Trucks

On the Front Line

| 16 min read | 16 min read
KITEC gives Volvo Truck & Bus Technicians and Aftermarket employees the opportunity to learn new things and test their skills.
On the Front Line

KITEC FACTS

  • The competition takes place every two years. Started in 2008 as a small Competence Assessment competition, KITEC into its 6th edition has grown into a full fledged competition with increased participation in each edition.
  • This year KITEC has a total of 270 teams with 1059 participants registering from all over India. The split of team category registrations are 87 Bus Teams & 183 Truck Teams.
  • We had 31% of the 1059 participants as First Time participants in KITEC.
  • Around 45% of participants are within 2 years of experience in Volvo.
  • 99.3% has been the average participation rate in all preliminary Rounds of KITEC 2019.
  • Around 94% of available Aftermarket employees are participating in KITEC.

The finals for this year would be between 26-27 July, 2019. Do join in to cheer the teams

Team Members: Chandrabhushan Binjhwar, Gajadhar Singh, Pramod Kumar Ram, Waman Kumar Sihare

“We are participating for the first time and are excited”.
Team: COLLARBONE

All participants of this team are experiencing KITEC for the very first time. Chandrabhushan says, “we are very excited to hear about this competition as it is for the first time that we are participating in any kind of competition in our career”. Chandrabhushan & Waman took the lead to form the team adding Pramod & Gajadhar. We are new to Volvo and want to use this opportunity to learn Technical & Commercial areas of knowledge. KITEC is helping us understand each other’s strengths to work together as a team. Team’s Strategy. We take prints of the question paper and share them amongst ourselves – Gajadhar & Pramod handle Technical questions and Chandrabhushan & Waman handle systems and process related commercial questions. Since 3 of us are based out at the Workshop, we communicate almost everyday and discuss the questions. We also use a Whatsapp group to communicate within the team.

Tips to succeed. Dedication & teamwork is the key to succeed in such team based competitions. Of course, advise from senior members is also important to understand the nuances of sourcing answers from different applications.

Team Members: Tapas Manna, Rohan Rinjad, Siddhesh Vaidya, Vinayak Gawde

Team work is key
Team: Mumbai Jockeys

“KITEC 2019 has been good for us as it has taken us into new avenues such as commercials, warranty which we normally do not read. We have even started learning more about Volvo Trucks even though we do not handle trucks regularly. In our day to day work, we sometimes complete the task at hand without referring to process documents, but KITEC makes us connect back with Volvo processes and literature”.

The team has been participating in the past KITEC editions and the questions related to diagnostics, maintenance, repair process, warranty, agreements etc. have helped enhance their competence levels in multiple areas. It has helped to work as a team by distributing responsibilities, which in turn translates to providing better service and thereby an overall richer experience to the Customer.

When they are at site they refer to IMPACT when there is a need, but KITEC has been an eye opener to understanding that. While IMPACT has a lot of information, it is still not the only source they also need to refer to Bus accessories, Truck accessories, Technical service bulletins and Driver manuals. With KITEC this team has learnt the art of sourcing information.

Team’s Strategy. “Since all 4 of our team members are located in different locations and we do not have the opportunity to meet, we have had to correspond through calls and WhatsApp only. Our strategy has been to allocate questions in accordance to the strengths and resources available to our team members So it is this distribution that works for us”.

Tips to succeed. Team work is the Key! This competition cannot be won by an individual so the more unity and coordination the team has will improve your chances greatly.

Team Members: Prithwijit Dasgupta, Fahim Varsi, Shyamal Barai, Roshan Pandey

There is no shortcut to success!
Team: Backbone

KITEC Experience: “This is our second edition of KITEC. The 1st round of the competition was easy compared to Round 2 and we have distributed the questions amongst all the team members and then ended with a discussion before finalizing our answers. Similarly for the Pit stop challenge too we have each taken the e-learning course and then discussed and finalized our answers as a team.”

Improved Customer Satisfaction:“We do not think of KITEC as just a competition, it can also tantamount as a mass competence development program. If an individual participates wholeheartedly in the same then he can develop himself on understanding Volvo Processes, Standards and sourcing information from various literature available this can then translate to better performance on the job. Another important outcome that one can gain from KITEC is learning to function better as a team and developing ones patience. These attributes along with improving technical competence definitely help in bringing change to the business and ensuring customer satisfaction.

Continuous Skill Improvement: “We have learnt many new things in every edition of KITEC. Going through TSB’s, FST’s, checking parts, VST’s, maintenance, Tech tool are all very valuable in terms of gaining knowledge for a PSE. This equips us to handle technicians better and guide them.

Team’s Strategy. “Working together is the motto of Team Backbone. We distribute the questions amongst each member and source the answers individually but post this we always regroup regularly and discuss, argue, convince or contest each other till we are all satisfied with the answers selected. Sometimes it is easy to locate the document holding the answer but even then some reasoning maybe needed as the answer may not be a direct answer.

Every team member has a voice and we all put our points across and have them acknowledged. Even the newest member in our team Roshan has put in a lot of efforts and has thereby further strengthened the Backbone”.

Tips to succeed. Teamwork, dedication and passion are the key in such a competition. There is no shortcut to success!

Team Members: Sunil Mourya, Sanjay Maiti, Navin Raj, Vishal Singh

Give your 100% to every question
Team: Armed Invaders

The team - Armed Invaders is one of the leading teams in the Trucks category of the competition this year. KITEC has helped them get used to the idea of reading. Their jobs being on site, reading was never a habit. Going through the course of the competition they were exposed to technical content like Service Agreements, Warranty, Hydraulic tipping system, etc., which is not referred to in the normal course and this has helped to answer customers in a more effective manner.

“KITEC 2019 has been a great experience so far as we are a leading team! This is possible only because we are a very strong and united team and each team member has contributed towards ensuring that all questions are answered. The questions have been interesting and have allowed us to learn new things. We also enjoyed the Pit stop challenge”.

“We learnt about the Hyva tipping system and new repair kits that are available to be used. Also since we need to answer 5 Bus related questions going through Volvo Bus material has also enhanced our knowledge”, says the team members.

Team’s Strategy. Regular interaction and giving their 100% to every question is what has brought the Armed Invaders so far.

Tips to succeed. The key here is to understand each other’s strengths and weaknesses and enable the team to reach its full potential.

Team Members: Satveer, Raj Karan, Manoj Chandra, Harvinder

A great learning experience
Team: Avengers

KITEC Experience: “KITEC has been a great experience with a lot of new learning. Round 1 the questions were interesting and we got to learn something about Volvo Trucks as well which is not under our regular scope of activities. The Pit stop challenge of going through the e-learning followed by time bound questions was also interesting”.

Improved Customer Satisfaction:“The competitions are like a mini training program where all team members learn from each other and from reference materials. This knowledge gained is used towards assisting customers and improving uptime”.

Continuous Skill Improvement: “There is no end to this competition since even after the finals we still hold onto and benefit from the learning. It helps us in our preparation before attending a breakdown so that we source the correct IMPACT process, TSB or Diagnostic steps to follow first it. As B8R is a relatively new product we have gained a lot by reading in detail while searching for answers related to the same”.

Team Strategy. “As we have extensive duty hours it becomes difficult to find time for KITEC. But our strategy has been to extend small amounts of time regularly after work. We also divide the questions amongst all team members so that we can complete without too much trouble”.