Tom Swennes is a logistics and supply chain executive with over 28 years in finished automotive logistics. With a longstanding tie to AIAG, he has served as a volunteer since 2008. Swennes has been a leader in AIAG’s Visibility of Finished Vehicles Initiative (VOFV) — helping to develop event reporting standard across the finished vehicle supply chain — and is currently a member of AIAG’s Finished Vehicles Advisory Group. With both a systems and a sales background, as well as extensive operational experience at the OEM level, Swennes offers a unique perspective on the challenges facing automotive logistics professionals.

Q: How did you find your way to the finished vehicle logistics industry?

Swennes: In college, my first job in the industry was working for Port Services Company (now part of Auto Warehousing Company) at the Port of Portland in Oregon, where I loaded vehicles onto railcars and installed port-installed accessories. It was physically demanding work, but I learned a lot about the business and some of the unique characters that work in it.

After graduating from the University of Oregon in 1989, Port Services presented me with an opportunity to oversee the receipt and distribution of Sonatas exported to the United States from Hyundai’s Canadian Bromont, QC assembly plant. What was originally intended to be a six-month temporary assignment with Port Services turned into a full-time position with Hyundai Motor America — first as their representative in Canada, and then transferring in 1992 to work at HMA’s California headquarters as the import operations administrator.

When Kia Motors America approached me in 1994 to be part of their U.S. launch, it was an opportunity I could not pass up. The launch and rapid growth of Kia was a lot of fun. As port operations manager, I was responsible for selecting and rolling out KMA’s ports of entry across the United States. In 1997, Kia promoted me to lead the entire outbound transportation effort.

In 2000, I was ready to try something new. I was actually about to accept an offer from another company when Pat Donahoe, the founder of ICL, pitched me the idea of joining ICL.  

Q: What is your current role at ICL?

Swennes: My current title is vice president, customer experience and administration. Customer experience entails oversight of the ICL Operations team, which is responsible for the day-to-day technical and business support of our various customers, as well as Rubicon VLS, our third-party logistics subsidiary. My administration responsibilities include human resources, legal and finance.

Q: How did your work evolve into your involvement with AIAG’s FVL Advisory team?

Swennes: In my OEM days, I was active in the now-defunct Association of Import Auto Manufacturers (AIAM), as well as what is now known as the Automotive Logistics Executive Committee (ALEC), so I understood the value of how these organizations could facilitate collaboration within the industry. When I first joined ICL, AIAG was not actively involved in finished vehicles. When AIAG issued its first Call to Action in 2008 to address the needs of outbound automotive, we saw it as a great opportunity to contribute our knowledge and expertise as a solutions provider to solving some of the industry’s challenges.

My first experience at the sub-committee level was working on the Standardized Electronic Messaging and Visibility (SELM-V) work group, which I co-chaired with Marc Brazeau, and with the assistance of a great group of volunteers representing OEMs, rail carriers, vehicle processors, and 3PLs. The culmination of the work group’s effort was publication of the M-21 Common Visibility Event Definitions of the Finished Vehicle Supply Chain document, which created a common definition matrix and language for OEMs and suppliers for identifying and understanding the broad range of events that occur within the vehicle transportation process. We recognized a need for better data sharing and accuracy and having a commonly understood set of events was fundamental to that effort. A lot of credit goes to Marc Brazeau, as he provided much of the framework needed to help capture and organize the group’s ideas.    

Q; What have been the biggest changes in the FVL segment of the industry over the past several years?

Swennes: Certainly, one of the most consequential changes, which continues to reverberate through the industry, has been the consolidation of the North American railroads and the subsequent adoption of the tenets of the late Hunter Harrison’s “precision railroading” across much of the industry.  

From a technology perspective, the finished vehicle logistics space is not known for being at the forefront of adopting new technologies, but there has been good progress in data accuracy and data timeliness. We are increasingly receiving data at or near real-time, whereas as recently as five years ago, we would routinely see events reported hours after they had occurred. The wide adoption of Electronic Proof of Delivery (ePOD), which AIAG helped facilitate, has played an important role in this area. The work by the Connected Vehicle group also can greatly improve and expand upon the data available, including insights on the real-time condition of the vehicle itself.  

Q: What are the biggest obstacles or threats in automotive logistics?

Swennes: Like all industries, automotive logistics will be subject to larger economic themes like digital transformation and sustainability. There is a wave of new entrants to the automotive market looking to disrupt the traditional production and distribution models that have defined the industry for decades. This will put new pressures and demands on the entire network, which struggles to provide sufficient capacity.

Bottom line, those that are complacent, resistant to change, or unwilling to make the investments necessary to meet the changing environment will likely get left behind.  

Q: How can the AIAG drive best practices for the electronic automotive age?

Swennes: AIAG members are already developing the best practices that will drive the industry’s digital transformation. The Damage Claims, Connected Vehicle, and Rail/Haulaway Visibility work groups are all focused on developing guidelines and standards optimized for a digitized, paperless environment. The recent call to action for the formation of a Battery Electric Vehicle work group is another example of AIAG facilitating industry collaboration to meet the specific challenges of a fast, evolving market.

Q: How will the connected vehicle affect FVL in terms of efficiency and productivity?

Swennes: Connected vehicles open up some interesting new opportunities. Just one example: Having advance notice that a vehicle’s battery is low or it is indicating some other critical fault that could delay shipment will let the logistics service providers proactively correct the condition. This not only helps improve efficiency, but it helps improve delivered quality as well.  

Q: What is the biggest opportunity for collaboration between OEMs and suppliers?

Swennes: The industry is dependent upon the efficient use of shared assets such as railcars, port capacity, and truck lifts. Having real-time transparency across the entire logistics network could help stakeholders make better decisions on how to deploy assets, route vehicles, and manage inventories. The Rail/Haulaway Visibility work group is moving in this direction by targeting congestion at the railheads, which I see as just a first step in a wider opportunity, which will require a high degree of collaboration.

Q: Drones in last-mile logistics…help or hype?

Swennes: I’ve been in the business long enough to remember a consultant once suggesting the use of dirigibles instead of ships to transport cars from Asia, so I can say I’ve heard crazier things. There is a good business case for drones in applications like site security, but I don’t think we will see them delivering Ram trucks anytime soon. 

Q: What recent supply chain development will have the greatest impact on your job?

Swennes: Perhaps not a recent development per se, but we are finally seeing some acceleration by the OEMs and suppliers on replacing legacy EDI-based data exchange processes in favor of web services and APIs. EDI is cheap and reliable but not really up to task for the types of real-time use cases we increasingly are facing.

Q: What are your top supply chain predictions for 2021 and beyond?

Swennes: After all we have been through, I would love to predict that 2021 will be reassuringly boring — but I would likely be wrong. I don’t think I’m going too far out on a limb, but with the adoption of 5G cellular networks, a world of possibilities is opening up in IoT connectivity. This will supercharge the ability to manage networks in real-time to a degree we have not seen before.