Kiwis take on Asia Pacific teams in volkswagen Technical Olympics

Towards the end of last year Volkswagen New Zealand was host to a significant event which seems to have slipped past under the radar.
It was however, an international event and had the added attraction of being a world first. It was an extremely important event which is potentially more far reaching than even Volkswagen New Zealand anticipated.
The event was the Volkswagen Auto Techniker regional final for the Asia Pacific area and it is a concept Volkswagen New Zealand pioneered six years ago.
It started out as a local event which served to introduce quality and consistency of process when it comes to the parts and servicing arms of Volkswagen dealerships.
The event was trialled in New Zealand for a year before it was decided to open it up to the Asia Pacific region.
Last year – being the fifth Auto Techniker to be held – it was decided to roll out a global programme following the same principles of the New Zealand home grown Auto Techniker.
 Volkswagen New Zealand hosted the 2006 event in recognition of Auto Techniker’s fifth regional anniversary.
“We have to say that we are most impressed with what our colleagues here in New Zealand have done for this year’s event,” commented Ronny Klausch Senior, Asia Pacific’s regional technical trainer. “New Zealand service manager Grant Doull and his team have really taken the hosting of this event to a whole new level and we’re also delighted to work with Grant as an instrumental driving force behind the event.”
“Finalists attending the event have also been impressed,” according to Bruce Long, the general manager (Technical) for the region.
For many of our competitors, the idea of travelling to New Zealand was certainly motivational. It’s considered to be the destination of choice in the Asia Pacific region and Grant’s team provided an outstanding programme which appealed to everyone.”
At least, that was on the social side which plays a significant part in the Auto Techniker event. As to the actual contest itself, Johan Stander, a regional technical specialist for Asia Pacific was seriously impressed with the high degree of difficulty.
“There were some sections of the event that had me scratching my head,” he laughs. “It was challenging for the technicians, but then Volkswagen people have to be better than competent, so it was good that we did not make the event an easy one.”
As it happened, the Auto Techniker 2006 was a milestone event because, for the first time ever, the contest had a non-technical element to it.
Called Auto Experte, this second event pitted non-technical personnel (sales support, warranty and parts staff) against each other in the same way that the technicians were.
They were challenged not with diagnostic gear and spanners, but with biros and check-sheets.
Rather than cars to work on, the Auto Experte contenders worked role played scenarios to hone their skills in customer relations and processes therein.
But there was no chance for collusion between contenders. Volkswagen New Zealand staff ensured that competitors were kept (in true Kiwi sheep style) in sectioned areas before they went to do battle against the clock, the faults and the processes to finding hose faults.
“That’s part of the path to excellence,” explains Ronny. You may have a technician who recognises a fault early in the diagnostic process, and he or she could conceivably solve that problem in shorter time than we allowed. That however, would be a mistake. Points are awarded on a process basis. If the problem is solved by shortcuts, the technician can forfeit a significant point count. What we are looking for here is a consistent approach to problem solving through processes.”
And when Ronny says ‘consistence’, he means region-wide consistence, so how big
is the region?
This year’s event took the top two national finalists from such countries as Taiwan, Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand. Naturally, there were interpreters present and those who qualified to compete at regional level went through a 6 month time frame to do so.
So who won? As far as Auto Techniker went, line honours went to our friends from across the Tassie. Australia’s Randal Ward was the outright winner with 440 points out of a possible 500. New Zealand’s Glen Marsden of Miles Continental came second with 380 points and with 366 points, Taiwan’s Shun Fan Yu came in third.
And it was a clean sweep for Taiwan in the Auto Experte category. Chih-Wei Chang placed first, followed by Hui Wen Wen and Chun Lin Lin in third.
Grant is not unhappy with the result. “We really gave it a good shot,” he says. In Auto Techniker Philip Crouse from Giltrap Prestige did very well in the face of tough competition, the team from Miles Continental – Anthony Johanson, Heidi Samual and Jade Hollobon are still number one in our eyes for actually competing in this event. We’ll be looking to them for great results next year, and having people of this calibre as part of the Volkswagen team really demonstrates the value of events like Auto Techniker and Auto Experte.”  n
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