GAC Announces Winners of MMC Technicians Contest 2016
General Automotive Company (GAC), the official distributor of Mitsubishi in Oman, in November 2015 launched the MMC Technicians Contest 2016. Over the course of the past nine-months, and starting off with over 90 participants, the contest competed four stages of increasing difficulty; with the extremely challenging finals taking place at the end of July in the presence of a delegation from Mitsubishi Motors Company (MMC).
To commemorate the occasion GAC, on August 4, held a special prize giving ceremony was held in the presence of Manoj Ranade, General Manager of GAC, and Yasser Zerik, the National Service Manager of GAC, to recognise the achievements of the top four performers of the contest – Jeoffry Felices Estuye, Tefisto Jr. Gobres Edma, Norman Francisco A. Bascos, and Girish Nair; who came in 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th respectively. Each was presented with a certificate and reward from GAC. The overall winner of the contest, Jeoffry Felices Estuye, would now be representing GAC and Oman in the Global Service Skills Contest to be held at MMC in Tokyo, Japan on November 15-18, 2016.
Commenting on the importance GAC places on staff development and the reasoning behind the contest, Manoj Ranade said, “GAC has always placed great emphasis on staff training and development. This is clearly evident from our adoption of Mitsubishi’s M-Step training program for our service staff. An internal contest such as this, as well as an opportunity to represent Oman in the Global Service Skills Contest, further incentivizes our staff to train harder and perform to the best of their abilities. Given the scope and difficulty of this particular contest, I am truly impressed with the performance of all the technicians that took part. I would like to therefore commend each of them for their efforts and also congratulate each of the four winners; their victory was truly well deserved.”
Following the contest’s initial announcement in November 2015, it saw participation of 90 technicians from across the country. Each of which had to give a Contest Entrance Qualifying Examination within each of their respective regions. A total of 22 passed the test and were required to then give another Written Examination, the final one to be conducted at their respective premises.
Of the 22, nine technicians passed and subsequently qualified for the Semi-Final Trouble Shooting Competition. This took place at the GAC Service Centre in Azaiba over the course of two days, July 12 and 13, and involved actual vehicle troubleshooting using MUT 111 Diagnostic System. Of the nine, the four top performers were selected to participate in the finals.
The Final Technician Skill Contest was held on July 27, once again at the GAC Service Centre in Azaiba. The contest took place in the presence of four judges comprising of senior Technical Team Leaders and Technical Training Instructors from GAC and was presided over by a delegation from MMC Japan comprising of Mitsuhiro Miyake, the General Manager of the Service Engineering Department, Jumpei Tamura, a member of the Service Engineering Department, and Hajime Kawai, the Manager of Service Training.
The practical contest began at 10:00am and in less than one hour the first vehicle started followed closely by the second and third. The Judges Score cards were evaluated and the result revealed Jeoffry Felices Estuye, as the winner of the contest followed by Tefisto Jr. Gobres Edma in second and with Norman Francisco A. Bascos, and Girish Nair coming in 3rd and 4th respectively.
Congratulating each of the four technicians, Yasser Zerik added, “On behalf of GAC I would like to congratulate Jeoffry, Tefisto, Norman and Girish on winning the contest. Their performances have been consistently good throughout these past nine months of the contest and are truly deserving of their positions as the top four technicians at GAC. I am confident all of them would do GAC proud by serving customer vehicles in a timely and accurate manner.”
GAC has been a pioneer in the Omani automotive industry. With a constantly motivated workforce managed by professionally-led, supervisor-level employees and a dedicated sales team, there is little doubt as to why GAC enjoys one of the largest and most loyal customer bases in the Sultanate. As a matter of fact, this contest stems from GAC’s strong commitment towards its customers and its aim is to continually provide them with the highest standards of service at all times. It ensures all its technicians are highly qualified with the appropriate level of skills and competencies required to deliver international standards of service and customer care. Furthermore, the brand currently enjoys an extensive network of service and part centres and workshops covering every key region of Oman; offering services that cater to the needs of all clients directly. Each of its service centres and workshops are fully equipped with the very latest in technology and equipment manned by its highly regarded Mitsubishi Certified technicians, offering customers a one-stop-shop for all of their vehicle’s needs.
For more information on General Automotive Company and the new Express Service Centre in Azaiba, customers can visit their local Mitsubishi showroom, go online to www.mitsubishioman.com or follow the brand on its ‘Mitsubishi Oman’ Facebook page or Twitter handle @mitsubishioman.