Whether in his garage restoring a 1961 Ford Galaxie convertible or on the job as senior manager of transportation for Volkswagen Group of America Inc., self-described “car guy at heart” Scott Goodwin applies decades of automotive industry experience to ensuring quality delivery. In an interview with The American Journal of Transportation, Goodwin, whose office is in Herndon, Va., shares insights on his company’s recent shift of its burgeoning U.S. Southeast hub to the Port of Jacksonville, Fla.; the application of metrics that drive supply chain quality; and his love of family and, yes, cars.
As a bona fide lover of cars, Scott Goodwin is in a seemingly ideal job as senior manager of transportation for Volkswagen Group of America Inc.
As a bona fide lover of cars, Scott Goodwin is in a seemingly ideal job as senior manager of transportation for Volkswagen Group of America Inc.
Can you fill us in a bit about the importance of Volkswagen’s recent move to begin shipping vehicles through the Port of Jacksonville? The Southeastern states continue to do well for the Volkswagen Group and as such are an important part of our supply chain. This area’s population continues to grow and has embraced the Volkswagen, Audi and Bentley brands So why Jacksonville? We evaluated several different facilities in the Southeast. We looked at Brunswick [Georgia]. We looked at a concept project in Port Canaveral, which doesn’t currently have a facility [for our purposes] but they had a conceptual design and a business plan for one that was quite interesting. And we looked at two facilities on the west coast of Florida, Tampa and Port Manatee. What we saw with Jacksonville was a facility that could provide us with the additional land we needed in order to support our growing business in the region. Jacksonville also scored well due to its robust infrastructure on the waterfront and outbound transportation corridors, which were very important to us. It provided us with the opportunity to make sure we had the ability to move our vehicles quickly and efficiently. We chose AMPORTS as our port processor as they provided the best combination of service, amenities, value and reputation. How does Jacksonville fit into Volkswagen’s overall logistics scheme involving ports such as Houston, San Diego and Davisville, R.I.? Based on what is the most efficient time to market an economically viable transportation solution for servicing the U.S. market, these are the locations that we’ve identified work best for us. With that, we need to make sure that we have facilities that can accommodate our future growth. With the proposed increases in volumes going into the future years, all of these facilities are going to be tasked with providing the most efficient and cost-effective way for Volkswagen Group to speed vehicles to market. What particular challenges are associated with damage-free shipping via ocean, rail and road of such a heavy, high-value product, and how are you meeting them? That’s a great question, because quality is first and foremost in everything that we try to do. If we’re not delivering the quality product that our factories are building for us, then it kind of defeats the purpose of what we’re trying to accomplish. Making sure that quality remains intact throughout the supply chain is at the top of the list for us. We have a very robust damage prevention program in which we work with all of our service providers – whether it’s moving by ocean, rail or truck, moving through port processing, all the way down to the dealer level – to ensure everyone understands our careful car-handling practices and all of our suggested guidelines are followed. We also make sure we have damage protection on the vehicles themselves – the protective bags that you see over our vehicles, wrap guard, foam strips in areas where common contact points are located, the plastic coverings over the seats and floorboards to make sure they stay in factory condition during the supply chain process is our goal. How has your background in auto transport by road, as director of business development and operations with The Waggoners Trucking immediately prior to coming aboard at VW in January 2014; third-party logistics, for nine years as national manager for vehicle logistics at Glovis America Inc., and the 10 years before that with Hadley Auto Transport, helped ready you to deal with such challenges? It gives me a very unique perspective, because I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to see this business not only as a service provider but also as a user of those services. Having that really gives you the value to be able to look through what is happening out there and be able to anticipate the challenges that are coming in much more detail. Having been able to work with other OEMs [original equipment manufacturers] in different capacities and being able to take away best practices from each of those allows me to be much better informed. Looking back and saying Manufacturer ABC had a really great program for this particular instance and being able to draw on that experience to implement a better solution into our programs has made us better at what we do. Do you have an example? Generally, looking at the different KPIs [key performance indicators] and how data is being used to improve your supply chain. And when we look at the the different methods others are using to measure service providers, and being able to take away certain pieces of those and adjust them to our business gives us just that much more visibility of what’s going on within our supply chain. What vehicle do you drive yourself and why? Currently, I’m driving an Audi Q7. I love the Audi product, and it’s a fantastic way to get yourself around. What makes it such a sweet ride? It’s a sports car masquerading as an SUV. You can drive it like a sports car. It handles. It’s got power. It’s got braking. But yet you can still put your family and your luggage in it and go for a drive. It’s a fantastic automobile. What outside interests occupy your time when you get away from work? First and most importantly is to be able to spend time with my family and I try to do as much as I can with them. Both my children are active in competitive sports, and I really enjoy watching them play. But for me personally, when I get some time for myself I’m usually working on my two restoration projects – a 1969 Ford Bronco or 1961 Ford Galaxie convertible. I’m a car guy at heart. The car thing is kind of in my blood, literally.