Renowned truck manufacturer Volvo Malaysia yesterday kicked off its largest global competition for aftermarket personnel, the Volvo International Service Training Award (VISTA) in the presence of its employees at its headquarters in Shah Alam.
The biennial competition is designed to educate and develop participants’ technical knowledge and skills as well as to learn about the processes and business chain of how the company works – providing them the opportunity for professional self-development. VISTA is also a very effective way of motivating and inspiring employees, and is an avenue to cultivate teamwork.
Mats Nilsson, Managing Director of Volvo Malaysia said, “VISTA is much more than a competition. It is a mass competency-training event. Our mechanics are the backbone of Volvo Malaysia – making us the best business partner for our customers, throughout the lifetime of our vehicles. This is why we invest heavily in competence development, establish a structured approach to our technicians upgrading, and provide support for further education.”
“VISTA is a simulation of the workshop environment that aims to build skills and share expertise, in addition to motivate and foster teamwork and collaboration among our employees. The competition additionally teaches our aftermarket employees to be pro-active and pre-emptive when diagnosing issues and providing solutions to problems,” said Santhara Saigaran, Market Leader for Volvo VISTA.
Saigaran also added that VISTA is an all-round 360° approach to employee and work excellence. The number of participants for this year’s VISTA competition has also increased and the responses and feedback by dealer managers are equally encouraging.
“The goal is to make us better at what we do every day. This competition is not only important for our aftermarket personnel; it is also of great importance for the entire Volvo Group. It is a way of showing how much we value the hard work carried out at our workshops, and that we invest in what our customers appreciate most – world class service,” added Nilsson.
The improved knowledge and skills set acquired from previous VISTA competitions were applied in the day-to-day work and it has been successfully reflected in the employees’ competency level. This has enhanced the aftermarket quality in Malaysia and has contributed to increased customer satisfaction in the Volvo brand.
With registration commencing from June, the competition is open to all aftermarket professionals within the Volvo Trucks and Volvo Buses global service network. The competition starts in September with three rounds of theoretical questions, in which teams are required to complete in their workshops.
Following these three rounds, the best performing teams will be selected to qualify for the semi-finals (Asia Finals) in Bangkok in April 2016. From there, the winning team in Asia will proceed to the World Finals, which is set to take place in June 2016 at Volvo’s birthplace and home in Gothenburg, Sweden.
The 2015-2016 VISTA edition will see participation from approximately 200 employees comprising Technicians, Administrators and Parts Personnel from 13 service outlets (both owned dealers and private dealers) throughout Malaysia and Singapore. These participants will work in groups of three or four, to compete for a place in the Asia Finals.
“At Volvo, we do everything we can to inspire our customers all around the world – from building quality and technologically sound trucks to offering outstanding aftermarket service. This is because satisfied customers are key to making Volvo the number one brand in Malaysia’s commercial vehicle segment. Our VISTA Championships sets us firmly on that path and it achieves everything in a single competition,” Nilsson further commented.
VISTA is a global competition for all aftersales employees within the Volvo Trucks' and Volvo Buses' global service network. What originally started in 1957 as a competition exclusively for Volvo technicians in Sweden, has since grown to become an international biennial event, and the largest competition for aftermarket personnel in the world. VISTA 2012-2013 involved 93 countries all over the globe, 17,000 dedicated workshop professionals, 4,471 highly motivated teams, and millions of training hours.
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