Scania Lean Leadership

A slow journey of Reflection

D. Paul Scarbrough

From Decision-making machine to Developer of people.

Scania Plant Manager Rutger de Vries 20 years experience with Scania 11 years with Lean [SPS] Nationality: Dutch We asked Rutger a series of questions about leadership in lean. The first was What is different from the non-lean environment? [click the link to see his
replies] http://spartan.ac.brocku.ca/~pscarbrough/Scania6/Scania6-11.mp4
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How do you influence your employees? Rutger: My most powerful tool is to Challenge them

http://spartan.ac.brocku.ca/~pscarbrough/Scania6/Scania6-12.mp4
Click for complete response

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What is an example of something you do not do any longer?

Rutger: Make and study detailed budgets.

http://spartan.ac.brocku.ca/~pscarbrough/Scania6/Scania6-13.mp4
Click for complete response
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What happened to the power of senior managers?

Rutger: I cannot really answer that. I do not feel I have much power, only responsibility. What do you do now that would be considered wrong in the old system?
Rutger: Walk to the floor to see the real problems and real process. That would have been criticized in the past. People would have asked why I was wasting time on the floor.
http://spartan.ac.brocku.ca/~pscarbrough/Scania6/Scania6-14.mp4
Click for complete response
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As a senior manager, how do you spend your day?

Rutger: About half the time is on the floor and half in meetings, many of which are on the floor also.

http://spartan.ac.brocku.ca/~pscarbrough/Scania6/Scania6-15.mp4
Click for complete response
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What do you do that is waste? Rutger: Most of what I do is waste. I do not make trucks so I do not add value. I hope that I am helping people to make trucks.
http://spartan.ac.brocku.ca/~pscarbrough/Scania6/Scania6-19.mp4
Click for complete response
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What were you most reluctant to do when you started Lean?

Rutger: I did not dare to challenge my workers to attempt difficult tasks before Lean. Within Lean, however, we all understand the need to take on big challenges at all levels. This is a clear and significant difference. We are much more able and willing to take on significant challenges.
http://spartan.ac.brocku.ca/~pscarbrough/Scania6/Scania6-23.mp4
Click for complete response
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When will Scania master lean?

http://spartan.ac.brocku.ca/~pscarbrough/Scania6/Scania6-36.mp4
Click for complete response
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At Scania Leadership is a top-of-mind topic

Managers and workers have very clear opinions on leadership, and are ready to share their thoughts.

All interviews at Scania have a remarkable consistency no matter what country.

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Changes after SPS:

The major difference is communication between everyone. .. now the operators have more information and they are expecting to have a dialogue about what is going on. They give ideas and feedback too. We ask the guys a lot of things that they didnt do before, but also give them a lot more information and responsibilities. So I think that's a big change. (Supervisor, San Bernardo, Brazilian)
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SPS is not a success but a beginning. After working with SPS for three years we thought that we knew it all, but now, after 12 years I can see very clearly that we have a lifetime of learning aheadwe have only just begunthere will never come a time when we can say We have mastered this. Sometimes I think about what we used to do before SPS and I cannot understand why we were doing those thingswhy we thought that was work. Plant Manager
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Scania shares with Japanese companies the fact that Scania members feel that there is a Scania way.
This feeling preceded their use of TPS. We have often been told by Swedes at Scania that there is something in the walls here that impacts what we do and how we act.
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MbM is described in the book Profit beyond Measure by Johnson and Brms (2000) which uses Scania as an example of good processes.

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Scania leadership innovations

Middle and Senior plant managers have developed several leadership practices in the period from 2006 to today. All appear to have roots in internal management debates. Management by Means [MBM] appears to be a strong controlling element in application of the SPS to management itself
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The following 7 innovations are particularly interesting

Innovation Location/Timeline Pedal cars lab for manager training Zwolle Sodetelje Brazil Position standards for managers at Daily meetings Twice daily mgmt pulse in addition to Daily meeting cascade SPS book closing Management inspection and participation in position standards (element standards) Position Standards system for management actions Infomate unit-wide Obeya Zwolle Zwolle

JAMAC

Oscar. Sode. Zwolle Angers (very early stages) Zwolle

Independently at Zwolle and Angers? Infomate R&D Factory

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The pedal car factory is a fully functioning factory in a Scania plant that is used to teach SPS methodsmainly to managers. Originated at Zwolle, there is now one in all Scania plants as well as in the Swedish office of the consultancy JMAC.

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Convince, collaborate and cooperate

There is a pervasive belief that the SPS manager is a collaborator not a boss.
In Brazil this is seen as a key Swedish characteristic.
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Convince, collaborate and cooperate

A female operator who has worked 13 years at Scania in Brazil explains how you get things done within Scania.

..It is all about discussing the issue and to [be] able to convince the other person. . You have to convince and be direct with the other person. (Operator, Sao Bernardo do Campo, Brazilian)

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Convince, collaborate and cooperate

When I started with Scania, we had a boss, and he was at the office. And he said don't use your brains. He said that to the mechanics. When you look to the leaders that you need now, they must have fairly good coaching competence, training competence, and the train the trainer concept of user in Scania. So, we need another kind of leaders today. Not the John Waynes of the past, but people who love to train, to coach people, to work with them together. And have to be a good team coach. That's the new leader. (Operator, Zwolle. Dutch)
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Convince, collaborate and cooperate

Because one of the things I'm pushing for is that we need to be proud of the process and the organization and not just the product. Interviewer: Can you give me an example of how you do that? [Continued, next slide] (Production Manager, Anger, Swedish)
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Interviewee: How I push that? I mean, by inviting and making it possible for all our coworkers to be involved in our improvement process. What I say to the improvement group, what you are here, is that you are La Direction. La Direction, that is very important in France. That is the management group. When I tell them, you are La Direction for those two stations. That's your station, it's your process, and you are the management team for those stations. The changes started to happen. (Production Manager, Anger, Swedish)

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Convince, collaborate and cooperate

line worker: I believe it's very much about the question of leadership, even if we have Brazilian people [here] that like to be bosses, we have several Swedes in leadership positions. So, they show, indirectly, that bossing people is not the only thing that you have to think about when you are a leader. So, we have this example from them. We feel that with Swedish people the leader does not have power over the others like we have here in Brasil.

Within Scania, if the worker does not agree with what you are asking for, it doesn't matter that the boss is asking, its not going to happen. This is what we understand of the relationship down here [in Brasil]. You cannot contact the boss in order to have someone do what he does not want to do. You have to convince them, collaborate and cooperate. [Operator, Sao D. Paul Scarbrough 23 Paolo]

Convince, collaborate and cooperate

Interviewer: It seems[from a prior answer] like SPS (Scania Production System) is very sensitive to the relationships between the managers and the workers and it looks like that the company becomes more dependent on the workers in an SPS-environment. Is that correct?
Interviewee: Yes. Very much. Today the workers suggest more and more improvements.. If you have a problem with the relationship, then no more improvements, no more suggestions. Before the SPS, the supervisor was not talking to the workers. [Supervisor, Sao Paulo]
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Continued: Today, it is necessary for the supervisor to ask: "OK, people, it is necessary to improve your area. Who has suggestions to improve? What's your feeling to change your area, to improve production, to improve safety, to improve quality?" And a line worker says "Oh, I have one suggestion." And then the supervisor and line worker walk over to the whiteboard, [supervisor:] "OK, who is responsible for this activity, this task?" [worker:]"OK, I am responsible the line worker said and then an engineer from process engineering volunteered also. The line worker from production and the engineer worked together and over several weeks improved the task together.

So this event not only improved the process, but also the relationship between the workers, leaders and support functions, because the main thing is improving the relationship, then it's easier to work the areas are concentrating their forces in one direction. That's very good. [Supervisor, Sao Paulo]

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Convince, collaborate and cooperate We [the workers] like to facilitate our own work and the SPS improves that. Because the guys, before ... [The manager goes on to play act his example:]

[Manager:] Oh you need to improve. [Operator:] Improve what? [Manager:] Oh improve that. [Operator:] What? Improve that? [Manager:] Ah, yes that's necessary to improve. [Operator:] Not good for me. [Manager:] But why is not good? [Operator:] Oh it's not good for me. (Manager Trucks, Sao Paulo)
This imagined exchange indicates that just asking for improvements did not work. The immediate follow up statement provides the managers interpretation as to how the SPS impacted the request for improvements: Once we started with the SPS, [then] the guys understood. OK, that is necessary change because of this and this. And the way you offer work is to change that, that, and that. And the guys learn to organize the ideas. To put in practice more, I think. (Manager Trucks, Sao Paulo)
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Convince, collaborate and cooperate

So today, the SPS have improved the relationship between the workers and the leadership and the managers. Improvement activities has connected the maintenance, the engineering, the logistics and the operators and improved their relationships.

It is also easier to work because the awareness of that everybody is concentrating their efforts in one direction. That's very good. (Operator, Sao Paulo)
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Individual Initiative

Interviewee: In purchasing, we can see something like that. Managers who had experience in production, and today they're in purchasing, trying to do something there as well. Every group has [Daily Report] boards and they have, I think, maybe something happening in purchasing, like that. Interviewer: But, it's the individual contribution. Not a plan to... Interviewee: I think so. It's not a plan from Scania, yeah. (Employee in Logistics department, Sao Paulo)

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Respect for people

Yes... at Scania, we invest in people. I think that's a part of the culture that Scania value the individuals and therefore invests in people. The expectation is that we believe in people, and that's good for me to believe in people. It is important to believe in people and invest in people. That is the principle. (Brasilian Middle Manager, Sao Paulo)
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It is very difficult to schedule overtime. Almost all of the operators are in University or College or taking additional courses in the evening--and we encourage this. If we were to mandate overtime and they missed class we would be violating our principles about learning and education so we cannot mandate overtime. This causes us [managers] great difficulty but we have never violated our commitment. (Assistant Plant Manager, Sao Paulo)
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Being there
Combating entropy in production
Managers and workers both feel that managers must spend the bulk of their time at the production site. This is a part of the coaching metaphor. To coach is to be in the same place as the player.

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Being there

I mean, the manager has to change the behavior from the authority level to a coaching level. So the skills are very different now. But we also find that people are participating. (Workshop Manager, Sao Paulo)

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Being There

Interviewer: You seem to have been creating a way to behave towards each other, is that correct? Interviewee: that is a good observation, a good example that helped was when we realized how to change a culture, or change the behavior-- as a matter of fact, of course, to be an example is one of the leadership skills that is the most important. Walk the way you talk. If you don't want them to smoke in the shelters after a break, then you should not stand there yourself. If you give yourself to the operation, then people are not afraid to come back with things, to make things discussable. (Logistics manager, Zwolle. Dutch)
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Continued.. What I still sense is that it's not completely natural for people to overload you with improvements or this kind of thing. We still need to coach, to manage, to trigger by being there, and creating these discussions with them, asking them questions: "Why do you do it like that? How do you see it?" So yeah, I think that is also a little bit the direction in which my colleagues and myself are coaching and managing the plant right now. (Logistics manager, Zwolle. Dutch)

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Being There

At the Zwolle plant managers each work on one station per day for about 30 minutes.

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Being There

Worker outcomes [unprompted]:

Very positive about the manager participation process.

After a manager has worked a station he is significantly more likely to respond quickly to any problem or suggestion. It is valuable for the managers to see how difficult the tasks are. The importance of the Position Standards was much clearer to the worker.
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Being There

Interviewee: The role of supervisor and manager is more or less coaching their employees why are we using these standards. So looking if everybody is aware of this, of why they want to, or why they have to use the standard but also is aware of what is our value chain, completely-not only this production position but how is it connected to other production positions--and how can we do this improvement. And trying to challenge the employees: "OK what's your idea about it? How can we improve this?" (Line manager, Zwolle. Dutch)
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Being there

Plant Manager: No. What I think we will introduce is some sort of KPI that measures the number of [trucks] sold to deviations, or number of [trucks] sold to lines on the Kaizen journal.... Something like that, but I mean, you should not just only look at the KPI in this perspective. You need to be out, you need to feel, and you need to have discussions with the guys. Because, after 10 minutes, you feel it's a group, or not, and it's very much about if you feel that. We are talking about acting, being an actor in your own life, being an actor in your own process, being an actor in your own improvement group, that's what it is about.
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Being There

Interviewee: The difficult part for us is how to work within the system aside with the leadership... The core values are the same in the way we treat people. Then it is... How do you say in this in English? Attitude, behavior and impact. What people do is their behavior. But there is a kind of attitude that is integral to people, but you cannot see that. We see that in a certain behavior. What we now say is, what kind of behavior do we want? What we want, for instance, is an open way of communication; we want people to have a certain degree of integrity. Do we want them to be loyal, etc. If you see people who don't express this behavior, of course then we want to talk to the people. (continued, next slide) (SPS-coordinator, Zwolle, Dutch).
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Interviewer: How do you work with people in order to get to this point? Interviewee: How do you do that? By being there. That is the way. (SPS-coordinator, Zwolle, Dutch).

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end

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