Published on: 2026-11-04
Source: KAMAZ – An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.
In October, the Professional Skills Contests “Best Master” and “Best Mentor” were held at the Repair and Tool Plant of PJSC KAMAZ.
The competition for the title of best master is held annually at RIZ. This time, 21 specialists participated. In the theoretical part, contestants had to calculate OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) for lathe and milling machines, as well as determine labor productivity in the team over a month. Each master was given an individual task, and the calculation results had to match control figures. Participants also solved quality management problems. They needed to conduct a conversation with imaginary team members. The master must understand what built-in quality is and be able to clearly present this information to subordinates. The contestants were also graded on this by the jury. Another stage was a conversation with an employee wishing to resign. The masters acted out scenes convincing the employee to stay on the team. The highest scores here were awarded to those who provided strong arguments and real-life examples.
The participants’ performances were evaluated by a competent jury. The commission members noted that this year, in addition to experienced masters, newcomers also took part in the competition, showing high results. According to the contest results, Alina Eliseeva took first place, Pavel Arefyev second, and Galina Chertkova third.
The next day, a mentors’ competition took place. Such a contest was organized at the factory for the first time. It involved 14 representatives of various professions: a milling machine operator, an electrician, a logistics operator, and so on. The competition consisted of two stages. In the first, participants took a one-hour test on the topic “Mentor Preparation.” In the second part, they faced practice: entering a kaizen classroom, each drew a sheet with a case on a specific topic. Contestants had five minutes to prepare and then conduct a conversation with an employee who had violated discipline, occupational safety requirements, or product quality standards. Here, the jury evaluated the mentor’s ability to communicate with employees and find keys to problem-solving.
According to the competition results, the prize places were distributed as follows: the winner was Natalia Blinova, a 5th-grade electrical fitter for electrical equipment repair at the electromechanical workshop; second place went to Lenar Garipov, a 6th-grade milling machine operator at Tool Shop 1; and closing the top three was Timur Klimov, a 5th-grade milling machine operator at the tooling manufacturing workshop.
At the meeting with RIZ Director Valery Alekseev, chairwoman of the plant’s trade union Veronika Stepanova, Deputy Director of Personnel Alla Zhogoleva, and Chairwoman of the KAMAZ Masters Council Tatyana Bobonazarova, the factory workers received well-deserved awards.
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