"Hello Sir, Your Maserati has Arrived."
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10-31-2008 | 11:04 PM
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"Hello Sir, Your Maserati has Arrived." From the Factory to You
Most Maserati clients have never heard of the role of Logistics and Distribution Manager – and yet every single Maserati which enters North America is dependent on Kevin Fuschetto, the man whose job that is. He is responsible for ensuring that each car is ordered correctly, that the orders are submitted to the factory, and that the cars reach their destination on time; it is safe to say that, without the Logistics and Distribution Manager, the entire process would grind to a halt in a matter of days. That would leave an awful lot of unhappy customers awaiting their new Maseratis!
Kevin is a man wedded to the phone – as he described what he does; it became clear that much of his work revolves around placing and receiving calls. And then there are the computer systems, used to input and track orders and the resulting cars which are produced and shipped; the entire conversation left us wondering how cars were ever produced and delivered in the days when transatlantic phone calls had to be pre-arranged, and cost significant sums to make.
“Each dealership is responsible for placing orders on a monthly basis, which they do by entering them into the vehicle system; and each time an order is placed, I receive an automatic notification,” Kevin explained. “I review each order, to make sure there are no obvious errors or missing information; sometimes I will call the dealership to clarify an option or to confirm the order if the paint and leather colors seem to be an odd combination. Part of how we try to guide clients is by notifying them of what combinations will help maintain the residual value of their car while keeping their personal preference in mind.”
“Once I’m satisfied the order is complete, I then send it to the factory for final approval – although there’s a period of about a month when changes can still be made, so if a client decides for example that they want contrasting stitching that can still be done,” he went on. “After that, the factory has ordered the materials required, so no further changes can be made. Each order has a status of production stage – and there are 15 different stages! For example, there is a status which indicates the bodyshell is being painted, another for the engine being installed in the chassis, and so on. The stages our clients are most interested in are the final half-dozen, which is after the completed vehicle has left the factory.”
From the factory in Modena, Italy, each car is covered in a protective plastic film, loaded onto an enclosed truck and taken to the port of Zeebrugge, in Belgium; the cars are then loaded onto special cargo ships for the transatlantic crossing. Upon arrival in the United States, each vehicle is unloaded and checked for any damage that might have occurred in transit, and given a thorough pre-delivery inspection. Once the cars pass muster they are loaded onto closed trucks and transported to the dealers. It sounds straightforward, but it actually requires a great deal of coordination – especially since the cars arrive at three different ports.
“Years ago every Maserati vehicle was shipped to and processed in Newark, New Jersey, but that meant cars for our south east region were being trucked 1,500 miles after arriving at the port and cars for the West Coast were sent 3,000 miles,” said Kevin. “Also, utilizing only one facility means you have a ‘single point of failure’ – if something happened which prevented Newark from processing vehicles efficiently, we could find ourselves in serious trouble. So now, after the ship has made its port call in Newark, it heads south to Brunswick, Georgia, which receives all cars for the southern region and as far west as Texas. A separate vessel goes through the Panama Canal and brings cars into Port Hueneme in Oxnard, California. Having three ports makes coordinating everything a bit more difficult, but it helps control costs, and most importantly gives us the ability to deliver the vehicles to our final customers at a much faster rate.”
Besides ensuring each order is placed correctly, Kevin also monitors the progress of orders as each car is assembled by hand in Modena, adjusting priorities as required to ensure each dealer receives the vehicles they require, when they need them. “There is some flexibility in the production and shipping phases, so if a car is urgently required, we can do some juggling to move it up,” he told us. “When I am notified as to which cars are being shipped, I can then be proactive with our inland transport companies and advise them of our requirements – how many trucks, when they will be needed at the port, and where the cars are headed. We have developed our own Logistics system that the transport companies have access to, and email notifications are sent out automatically. The transport companies let us know what their schedules are, so we can notify the dealers when to expect delivery of their cars.”
“We’re always evaluating our options, looking at what makes sense from the points of both cost and logistics,” he continued. “For example, currently all cars destined for Canada come in to Newark under a Temporary Importation Bond, and once they have passed our inspections they are trucked to Canada by a bonded carrier. If we had a port in Canada, we could cut down on some of the customs paperwork, so we’re looking into that possibility. We used to use a single transport company based here in New Jersey – but with increasing volumes and additional ports of entry, it made sense to expand our fleet and utilize locally based transport companies as well.”
On top of all that, Kevin is also responsible for making sure cars are sent to auto shows, press events, product placement locations such as movie shoots, and the like. “There are very strict requirements for auto shows, and I have to ensure I receive and provide the details for each show – all the guidelines for displays, when we are allowed to deliver and remove cars, and so on,” he explained. “We have to work closely with the transport companies on that kind of thing – sometimes we’ll need them to drop a car off at 3 in the morning, and we have to make sure they know the gas tank must be drained, the battery disconnected, lots of details. I am responsible for arranging the movement of cars in and out of the corporate showroom in Manhattan, for getting cars to events such as the Motorsports Gathering at Quail Lodge in Carmel – it goes on and on.”
And when a new model is launched, such as the 2009 Maserati Quattroporte S, he is responsible for the specification of the demonstrator cars which go to each dealership. “We want all the dealers to have very similar demo cars, and we also need to be sure there won’t be any delays in the build process – sometimes just choosing a different paint color can add a month delay to the schedule,” Kevin said. “Once the specifications are decided, I place the orders, make sure they are all being built around the same time, and have them shipped accordingly so the dealers receive their cars on roughly the same day. I also advise the dealers on how to handle the changeover in models – a few months prior to the launch of the 2009 cars, for example, they still need to be order 2008 cars, so we want to be sure they aren’t asking for anything which might cause the build schedule to be longer than normal, because taking delivery of a 2008 car when there are 2009 vehicles already being delivered isn’t such a great idea!”
From initial order to arrival at the dealership, from building demonstrators, to getting cars on the stands at auto shows, from dealing with Customs and EPA requirements, Kevin plays a pivotal role in meeting the growing demand for the Quattroporte and GranTurismo. Next time you see a Maserati on the road, or when you are getting ready to take delivery of your own Maserati, take a moment to reflect on the complex sequence which put it there, and the man charged with ensuring that the whole process runs as smoothly as a Maserati V8.
From Maserati Monthly
Most Maserati clients have never heard of the role of Logistics and Distribution Manager – and yet every single Maserati which enters North America is dependent on Kevin Fuschetto, the man whose job that is. He is responsible for ensuring that each car is ordered correctly, that the orders are submitted to the factory, and that the cars reach their destination on time; it is safe to say that, without the Logistics and Distribution Manager, the entire process would grind to a halt in a matter of days. That would leave an awful lot of unhappy customers awaiting their new Maseratis!
Kevin is a man wedded to the phone – as he described what he does; it became clear that much of his work revolves around placing and receiving calls. And then there are the computer systems, used to input and track orders and the resulting cars which are produced and shipped; the entire conversation left us wondering how cars were ever produced and delivered in the days when transatlantic phone calls had to be pre-arranged, and cost significant sums to make.
“Each dealership is responsible for placing orders on a monthly basis, which they do by entering them into the vehicle system; and each time an order is placed, I receive an automatic notification,” Kevin explained. “I review each order, to make sure there are no obvious errors or missing information; sometimes I will call the dealership to clarify an option or to confirm the order if the paint and leather colors seem to be an odd combination. Part of how we try to guide clients is by notifying them of what combinations will help maintain the residual value of their car while keeping their personal preference in mind.”
“Once I’m satisfied the order is complete, I then send it to the factory for final approval – although there’s a period of about a month when changes can still be made, so if a client decides for example that they want contrasting stitching that can still be done,” he went on. “After that, the factory has ordered the materials required, so no further changes can be made. Each order has a status of production stage – and there are 15 different stages! For example, there is a status which indicates the bodyshell is being painted, another for the engine being installed in the chassis, and so on. The stages our clients are most interested in are the final half-dozen, which is after the completed vehicle has left the factory.”
From the factory in Modena, Italy, each car is covered in a protective plastic film, loaded onto an enclosed truck and taken to the port of Zeebrugge, in Belgium; the cars are then loaded onto special cargo ships for the transatlantic crossing. Upon arrival in the United States, each vehicle is unloaded and checked for any damage that might have occurred in transit, and given a thorough pre-delivery inspection. Once the cars pass muster they are loaded onto closed trucks and transported to the dealers. It sounds straightforward, but it actually requires a great deal of coordination – especially since the cars arrive at three different ports.
“Years ago every Maserati vehicle was shipped to and processed in Newark, New Jersey, but that meant cars for our south east region were being trucked 1,500 miles after arriving at the port and cars for the West Coast were sent 3,000 miles,” said Kevin. “Also, utilizing only one facility means you have a ‘single point of failure’ – if something happened which prevented Newark from processing vehicles efficiently, we could find ourselves in serious trouble. So now, after the ship has made its port call in Newark, it heads south to Brunswick, Georgia, which receives all cars for the southern region and as far west as Texas. A separate vessel goes through the Panama Canal and brings cars into Port Hueneme in Oxnard, California. Having three ports makes coordinating everything a bit more difficult, but it helps control costs, and most importantly gives us the ability to deliver the vehicles to our final customers at a much faster rate.”
Besides ensuring each order is placed correctly, Kevin also monitors the progress of orders as each car is assembled by hand in Modena, adjusting priorities as required to ensure each dealer receives the vehicles they require, when they need them. “There is some flexibility in the production and shipping phases, so if a car is urgently required, we can do some juggling to move it up,” he told us. “When I am notified as to which cars are being shipped, I can then be proactive with our inland transport companies and advise them of our requirements – how many trucks, when they will be needed at the port, and where the cars are headed. We have developed our own Logistics system that the transport companies have access to, and email notifications are sent out automatically. The transport companies let us know what their schedules are, so we can notify the dealers when to expect delivery of their cars.”
“We’re always evaluating our options, looking at what makes sense from the points of both cost and logistics,” he continued. “For example, currently all cars destined for Canada come in to Newark under a Temporary Importation Bond, and once they have passed our inspections they are trucked to Canada by a bonded carrier. If we had a port in Canada, we could cut down on some of the customs paperwork, so we’re looking into that possibility. We used to use a single transport company based here in New Jersey – but with increasing volumes and additional ports of entry, it made sense to expand our fleet and utilize locally based transport companies as well.”
On top of all that, Kevin is also responsible for making sure cars are sent to auto shows, press events, product placement locations such as movie shoots, and the like. “There are very strict requirements for auto shows, and I have to ensure I receive and provide the details for each show – all the guidelines for displays, when we are allowed to deliver and remove cars, and so on,” he explained. “We have to work closely with the transport companies on that kind of thing – sometimes we’ll need them to drop a car off at 3 in the morning, and we have to make sure they know the gas tank must be drained, the battery disconnected, lots of details. I am responsible for arranging the movement of cars in and out of the corporate showroom in Manhattan, for getting cars to events such as the Motorsports Gathering at Quail Lodge in Carmel – it goes on and on.”
And when a new model is launched, such as the 2009 Maserati Quattroporte S, he is responsible for the specification of the demonstrator cars which go to each dealership. “We want all the dealers to have very similar demo cars, and we also need to be sure there won’t be any delays in the build process – sometimes just choosing a different paint color can add a month delay to the schedule,” Kevin said. “Once the specifications are decided, I place the orders, make sure they are all being built around the same time, and have them shipped accordingly so the dealers receive their cars on roughly the same day. I also advise the dealers on how to handle the changeover in models – a few months prior to the launch of the 2009 cars, for example, they still need to be order 2008 cars, so we want to be sure they aren’t asking for anything which might cause the build schedule to be longer than normal, because taking delivery of a 2008 car when there are 2009 vehicles already being delivered isn’t such a great idea!”
From initial order to arrival at the dealership, from building demonstrators, to getting cars on the stands at auto shows, from dealing with Customs and EPA requirements, Kevin plays a pivotal role in meeting the growing demand for the Quattroporte and GranTurismo. Next time you see a Maserati on the road, or when you are getting ready to take delivery of your own Maserati, take a moment to reflect on the complex sequence which put it there, and the man charged with ensuring that the whole process runs as smoothly as a Maserati V8.
From Maserati Monthly
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