44 GEARS August 2006

TThis issue’s Trench Reports is about three different businesses… all owned by one remarkable ATRA Member: Dean Kuhn.

As part of our field research for the “What’s Working Industry Study”, a few weeks ago, Dennis Madden, Glenn Troub, and I headed down to Oceanside, CA (about 30 miles north of San Diego) to visit with ATRA member Dean and tour his three businesses: Oceanside Transmission, Dalenzie Converters and Drivetrain Solutions.

Oceanside TransmissionOur visit began where Dean’s business began: Oceanside

Transmission. You’d never guess this used to be a used car lot by looking at the shop today, but that’s exactly what it was when Dean opened Oceanside in 1990.

The business grew, and in 1995 he purchased the car dealership and expanded the current location. The old car lot show room became Dean’s new offices and waiting area.

One of thefirst things Dean wanted to do with the shop was add on the mirrored panels to the store front (give it a bank building feel)- the city, however didn’t think it was such a great idea. That didn’t slow Dean down though, in fact by doing a bit of research he found that the city had an old ordi-nance that provided financial assistance for a façade program designed to update and beautify city businesses. He got a few other downtown businesses to work with and not only got the façade (mirrored panels) he wanted, but got the city to help pay for it too!

There’s no doubt that Dean recognizes the importance of getting the right people on board, and treating those people the way he’d want to be treated. That policy has served him well. Most of his staff are longtime employees (8 – 10 years); some have been with Dean since the beginning.

TRENCH REPORTS

Oceanside Transmission, Oceanside, CA

The Transmission Companies of Dean KuhnCompanies of Dean Kuhn

Oceanside, CAOceanside, CA

Dean Kuhn, Owner

by Rodger Bland

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GEARS August 2006 45

Gary Mac-Donnell is the manager of Oceanside and has been with Dean since 1997. Gary helps maintain Oceanside’s AAA customer satis-faction rating of 100% by keeping the customer needs foremost in every-thing he does. AAA requires a 95% satisfaction rating for approv-al: 100% is almost unheard of.

How many shops employ a Special Projects manager? Stefan Edgerly handles the detail work on projects that Dean knows would take too much of his time away from his businesses. When Dean was looking for the right software to run in his operation, he assigned Stefan to do the research, test it with other employees, and then report back to Dean on the overall functionality and efficiency of the product.

On the day we were there, Stefan was calling about 50 people and polling them on which of the many Yellow Page books they were using to see which (if any) they would use.

Stefan only works the summer months now, as he spends the majority of the year with his first love: teaching. Dean found out that Stefan wanted to be a teacher and helped him schedule his class time and work schedule so he could achieve his needed teaching credentials.

Jean Singer, the bookkeeper, doesn’t take nonsense from anyone… including Dean – that’s why Dean still uses the Peachtree software instead of QuickBooks: Jean knows Peachtree and likes it, so that’s what they use.

Cindy Bendle is the outside sales rep for Oceanside and Drivetrain Solutions: Dean’s reman business (more on that later).

Josh Pickens manages the wholesale and fleet accounts and works closely with Cindy in the field for instant parts availability and delivery. Cindy has a laptop computer that’s fully integrated with the shop’s inventory and can provide on the spot feedback to wholesale clients from the field.

Anthony Senvisky, R&R, has been with Oceanside since its beginning in 1990. Henry Gonzales and Cory Richardson are also R&R techs at Oceanside and according to Dean are the strongest R&R guys he has ever seen.

Bobby Bonilla handles all of the torque converter sales, and Adam Schindler takes care of delivery and shipping.

Dean even employs Ray Mullens, his wife’s uncle, as a fulltime janitor/groundskeeper to keep the business looking sharp.

Dennis Kuhl is a rebuilder and diagnostician, and has

been with Dean since 1994. During Dennis’ initial job inter-view Dean discovered that one of Dennis’ hobbies was repair-ing antique grandfather and cuckoo clocks. Dean figured anyone with the tenacity, patience and the attention-to-detail needed to repair clocks should have no problem handling the inner workings of automatic transmissions- so he hired him. After Dennis was on board with Oceanside he presented Dean with an antique cuckoo clock for his birthday; it’s still keep-ing perfect time.

Jeff Cossey is Dean’s main rebuilder and has been with Dean since 1991. Jeff has a story that tells a lot about Dean and his commitment to his employees:

Dean knew that Jeff loved the Harley Davidson Road King motorcycle. He also knew that Jeff loved collecting “toys” In fact; Dean says that Jeff has more “toys” than any-one he knows. He also knew that Jeff’s wife thought that Jeff had already collected enough toys. So, Dean made it possible for Jeff to collect one more toy without upsetting things at home.

When it came time for Jeff’s 10-year review, Dean told him to go down to the local Harley shop and pick out his bike! Dean attached one stipulation to the bike: As long as Jeff worked at Oceanside, Dean would make the payments. If he left, he would take the bike’s monthly payments with him.

Dean says it was money well spent: Jeff is a great rebuilder, and the bike helped create a lasting bond with a terrific employee.

A lot of shop owners say they like to treat their employ-ees like family, but in Dean Kuhn’s case he puts those words into action – every time a need arises. Take for example when

Wall showing letters from satisfied customers in office waiting area

Josh Pickens — Fleet/Wholesale Manager

Stefan Edgerly— Special Project Manager

Office/customer waiting area

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46 GEARS August 2006

Josh broke his leg. Josh busted up his knee while riding his dirt bike (a favorite pastime of Dean’s too).

Dean went out of his way to make sure Josh’s recupera-tion was as painless as possible (other than the broken leg!) by bringing in a special traction bed, having meals sent to the house, picking up his kids from school, and basically running the day-to-day errands while Josh recovered. When most employers main concern might be to know how long he would be out of work, and at what cost to the business, Dean made the effort to treat him as not only a valuable employee, but a true family member as well – keeping Josh’s needs in mind first.

Dean’s company is spread out a bit. His warehouse for Drivetrain Solutions is a couple of blocks away, in the base-ment of a shop where he used to hang out as a teenager affec-tionately called “the dungeon.” And he moved his converter business to its current location, about 25 miles away from the main shop, about three years ago.

He also leases a building which has a parking lot to store customer cars, adjacent to his rebuilding operation. Oceanside serves Camp Pendleton Marine base, and a lot of Dean’s customers are service men and women. He’ll store cars he’s worked on for customers who have been deployed overseas — at no charge. It’s not unusual for him to authorize special financing options either (read “free”) for a young marine whose pregnant wife needs their minivan’s tranny rebuilt while he’s away, serving his country.

Dean doesn’t make a big deal about that, and would never use his charitable ideals to promote his business. He does it, he says, because it’s the right thing to do.

Dalenzie ConvertersWhat do you do if you can’t find a suitable torque con-

verter built to the same high quality standards you require in your transmissions? If your name is Dean Kuhn, you create your own converter company.

Dalenzie Converters is named after Dean’s two children: Dalton and Mackenzie. It’s located in Vista, California, about a 20-minute drive from Oceanside Transmission.

Dean employs three fulltime employees at his converter operation: Jeff Misset, Dennis Kosko and Louis Pelayo. They work together as a team with a unique quality incentive pro-gram: If the converter operation creates no comebacks, all three earn a weekly bonus. But if even one converter comes back for any reason, at any time during that week, the bonus

goes away. The system seems to work, as Dalenzie Converters enjoys less than a 1% failure/comeback rate.

It might have something to do with a silicon bronze tig weld procedure done on every converter or, replacing all the washers and adding a steel band to insure accurate alignment while reducing residual metal contamination during the weld-ing process.

Dean said that when he was buying torque converters from other suppliers, he’d often find what he called “mystery metal” in the transmissions he rebuilt. He later discovered that a lot of the mystery metal was coming from the beads created when the two halves of the converter were welded together. Dean hired a welding specialist to refine his converter weld-ing process to eliminate the excessive beads that could end up in the converter: Just one of the many things he does that sets his converters apart from the rest of the industry.

Not only does Dalenzie supply all of the converters for Oceanside, its reputation is growing with other transmission shops. Dalenzie now ships converters as far away as Stockton, CA (about 450 miles north) and the demand is almost outpac-ing its production capabilities.

Anthony Senvisky — R&R Dennis Kuhl — Diagnostician and Builder

TRENCH REPORTS: Oceanside, CA

Dalenzie Converters

Cindy Bendle — Outside Sales Rep

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48 GEARS August 2006

Dean and Cindy, his outside sales person, conduct torque converter semi-nars whenever possible; usually about once a month. Dean explains how a torque converter works, why they sometimes fail, and what he does dif-ferently in his rebuilding processes to make sure his converters are the highest quality. The seminars are well-attended by area shop owners and go a long way in solidifying stronger professional relationship with Dean’s wholesale cli-ent base.

Drivetrain SolutionsTwo years ago, while riding one

of his dirt bikes, Dean broke his back. Waiting for his back to heal forced Dean to slow down: way down. In fact, about the only thing he could do was think. And he did a lot of thinking while his back healed.

He contemplated his transmission

business, the transmission industry, and where he felt things were headed. He knew what we all know: cars are last-ing longer, transmissions are becoming increasingly more difficult to repair, profit margins on the few jobs that do come in are getting smaller and smaller, and wholesale referrals are almost gone.

General repair shops in his area were using dealer units instead of Oceanside for transmissions: They could get most units within a day, turn the job around, and free up a rack. Oceanside had to custom rebuild each unit and couldn’t match the turnaround time. Lying there, recuperating from a broken back, Dean identified his true competition: the dealerships. He also learned he was losing jobs to other reman companies, so he decided to become one himself.

“I knew I was out of the loop when it came to dealing with my former wholesale clients. I knew the dealers were taking the bulk of the business in my area, and I knew that I could offer better service than the dealer-ships.” The real problem was finding a remanufacturer (supplier) that he could trust: One that would match his high rebuilding standards.

When Dean set out to find a reman supplier that would fit his business model, he didn’t go to each of the sup-pliers and hear their sales pitches; he didn’t even give them a trial period to see if their companies were a match. Instead, he selected a supplier and started going to that supplier’s exist-ing customers to learn what kind of product and service he could expect. He talked to the shop owners in his area and found out what they needed when it came to transmission work, and from the information he gathered he created Drivetrain Solutions.

Dean was no stranger to wholesale transmission work. In fact, in the early days of his business he would buy out all the local salvage yard transmissions.

Dean had all the cores, and he handled a majority of the wholesale business for quite a while. So he knew he could get it back by offering service that was superior to the dealerships and the other reman companies.

Today Dean stocks over 250 units from Certified Transmission with orders in for more. He keeps his wholesale customers happy by offering same-day service, a competitive warranty, and unmatched support and customer ser-vice. His wholesale business is grow-ing every day. In fact, because of his strong wholesale presence, Dean says his retail business benefits, too. “We’re getting all kinds of great retail referrals from our wholesale base,” Dean said.

He added, “If you have a transmis-sion problem in this area, we’re more than likely to be the one you’re going to call: wholesale or retail.”

So, what can we learn from Dean Kuhn and his successes?

Well, first and foremost, get the right people on board, and treat them the way you’d want to be treated. Next, don’t be afraid to change the way you look at doing business.

And finally, step away from the day-to-day operation long enough to reflect on what you can supply to your customers that makes you and your company unique.

Just don’t break your back doing it!

Jeff Cossey – Main Builder

Entrance to the Dungeon where Dean stores all of his Certified Remanufactured Transmissions

We would be remiss in our duties of telling the story of Oceanside Transmission without mentioning Kristal, Dean’s wife and partner.

No one can question the success and accomplishments of Oceanside Transmissions in such a relatively short period of time. We listed some of the reasons we thought brought Dean to where his companies are today, but for those who work within the structure of these businesses they know the real

reasons, and they are Kristal-clear.

TRENCH REPORTS: Oceanside, CA

Remans in the dungeon ready to ship out in their black plastic coffins

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