Purpose: The purpose of the study was to develop a list of the tasks that must be mastered by automotive service industry technicians for efficient and effective repair of automobiles in the year 2000. Using a modified Delphi technique this study investigated the following research questions:
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1.
What are the current and merging tasks that a panel of automotive service industry experts would characterize as being critical for automotive service industry technicians to have achieved for efficient and effective repair of automobiles in the year 2000?
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2.
What degree of importance would be attributed to each of the tasks listed by the panel of experts?
Findings: Two criteria were used to analyze the data, priority and consensus. Four categories where used to organize the findings: high-priority /high-consensus, high-priority/low-consensus, low-priority/high-consensus, and low-priority/low-consensus.
The majority of the tasks received high-priority ratings: 264 tasks received high-priority/high-consensus ratings; 212 tasks received high-priority/low-consensus ratings; 30 tasks received low-priority/high-consensus ratings; and 103 tasks received low-priority/low-consensus ratings.
Of the 93 new tasks identified, 61 received high-priority/high-consensus ratings, 22 received high-priority/low-consensus ratings, 2 received low-priority/high consensus ratings and 8 received low-priority/low-consensus rating. Although the panel did not recommend removing any tasks, 14 tasks received extremely low ratings.