Automotive News Canada - September 2022 - 20

20
* SEPTEMBER 2022
Running a tight ship for Toyota deliveries
PRABH SANGHERA
SORTING 'A LOT OF PIECES'
IN THE LOGISTICS PUZZLE
EVERY TOYOTA VEHICLE
built in Japan for Canada
arrives through the Port of
Vancouver. And every one of
them goes through
Prabh Sanghera,
as do vehicles built
in North America
heading to the
Western provinces.
Officially, she's
the consultant for
port operations of
vehicle logistics, but
as Toyota's only representative
there,
she calls herself " the
gatekeeper. "
" I work for Toyota
Canada, but all overseas
products go
through WWS, a
third-party operator
that runs the port,
and I have an office
in that, " she said.
" I'm responsible for
a lot of pieces in the puzzle. "
When a ship is on its way,
she negotiates with WWS for its
arrival and offloading. Delays
affect vehicle deliveries and the
ship's return to Japan for another
load.
Sanghera oversees vehicles
through customs and then onto
trucks and trains. She also oversees
installation of items such as
roof racks.
" My day starts with emails, if I
need to rush anything to support
the dealer network, where I need
to prioritize. I manage the product
flow through the
processing centre. I
bring in people from
WWS, the railways,
the carriers to get
the job done.
Toyota Canada's Prabh
Sanghera calls herself
" the gatekeeper. "
She's responsible for
the flow of Toyota
vehicles arriving in
Canada from Japan.
PHOTO: TOYOTA CANADA
" Multiple automakers
come
through the centre,
so I make sure
[WWS] is maintaining
Toyota's service
level. The vessels go
to Canada and the
U.S., and the U.S.
has a bigger voice,
so I make sure
Canada is taken
care of in the scheduling. "
Sanghera,
41, has
a degree in engineering
and joined
Toyota as an engineer at its
Cambridge, Ont., factory. She
took on her current job in 2011
after moving to Vancouver.
" Everything's a pressure point
with the tight inventory right
now, and even a day's change
in a rail schedule will have an
impact. It's up to me to get the
vehicle to the dealer as soon as
possible. It's
a balancing
act to finetune
it and
get everything
done. "
Sanghera
is also chair
of Women
Influencing
and
Impacting Toyota, a business
initiative empowering female
employees.
BRODIE CREIGHTON
CUSTOMER SATISFACTION
THROUGH A SCREEN
THE GENESIS CUSTOMER
journey is entirely online, from
the first visit to the final documents.
Fine-tuning that process
is Brodie Creighton, sales operations
supervisor at Genesis
Motors Canada's head office in
Markham, Ont.
" I'm always looking at ways of
improving the customer experience, "
he said. " There are aspects
we have to look at where other
automakers don't [on their websites],
such as fees, deposits and
regulations, because the bill of
sale comes through the website.
I have to keep it up to date, and
there's always customer demand
to make the website as transparent
as possible. "
Creighton also manages customer
retention and sales data.
And when someone purchases
a vehicle, he and his two-person
team provide it.
" We have two main locations
where we keep vehicles, one in
[British Columbia] and one in
Ontario, " he said. " If we have it
in inventory, it will go out from
there. "
If there isn't a vehicle in
inventory, he checks what's en
route from South Korea. If a
vehicle intended for inventory
matches the order, he lines it up
for delivery. That happens often
because he analyzes years of
sales data and orders the configurations
customers are most likely
to want. Otherwise, he places a
factory order.
Creighton, 33, earned a degree
in automotive business. He initially
worked as a sales analyst
for Honda and in 2018 took a similar
job at Genesis. Within a year,
he became a sales specialist and
then added distribution supervisor
to his role.
" I was involved with the website
from the beginning and
became manager of it as well.
" I enjoy looking for potential
problems and coming up with
solutions to them. It's always better
if I find the issue rather than
the customer. " - ANC
Brodie Creighton oversees Genesis'
customer experience online, and
he's responsible for locating and
delivering vehicles.
PHOTO: GENESIS MOTORS CANADA
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Automotive News Canada - September 2022

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