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Letter to the Editor
Friday October 25
AAIA Offers Initial Suite of iSHOP Products at AAPEX
The Automotive Aftermarket Industry Association (AAIA) has announced that the first of a new generation of iSHOP-enabled shop equipment and software is commercially available and will be on display in booth 2467 at the Automotive Aftermarket Products Expo (AAPEX) in Las Vegas, November 5-8. Representative products from all of the major categories of shop equipment and software are available and engineered to a single standard.iSHOP is a set of computer interconnectivity standards developed by leading makers of diagnostic equipment and shop software providers under the direction of AAIA. The products that comply with the iSHOP standard come from vendors such as Snap-on, Hunter Engineering, ALLDATA, Delphi and BayMasteR.
"The stable of products that have been certified compliant with the iSHOP standard allows a shop owner to choose the best products for his needs in the front and back shop, and enjoy all the advantages of full connectivity," said Scott Luckett, AAIA vice president of information technology. "AAIA applauds these companies for investing in technology that will benefit their customers with reduced data entry and greater shop efficiency."
iSHOP addresses the problem of sharing and retrieving information about the vehicle, the customer and the work performed between discreet computer applications in the repair shop environment, according to AAIA.
"The reality today is that shops are brimming with very sophisticated diagnostic equipment, information servers and shop management software. And with few exceptions, these high-tech machines don't communicate with one another, requiring repetitive data entry on the part of technicians and management personnel. This inefficiency is compounded when the PC full of service and repair information is located on the far side of the shop requiring the technician to leave the vehicle in search of needed service information," Luckett said.
Repair shops equipped with certified iSHOP diagnostic machines and information servers provide technicians the data needed to service the vehicle at their fingertips. The list of work orders from the shop management system is available from any console on the shop network. Technicians can view technical information and relevant articles right on the back shop screen, without leaving their workstations. "Shop productivity increases dramatically with integrated shop equipment," Luckett said.
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