Historically, if a truck operator had a problem with a Scania he would report it to his local dealer, which would then tell the manufacturer. But Scania Sweden has decided that this process takes too long and so is considering ways to communicate directly with truck operators to identify design and build problems far more quickly.
Hasse Johansson, Scania's group vice-president in charge of research and development, speaking to CM during the recent Young European Truck Driver (YETD) finals
in Sodertalje, Sweden, says that while there is a reporting system directly to his department there are sometimes problems in getting the information back from dealers. He hopes to create a two-way flow of information directly between the operators and his team to reduce the time it takes to react to any potential problem.
Scania hopes minor problems can be identified and solved within 10 days. More serious design issues could take up to four months while "heavy" issues that need major re-engineering of the product could take four years before rectification, essentially when the next models are released, Johansson says. He is very clear that communication is the key ingredient in his job to make sure the R&D team is working on the right areas.
"It is very hard to solve a problem we are unaware of," he points out. Often it is the small, seemingly trivial issues that don't reach the ears of his team. During the YETD event Scania
designers and problem solvers played host to more than 50 drivers from all over Europe.
Taking the opportunity to talk to them and hear directly what drivers felt worked in the truck, and which design features were not up to the job, he is naturally slightly coy when pressed as to what features in Scania trucks drivers had felt were perhaps not quite adequate.
But he is prepared to admit that things such as switch positioning, cup holders and rubbish bins were among the issues raised. The evolution of the Scania range is a theme that Johansson keeps coming back to, pointing out that Scania no longer releases totally "new" models but revises and improves existing trucks.
"There is no point in changing every nut, bolt and rivet simply because we can. If it does the job well, why change it?" he asks. "Scania's aim is to be the product leader, not the technology leader."
Operators are wary of brand new models, expecting them to have problems that need to be worked out, while Scania's approach of continual improvement takes away some of that uncertainty, he says.
Johansson is obviously a man who takes his work very seriously and his quest for improvement in the product stretches further than his office. He reveals it is company policy for all the senior management to train for and obtain a licence to drive LGVs. And he often drives to his summer house 450km away from Scania's HQ in one of the company's commercial vehicles rather than his car to experience the truck in the real world away from the artificial test track environment.
Operators waiting for new trucks, and hoping that lead times would quickly shorten, will not be heartened to read that Scania hopes to increase production by 20% from 80,000 to 100,000 per annum, but is not planning to achieve all this increase until 2010.
There is to be no significant investment to achieve this growth in productivity; it will apparently be achieved by moving gearbox manufacturing from southern Sweden to Sodertalje and eliminating bottlenecks on the factory floor. Scania's factory in Brazil – set up to serve South America – will export 50% of its output to markets outside the region, although the manufacturer did not say in which areas of the world those trucks would ultimately end up.
Scania is constantly monitoring its production processes to improve efficiency and it is a little surprising to hear from Johansson that the company Scania benchmarks itself against is a car manufacturer. He cites its methods in production and continuous improvement in the product and technology as the reasons why Scania likes to compare its progress against Toyota.
Staying with the eastern theme, Johansson says the moves by Far Eastern truck makers towards the western markets, in particular the Chinese, have not gone unnoticed by the Swedish truck builder. Johansson points out that Scania has an excellent network of dealers, but if these new trucks can utilise many of the parts that existing European trucks use the need to create a hugely expensive network is negated.
While Scania sees the Far Eastern manufacturers as competition rather than a threat, he admits it "is watching the companies and their products very closely".
Speaking about the Young European Driver competition hosted by Scania, Johansson says running the event is not cheap – the finals cost in the region of €2m – but he freely admits that even with practice he would struggle to reach the high driving standards shown by the 27 finalists.
Johansson then comes back to the theme of communication, stating that road safety, driver professionalism and dedication are at the core of Scania's reasoning for holding the competition and taking that message to a wider audience outside the industry is vital to improve the image and status of drivers.
Reed Business Information Limited.©2008
