GM Hosts ‘Best In The Middle East’ Competition For Auto Technicians
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For the sixth year in a row, General Motors has employed a rather unorthodox means of encouraging the very best performance out of dealership auto technicians in the Middle East: a 6-hour car-fixing competition.
A field of 1,500 General Motors technicians from across the region entered, and was whittled-down by a variety of elimination rounds to the top 40 – the best of the best. Each of those 40 competing finalists was given a number of purposefully troubled cars, trucks and crossovers to diagnose and fix as expediently as possible, while still maintaining an eye for repair quality.
This year’s competition wrapped up earlier this week, with the honors of top technician going to Indian Thajudeen Firos, who works at a dealership in Kuwait. He was awarded the most points from impartial judges for his speed and accuracy, fixing 12 difficult issues over 6 hours in several cars and trucks. Mr. Firos can now proudly claim to be the greatest General Motors technician in the Middle East.
This is all well and good, but it of course makes us wonder: why is there not an equivalent event here in the US? According to GM Middle East Director of Customer Care Luay Al Shurafa, the Middle East has seen a 27% increase in the “fix it right the first time” rate since the introduction of this competition and its associated training programs.
That’s an accomplishment we’re sure a lot of demanding American customers could get behind.
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There use to be. ACDelco, the aftermarket parts arm of GM, had a national mechanic competition years ago when they concentrated on the aftermarket installer business.