A flurry of planning and activity has taken place since the RV Industry Association board of directors approved and the RV Dealers Association board of directors endorsed the creation and funding of the RV Technical Institute in June.
The strategic plan approved by the boards included a 30-60-90-day plan that focused activity around three key areas: curriculum development, executive search and establishing an Elkhart-based facility and training center. Tangible progress has been made in all three areas.
Significantly, RVIA staff has created a detailed implementation plan and an activity network diagram to serve as a roadmap for execution in these areas.
New tech training curriculum is at the heart of the institute’s mandate to significantly increase the number of trained RV technicians in North America, RVIA stated. A professional curriculum development firm has been retained, as well as a technical writer. These resources will be working with a team of industry technician training subject matter experts supported by industry consultant Mary Romeo and education staff Sharonne Lee and Tammy Holland to make a major curriculum development push during the month of August. The goal is for the team to be beta-testing the new curriculum in November.
The team is also in the process of adding a new trainer and re-purposing existing education staff to focus on the future of technician training by the institute.
The new institute will require new leadership by an individual with experience in all aspects of operating a world-class technical establishment. An executive recruitment firm has been retained and a basic job description developed for the institute’s executive director. The search firm will be conducting interviews with key stakeholders to build out a detailed set of job requirements and skill sets. It will then work with a small team of industry executive hiring subject matter experts supported by RVIA President Frank Hugelmeyer. The goal is to have the new leader in place by Jan. 1.
Additionally, a small team of industry land and facility subject matter experts have been tapped to clarify the needs and requirements for the facility. Members of this small team have managed more than 60 facility projects for industry companies in the Elkhart area in the past year alone. The team, which has already met once and will continue working on the facility project in August, is being supported by RVIA’s Matt Wald, who will continue to serve as overall point person for the development of the institute until the new executive director is hired.
In addition to these core efforts, progress is continuing to be made on the repair event cycle time (RECT) initiative, which is being led by Garry Enyart of Cummins Power Generation and Phil Ingrassia of RVDA. The RECT task force of dealer principles continues to work with dealer management system providers to create RECT dashboards and other RECT management tools so that this key performance indicator can be measured and managed – not just at the dealer level but by the entire industry.
