Scania Production System
The Scania Production System (SPS) is a powerful instrument for increasing productivity and it plays an important part in Scania’s success. With limited investments, the same number of employees at production units can build more vehicles.
One example is Scania’s cab production unit in Oskarshamn, Sweden. From 2004 to 2007, productivity there increased by 50 percent, from 20 to 30 cabs per employee annually.
The purpose of SPS is to make Scania’s production more efficient and to eliminate waste in all respects. It is anchored in the everyday consciousness since it has been developed in our own workshops. The most important factor is every employee’s learning, knowledge, experience and keenness to continuously improve his or her work.
Everyone participates in improvements
The employees are encouraged to find deviations. A deviation is a disturbance that prevents production from running optimally. By identifying deviations it is also possible to do something about them.
Employee dedication is crucial in improving efficiency. Setting aside time to work with continuous improvements is part of everyday operations in the production network. It means that large portions of Scania’s improvement work have shifted from engineers to production personnel.
Since Scania began working with SPS, sickness absenteeism has decreased markedly at the same time as productivity has shown a steady climb.
Values form the basis
SPS is based on three values that we have formed together: Customer first, Respect for the individual and Elimination of waste.
Offending a work colleague is a form of behaviour that is not compatible with our value of Respect for the individual. If anyone deviates from this value and behaves badly, we react. This is an example of how a value truly shapes what we do.
Four main principles of Scania’s Production System
• Normal situation – standardised working method: We have a normal situation when we work according to SPS and then we can easily note all deviations.
• Right from me: We do not accept, provide or pass on a deviation to our customer, regardless if it is an internal or an external customer.
• Consumption-controlled production: We do not start producing anything until a customer has signalled a need.
• Continuous improvement: This is all about challenging and improving the normal situation and of course correcting deviations so they do not recur.
