SPOTLIGHT ON EXCELLENCE

It’s great to keep clicking the mouse, but if margins are shrinking and your cost of sales is high, you can’t create profits with increased sales, and you aren’t making any money.

Robertson continues to invest in technology to maintain a competitive edge, basing his decisions on his business plan and identified needs. “We constantly look for any deficiency in our processes and try to identify a solution to fill it. That solution may be tech- nology,” he notes.

By reading, talking to other recyclers and vendors at ARA meetings and generally keeping his ear to the ground, Roberston stays abreast of technologic inno- vations in the recycling industry. “If a new technolo- gy fits our need and our way of doing business, we will be early adopters,” he says. Additionally, he stresses the importance of evaluating the proposed financial investment and expected return on investment before making a major decision about upgrading or adding to technology.

Plan for the Future The auto recycling industry is on the verge of a

transformation, Robertson believes. “We have Anderson Cooper on CNN charging that insurance companies are forcing consumers to accept junkyard

62 Automotive Recycling | July-August 2015

parts,” he points out. Add in the fact that manufac- turers are building vehicles to higher safety and serv- ice life standards with high-tech materials and accident avoidance systems plus the millennial gen- eration’s overall lack of interest in cars, and it means that the auto recycling industry is going to change in major ways, he predicts.

No one can foresee what the future will look like. The best the industry can do is prepare for it to be different in 10 to 15 years from what it is today, Robertson says. Personally he plans to keep doing what he’s doing: read a lot, be aware of the environ- ment, embrace change, seek opportunities and, like Bill Gates, be prepared to respond to unplanned events. Lynn Novelli is a freelance writer based in Ohio.