Scania is one of the first Dutch companies to apply Lean throughout its organization. Reason enough to visit this supplier of transport solutions. To see with our own eyes how this company has created a culture where everyone focuses on continuous improvement.
When getting started with Lean, it is important to realize that it is a long-term endeavor. Another condition for a successful Lean implementation is that the management is fully behind it. Even if it means higher short term costs.
All decisions you make are based on a long-term vision. For example, it may be necessary to hire more employees now to get flow into the process so the product can be made at the right pace. Once the process is running well, improvements will allow you to become more efficient and produce more. Or if sales stay the same, do the work with fewer people.
When management focuses on the short term, Lean does not get off the ground. Another success factor is involving employees in improvements. The people doing the work are specialists in their specific jobs. They can therefore best make improvements themselves, with support, in the way they perform their work.
Important conditions when working with Lean:
Scania began in 1891 with the manufacture of railroad wagons and, in time, expanded the product portfolio to include machines, buses, cars, and the widely known trucks. At the Scania plant in Zwolle, the Netherlands, a complete truck rolls off the assembly line every 5 minutes, which is extra impressive when you consider that no truck is manufactured before it is sold.
From 1935 onwards, the company has scored only positive annual figures and that is not entirely coincidental. Scania soon adopted the Lean approach, and with results. By having employees and suppliers work together to continually improve the quality of processes, Scania creates the pillars on which the company rests:
Involve your employees in improvements. They are specialists in their own field and are the right people to continuously improve their own work, with or without support.
Senay Tekeli – head of SPS (Lean) department, Scania
“The customer doesn't want to pay for that!” A statement that comes up regularly during our visit to the Scania plant. The storage and movement of materials, employees who have to wait until the right raw materials are available, residues that remain after the production process but must be calculated into the final product.
All of these are costs the customer does not want to pay for. That is why Scania does not work with large warehouses and ditto stocks, but orders only what is needed at any given time. Material comes in and is assembled directly on the production line. Little to no inventory and minimum waste results in the lowest possible price for the customer.
In Scania's production process, the production workers – the team members – are the most important people in the company. If you look at the hierarchical representation of the organization, you see an inverted pyramid where the director sits at the bottom of the tip and looks up to the employees who contribute to making the products and providing the associated services. In doing so, they directly influence the production process, which positively affects the responsibility you feel for the end result.
Any employee can report a mistake made at any time during the workday by pulling a yellow rope. Not to be personally held accountable for it, but to investigate how this error occurred and especially to see how to prevent it in the future. Reporting an error to Scania is something to be "“proud” of, because it is an opportunity for improvement. Scania doesn't link errors to a specific person, but to the design of a process. After all, a perfect process doesn't have any mistakes.
They take pride in the fact that the yellow rope is now black with production hands pulling it to report an error. The moment someone notices an error, the entire production process is shut down. In practice, it is more efficient to stop the entire line with 500 production workers and correct the error immediately, than to wait with this until the truck rolls off the line and correct the error afterwards.
Scania's next step in Lean is to work on the way it leads. To help employees do this, the company is investing in training and coaching on this form of leadership that places responsibility for performing tasks as low as possible in the organization.
With supportive leadership, as a manager you assume that the employee knows what is needed to achieve a certain result. You check from time to time to hear if everything someone needs to achieve the desired goal is available. If not, you will arrange for it to be there. For example, materials that are missing, or supplementing a piece of knowledge or skill through training or additional guidance.
So with supportive leadership, the employee has a lot of responsibility, but as a manager, you ultimately remain responsible.
At Scania, we believe in supportive leadership as a catalyst for Lean. We place responsibilities as low as possible in the organization and also provide the necessary support.
Senay Tekeli – head of SPS department (Lean), Scania
The biggest challenge of practicing Lean is building commitment and support within the organization. By seeing employees in the production process as MIPs (Master In Process) and giving them responsibility and control, Scania creates an engaged and enthusiastic team.
A team that makes fast, high-quality products and avoids unnecessary waste. By successfully applying Lean, Scania creates optimal working conditions for employees and excellent and affordable products for the customer. Who wouldn't want that?