The final stage of the UD Trucks 2016 Gemba Challenge, the company’s aftermarket competition, will take place on November 15, 2016 in Japan. Out of the 289 teams who began the competition, eleven winners from local markets will compete for top honors during the final stage.

First held in 2014, this year marks the second UD Trucks Gemba Challenge for frontline employees worldwide, including Asia, and Africa. Teams from Thailand, Hong Kong, Taiwan and countries in the southern Africa region joined the competition for the first time. The aim of UD Gemba Challenge is to develop skills, team spirit and pride among UD aftermarket frontline personnel. It is an important activity for nurturing the unique UD Gemba Spirit to live up to UD Trucks’ brand promise “Going the Extra Mile” and the core value of “Ultimate Dependability”.

The 2016 competition began in June with two online theory rounds. The final competition stage – which will be held live at the UD Experience Center at the company’s headquarters in Ageo – will cover several subjects at physical stations. Four teams from Japan will compete, making Japan the market with the most teams entering the final stage. South Africa’s BB Truck & Tractor Polokwane, winners of Gemba Challenge 2014, also returns for the final stage to defend their title.

The challenge not only tests the individual capability of maintenance engineers, component engineers and customer service representatives, but also promotes team spirit by encouraging teams to solve problems together.

“UD Trucks’ largest biennial competition welcomes entries from all over the world. This gives all employees a great opportunity to show off their ‘Gemba Spirit’—the professional, passionate and dependable spirit at the heart of UD Trucks from the very beginning. This spirit has driven us to deliver a higher quality of after services to our customers since our foundation. In this sense, the UD frontline employees who participate in this competition well represent the UD Gemba Spirit,” said Fiona Martensson, Project Manager of the Gemba Challenge 2016.

To further promote the UD Gemba Spirit and the importance of our frontline colleagues around the world, several hundred employees from the UD headquarters, factory and engineering departments will also be invited to watch the Gemba Challenge.

With UD Gemba Challenge UD Trucks goes the extra mile to train and motivate the UD frontline people and live up to the commitment to provide products and services with ultimate dependability.

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UD Trucks is a commercial truck brand providing transport solutions that improve the fuel economy and rate of operation of customers’ vehicles. UD Trucks was established in 1935, and in 2007, it became one of the global brands of the commercial vehicle division of the Volvo Group, which manufactures and sells commercial vehicles, busses, construction machinery, and ship engines, etc., and since then UD Trucks has established its headquarters in Japan and expanded its sales network in Japan and 64 countries worldwide. The company’s 2015 collective sales volume for both domestic and foreign sales was approximately 20,000 vehicles. At UD Trucks, our mission is to provide the added value of Ultimate Dependability derived from UD to our company’s products as well as an unsurpassed level of excellence in the most important functions for our customers.