Automotive News Canada - October 2022 - 16

16
* OCTOBER 2022
'Defining the future' of GM pickups for dealers in Canada
CRAIG COUCH
READING THE CRYSTAL BALL
FOUR TO FIVE YEARS AHEAD
THE CHEVROLET SILVERADO
and GMC Sierra are hot sellers
north and south of the border,
but the markets are different, as
are some of the regulations.
Craig Couch, product manager
of full-size pickups and commercial/fleet
operations at General
Motors Canada, prioritizes
allotment in this
country.
" I analyze customer
needs and history of
what we've sold in the
past, and how I think the
market will change, " he
said. Couch determines
how many pickups he'll
need to requisition from
factories four to five years ahead,
" and I need this number of them
to be crew cab, this number regular
cab, and diesel or [gasoline].
The segment has so many variables. "
Couch
works primarily with
planning teams in the United
States, and " my whole day is
meetings. "
In addition to model variants,
he also must ensure that
Canadian vehicle requirements
are taken into account, such as
unique technical specifications
and heaters that sufficiently
warm the rear cabin.
" Police in the U.S. can turn off
their daytime running lights but
that's not allowed in Canada, so
I have to tell the factory we can't
have that. "
Pickups cover a huge swath
of customer needs, and Craig
Couch has to consider all of
them when planning future
orders for GM Canada.
PHOTO: LARGO'S LOFT
Couch, 57, became a mechanical
engineer through a GM program,
working at the company's
Oshawa plant and going to school
at the General Motors Institute
(now Kettering University) in
Michigan. He held various
roles in all of GM's
Oshawa facilities, from
metal forming to quality
assessment, before
taking his current position
15 years ago.
" I'm defining the
future of Canadian
product availability, the
volumes and packaging
and value proposition. I understand
how a vehicle is built, how
to fix a problem, and the tradeoffs
you have to make. The best
time for a product decision four
years from now is today, because
it's less costly than a change at
the last minute. "
IOAN BUZDUGAN
MAKING THINGS BETTER
'OVER AND OVER' AGAIN
AUTO MANUFACTURING
needs to be efficient and safe.
Those two priorities fall on Ioan
Buzdugan at Honda Canada
Manufacturing in Alliston, Ont.,
100 kilometres north of Toronto,
where he's the engineering lead
and equipment safety lead.
" My first responsibility is to
improve and streamline engineering
in the plant, identifying
the best systems and processes
and supporting them to be successful.
Then I give direction
and support on equipment safedepartments
and hundreds of
engineers, and while Buzdugan
regularly walks the factory floor,
" I'm only one person and I can
only see so much. "
When new manufacturing
equipment is installed in
Honda's Ontario plants,
Ioan Buzdugan provides
engineering support to
streamline processes.
PHOTO: HONDA CANADA
MANUFACTURING
ty. I also help recruit engineering
interns and new hires, helping
them get training and teaching
them to analyze complex problems
and come up with solutions. "
The
plants have numerous
Representatives from the
departments come to him with
concerns, " and I help them figure
out the issues. If I see a better
way to do something, or another
department does it a different
way, I'll help modify the procedure
or find someone who can. "
Buzdugan, 37, studied electrical
engineering at the University
of Toronto, interned at Honda
during his last two years and
joined the company in 2008.
His job was installing new
equipment and processes for
model changes or assembly line
updates. " I liked equipment safety
and that led to becoming lead
safety two years ago, and I've
been engineering lead for a year. "
Buzdugan credits his communication
skills for his success.
" A big part of my job is bringing
people to consensus, and I'm
able to listen to people and they
feel their concerns are heard. I've
learned people skills, how to deal
with someone who has done that
job for 30 years and explain why
[changes are being made]. It's a
continuous improvement mindset.
You make something better,
and then you keep making it even
better over and over. " - ANC
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Automotive News Canada - October 2022

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