
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Absolutely right Ron, I should have credited Yvan with putting two buckets on either side of the car plus I enjoy his approach to detailing. On the other hand, all this efficiency stuff is built on nearly a century of engineers and thinkers such as Deming, Juran, Ohno, Shingo, Taguchi, Toyoda et al
Whilst I do love efficiency work and it helps pays my mortgage, it is obviously not for everyone, if someone wants to spend a day cleaning a wheel and they enjoy it then this is time well spent although there is an argument for those for example who love waxing and dislike washing, be efficient with the washing to maximise the time waxing
Bensla
Really enjoyed your video, nice production. As for efficiency, any process can be made more efficient. Currently down to one working eye so the world is a bit blurred and without seeing the unedited version these are only general comments
There is lots of walking around the car, although it does not sound like a lot of time, it all adds up. With pen & paper or any other method, draw an outline of the car and watch the full process and draw lines which match how often you move around the car or go somewhere else.
I would put the bottle of Optiseal in your pocket, carrying different things in your hands is not efficient as it increases the chances of something going wrong. Even better, get a toolkit belt.
I would adopt a standardised approach to washing each panel, humans seem to be poor at doing this, we will over wash some parts and just give a quick wipe to others.
Most good efficiency improvements come from making lots of small improvements, it is the cumulative result which give the best results.
I would suggest washing, drying etc each panel before moving onto the next one if you wish to save even more time. This approach seems counter intuitive but it does work.
One day I really should make some YouTube videos on detailing efficiency, perhaps there is a market for reaction detailing videos?
Troy does make an interesting point about other industries not using the Pro only model. Of course some do not need to, the cost and time resources required to access some items makes it an efficient barrier but ultimately the business owner can choose to set the rules for his or her products. I have questioned many things about OPT decisions in the past. Ron and his predecessors have engaged with me but still it all comes down to Dr G can set whatever rules he likes. There may or may not be a lot of profit in opening up a particular market and presumably Dr G weighs up the risks and concludes with a certain strategy which I guess is what he is paid to do.
The only thing I fundamentally disagree with Troy about is the use of a green font, not on aesthetics grounds but because it is damned hard to read. On the plus side, I did enjoy your Youtube videos.
Troy does make an interesting point about other industries not using the Pro only model. Of course some do not need to, the cost and time resources required to access some items makes it an efficient barrier but ultimately the business owner can choose to set the rules for his or her products. I have questioned many things about OPT decisions in the past. Ron and his predecessors have engaged with me but still it all comes down to Dr G can set whatever rules he likes. There may or may not be a lot of profit in opening up a particular market and presumably Dr G weighs up the risks and concludes with a certain strategy which I guess is what he is paid to do.
The only thing I fundamentally disagree with Troy about is the use of a green font, not on aesthetics grounds but because it is damned hard to read. On the plus side, I did enjoy your Youtube videos.
Troy does make an interesting point about other industries not using the Pro only model. Of course some do not need to, the cost and time resources required to access some items makes it an efficient barrier but ultimately the business owner can choose to set the rules for his or her products. I have questioned many things about OPT decisions in the past. Ron and his predecessors have engaged with me but still it all comes down to Dr G can set whatever rules he likes. There may or may not be a lot of profit in opening up a particular market and presumably Dr G weighs up the risks and concludes with a certain strategy which I guess is what he is paid to do.
The only thing I fundamentally disagree with Troy about is the use of a green font, not on aesthetics grounds but because it is damned hard to read. On the plus side, I did enjoy your Youtube videos.
It would be an interesting experiment but suspect using glass polish would be very efficient at introducing more swirls. Glass is vastly harder compared to car paint so would be safer sticking with paint polish.
For the least effort and most predictable results, I would stick with Hyper Seal. Other products may or may not play well with the coating but Hyper Seal was designed to work with the OPT coating. Of course you are free to try many other products and if you have money burning a hole in your pocket then start experimenting.
