Finning Canada
“It’s a much more customer-centric approach.
Absolutely,” Suryawanshi says.
“That was one of the gaps we identified in the system.
A lot of things were being worked on but a lot of those
were worked on from an internal stakeholder or employee
point of view, not necessarily what the customer needed.
Everything we prioritized focused on looking at the cus-
tomer, what would take their angst and stress out of the
system. We worked on those first and then we closed the
internal gaps.”
The changes also had a significant impact on the com-
pany’s bottom line. They contributed $38.2 million in
financial savings and produced an increase of $134 million
in working capital benefits. Parts revenue grew by more
than $150 million. That’s all a far cry from just a few years
earlier when the company estimated it was losing mil-
lions of dollars in potential sales due to inefficiencies in
its system.
Suryawanshi says the key to Finning’s successful turn-
around was developing a clear plan and strategic execution
making changes stick.
“You can transform something but then people can go
back to old behaviours, processes and policies and you
have the same issues again and you are starting from
scratch,” he says. “In this case, a lot of time was spent on
making changes stick and sustaining the benefits that
were derived from them.”
Parts warehouse operations improvement team. L-R: Yogi Suryawanshi, Tony Foat,
Scott Rochon
ANNOUNCEMENT
I am pleased to announce Jim Nelson has joined Reimer
Associates Inc. as a Vice President. Jim brings over 30 years
of outstanding experience and industry knowledge in both
transportation and supply chain. Throughout his career,
Jim has held senior management positions with Coca-Cola
Canada, Tibbett & Britten Group, MacKinnon Transport and
most recently Wheels Group. Jim's network along with his
experience in the hiring and the selection process make him
an excellent fit.
At Reimer Associates we specialize exclusively in recruitment
for the transportation and supply chain industry. All of our
team have significant career experience within the industry
which results in a unique understanding of our client's needs
and unparalleled networking opportunities.
www.reimer.ca
Jim Nelson
Vice President
24 • SUPPLYCHAINCANADA.CA • SCMA
Ross Reimer
President
Another critical element in the process was having the
co-operation of management at Caterpillar’s corporate
headquarters. “We needed to have their buy-in and we
did,” Suryawanshi says. “Caterpillar played a good, com-
mitted partner’s role and they helped us where they could.”
Finning has since embarked on a second business trans-
formation, this time focused on the heavy equipment
side of the business. The aim is to improve the company’s
end-to-end order to cash cycle and enhance profitabili-
ty and customer experience. This second transformation
is halfway through the execution process and has already
achieved over $175 million in working capital benefits.
The company is also paying an increased amount of atten-
tion to e-commerce, determining how to do it effectively
and figuring out how it relates to an effective supply chain.
Suryawanshi says there’s a slight difference this time
around.
“The difference is it’s by choice. We’re not in crisis mode
anymore. We’re doing it with choice and because we saw
the success we had with it with parts. We’re trying to rep-
licate the same approach to the equipment process. It’s
bigger dollars and bigger machines so the benefit will be
even more.”