Bangalore: Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM), with its constant endeavour towards developing skilled workforce across its dealer network in the country, recently conducted the ‘National Skill Championship 2018. An annual initiative for dealer personnel, the event serves as a platform to reward exceptional sales and service skills and highlights best practices setting advanced skill standards in the industry.

In line with the company’s focused commitment towards the Skill India initiative, the Skill Contest is another step by the company in the development of manpower to meet the skill gap in the dynamically changing automotive market. The event was held at three levels – across dealership, regional and national levels, the contestants were evaluated on various parameters such as knowledge, process demonstration, soft skills and role plays in providing premium customer experience and human touch among others. 

The event finale was attended by Mr. Yashitaka Nakamura, General Manager [Service Management Division] – Toyota Motor Corporation; Mr. Sabari Manohar, General Manager [Technical Service Division] – Toyota Motor Asia Pacific; Mr. David Goldberg, Senior Manager [Sales Operations] – Toyota Motor North America; Mr. Erik Fischer, National Manager [Sales Operations Support] – Toyota Motor North America; Mr. Saju Thomas, Dealer Principal – Nandi Toyota along with the senior management executives of Toyota Kirloskar Motor – Mr. Yoshihiro Horinouchi, Deputy Managing Director; Mr. N. Raja, Deputy Managing Director and Mr. Vedaprakash S. Tiwari, General Manager.

Themed ‘Challenge the Impossible’ this year, the event witnessed 7000+ dealer participants from Sales and Service Divisions. A total of 689 candidates participated in Regional Skill Contest. And 102 regional-level winners contested in National Skill Championship held today. Toyota always looks beyond the best in enriching the consumer experiences aligning with its global challenge with its ever-better product offerings and services to cater to each one of its customers choices. The company aligning with its “Customer first” philosophy, continuously evaluates the customer preferences and feedbacks to deliver notch-above the expected through its dealer networks, which the brand stands for.

Customer choices are fast changing. The human resources need to gear-up with right skill sets to deliver in such dynamic environment. This Skill Championship represents all new skill parameters which are extremely challenging. The contestants need to think beyond the boundary and showcase the right attributes of skill sets, attitude and knowledge. Better methodologies and adopting new approaches will define one’s perspective to make impossible a POSSIBILITY.  The challenge is to positively respond to newness with the attitude of learning and break the mental block as we progress into the future of evolving consumer and market behaviour.

A total of 18 winners, 3 from each category were honoured by the leadership team of Toyota Kirloskar Motor who were present at the event held in Toyota plant premises – Bidadi [Ramanagara District, Bengaluru]. This year, the categories were Team Leader [New Car Sales], Customer Assistance Center Officer, Procurement Officer [Used Car], Service Parts Category, Service Advisor Category and General Technician Categories and the following final winners & runners were recognised for their specialised skill levels and awarded cash prizes, rolling trophy, winner plaque and gold medal:

SALES
Category – Team Leader [New Car Sales]
Position	Name	Dealer Name	Location
Winner	Sumita Bairagi	Nandi Toyota	Bangalore  (BL02A)
1st Runners-up	Vipul Budhiraja	Globe Toyota	Karnal (KR01A)
2nd Runners-up	Sri Harsha Vijayakumar	Nandi Toyota	Bangalore  (BL03A
Category – Customer Assistance Center Officer
Position	Name	Dealer Name	Location
Winner	Swetha S	Nandi Toyota	Bangalore (BL02A)
1st Runners-up	Nisha Soni	Rathod Toyota	Vapi (VP01A)
2nd Runners-up	Chaya M	Ravindu Toyota	Bangalore  (BL05B)
Category – Procurement Officer [Used Car]
Position	Name	Dealer Name	Location
Winner	Abhijith Sasidaran	Nandi Toyota	Bangalore (BL02A)
1st Runners-up	Naim Shaikh	Millennium Toyota	Thane (TH01A)
2nd Runners-up	Prabhu K	Nandi Toyota	Bangalore (BL03B)
SERVICE
Category – Service Parts Category
Position	Name	Dealer Name	Location
Winner	Subramanian Iyer	Lakozy Toyota	Mumbai
1st Runners-up	Devendra Kumar Mishra	Budha Toyota	Patna
2nd Runners-up	Natraj M A	MGF Toyota	Delhi
Category – Service Advisor Category
Position	Name	Dealer Name	Location
Winner	Varun Kumar	Galaxy Toyota	Delhi (DL01A)
1st Runners-up	Mahesh Kumar	Sunny Toyota	Lucknow (LK01A)
2nd Runners-up	Mahesh Kumar	Nandi Toyota	Bangalore (BL02A)
Category – General Technician Category
Position	Name	Dealer Name	Location
Winner	Md Shadab Hussain	Espirit Toyota	Bhubaneswar
1st Runners-up	Amin Mujawar	Lakozy Toyota	Mumbai
2nd Runners-up	Richard Fernandes	Lakozy Toyota	Malad

 

Sharing his views at the performance of the contestants this year, Mr. N Raja – Deputy Managing Director, Toyota Kirloskar Motor said, “My heartiest congratulations to all the contestants from the Sales and Service teams for exhibiting exceptional enthusiasm, dedication and performance. The accomplishment of this milestone is immense as we see the standards rising year-on-year, thus underlining our relentless efforts in measuring skill levels and evolving new strategies to develop Human Resources to deliver ever-better customer delight. We have been closely working with the dealer partners in honing the skills of the dealer staffs to offer best-in-class experience to our customers.

Under this year’s theme of ‘Challenging the Impossible’, we have essentially redesigned unique skill standards to identify & develop the on-ground skill capabilities of our dealer workforces to exhibit their deliverables beyond what customer expects, which makes Toyota one of the most trusted brands today.”He added.

 Toyota Kirloskar Motor practically undertakes training initiatives for its personnel in areas such as dealer networking, marketing skills, customer voice, periodic reviews and coaching skills for team leaders and provide its sales & service personnel a comprehensive module on topics such as basic auto technology, products, sales SOP (Standard Operating Procedures), team development and value-added services to enhance overall customer satisfaction.

As a responsible organization, Toyota Kirloskar Motor Pvt. Ltd. (TKM) has embarked on a mission to bridge the skill gap divide through Toyota Technical Training Institute (TTTI), established in 2007, which offers a three-year rigorous full-time training in – Automobile Assembly, Automobile Paint, Automobile Weld and Mechatronics (a combination of mechanical and industrial electronics). Additionally, Gurukul, a well-equipped learning center at TKM imparts diverse training to employees at all levels which helps them to improve their operational abilities and thoroughly delivering high-quality target standards.

The manpower at Toyota experiences higher levels of skill development through on-the-job training and the real-time experiences serve as a driving force in developing the next generation of workforce. Ensuring highest level of automotive professional work on Toyota’s world-class products and service offerings across its dealerships, the company has partnered with industrial and technical training institutes across India to create the Toyota Technical Education Program (T-TEP). The program aims at providing technical know-how training to ITI students across India along with providing hands-on real-time experience within Toyota dealerships. So far, Toyota has partnered with 50 institutes since launch in 2006.

 

Overview of TKM

Company name	Toyota Kirloskar Motor Private Limited
Equity participation	TMC: 89%, Kirloskar Group: 11%
Number of employees	Approx. 7, 000 +
Land area	Approx. 432 acres (approx.1,700,000 m2)
Building area	74,000 m2
Total Installed Production capacity	Upto 3,10,000 units

 

Overview of TKM 1st Plant:

 

Established	October 1997 (start of production: December 1999)
Location	Bidadi
Products	Innova, Fortuner manufactured in India. Prado, Land Cruiser and Prius imported as CBUs.
Installed Production capacity	Upto 1,00,000 units

 

Overview of TKM 2nd Plant:

 

Start of Production	December 2010
Location	On the site of Toyota Kirloskar Motor Private Limited, Bidadi
Products	Corolla Altis, Toyota Yaris, Etios, Etios Liva, Etios Cross & Camry Hybrid
Installed Production capacity	Upto 2,10,000 units