Last saturday was the first of two sessions where 17 of its best service teams from Asia, Oceania and the Middle East pit their technical skills against each other in the 2018 Scania Top Team Regional Finals. This event, which is a competition for Scania Service Technicians was held at the Scania Malaysia headquarters in Bukit Jelutong, Shah Alam. The regional finals features the best service technicians from Australia, Dubai, Iran, Myanmar, Taiwan, Thailand, India, Singapore, New Zealand, Abu Dhabi, Japan, Hong Kong, China, Philippines, Indonesia, South Korea and Malaysia.
The 2018 Scania Top Team competition is themed “Driving the Shift”. The competition is in line with Scania’s global commitment of being the leader in the inevitable shift towards a sustainable transport system. I was there to witness part of the competition and you could say that the Scania Top Team competition is an opportunity for the Service Technicians to develop and enhance their skills, knowledge, professionalism and teamwork. It is a means of technical personnel to develop themselves to another level and also a means of reward. As I usually state, this is the form of reward that a company gives its staff in the form of increased knowledge, a change to meet others within the network and the chance to have some bragging rights - as the best team mechanics for the region or even on a planetary level (global...but planetary just sounds so epic).
Anyway, this regional round sees winning teams from the Scania service network from the Asia, Oceania and Middle East. The teams are those which qualified in their respective National level competitions last year and they are now duking it out here in Malaysia where the top four teams will go to the Scania Top Team World Finals in Södertälje, Sweden in December of this year. There, they will compete against eight others to share a total prize amount of 100,000 Euros.
For the regional competition which the first part was held last weekend and the second part, this coming weekend, each five-member team will go through five practical technical challenges and five theoretical challenges stations during which they will be judged on areas such as logistics, methodology, technical knowledge, as well as team discipline and ability to work under pressure.
It is quite stressful to even watch the teams go through the troubleshooting process but one must note that the troubleshooting part of the competition is actually based on real life scenarios, so the teams taking part must be aware of the standard Scania operation procedures in terms of workbay safety and regulations as well as the standard troubleshooting methods that are used by them on a day to day basis whilst at work. When we were observing, you can see how they actually work. If they are used to following the proper procedures, they it should be easy in terms of prepping the vehicles prior to actual troubleshooting. Of course, in any competition, there is the factor of human error, which we managed to witness at the competition. I must say the judges are quite observant.
Malaysia is represented by the Scania Malaysia Ipoh branch team - Pendekar Penyu, while Singapore is represented by Scania Singapore, known as Team Dynamic that emerged as the winners during the Scania Top Team National Finals. These two teams are the teams that Scania Malaysia are rooting for. Why? These two countries are directly managed by Scania Malaysia!
Marie Sjödin Enström, Managing Director for Scania Southeast Asia (above, right, with Anders Gustafsson, Scania Regional Director for Asia and Oceania) said, “The Top Team Competition this year continues from previous years in enhancing the services skills of our service personnel. The technician’s work in maintaining the uptime of Scania vehicles is a key factor in sustaining the growth of our customer’s business and profitability.”
“There’s a real benefit to the customers in having motivated, competent teams who can attend to the customer’s vehicle as quickly and efficiently as possible, ensuring maximised availability as time is money and therefore good for.” added Marie.
Scania’s Regional Director for Asia and Oceania, Anders Gustafsson was also present on the day we were present. He mentioned that Asia has been identified by Scania as the company’s ‘third hub’ after Europe and Latin America. At the moment, Asia contributes only 15% of Scania's sales, the commercial vehicle company aims to double that figure in the next decade or so.
Anders also stated that each market has its own economic features, influenced by factors such as cultural aspects, country size and customer profiles. So in order to push into a market, Scania can separate this huge area into three broad categories.
“First of all, there are the countries in which Scania has had a presence for some time, such as Korea, Australia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore. There, the platform is fairly stable, with continuous growth similar to what Scania sees in some parts of Europe such as Sweden and the UK.”
“We see China, Thailand and Japan as having big growth potential. China sold one million trucks last year, three times that of Europe, but only around 5,000 of those vehicles were imported. Japan’s focus on premium quality suits the Scania strategy.” he added.
Aside from the main push mentioned above, there are the up-and-coming markets such as the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, and India. In the near future, it would seem that Scania will set their eyes on India from what was mentioned.
However, the folks at Scania have also mentioned that Asia is developing a bit differently from Europe. This is the issue of sustainability in all aspects. Scania is heavily invested in having a sustainable business. Anders stated that sustainability in Asia is driven less by customer demand and more by governments. It is up to the governments of countries in Asia to radically reduce unacceptable air pollution and traffic congestion levels to tackle issues of health, climate change and economic efficiency.
Of course, Scania does their part in investing in the people that work for them. Highly trained technicians can also contribute to the fuel economy of the vehicle as well as reducing CO2 emissions. Which is why competitions like the Scania Top Team is important to develop more personnel with proper skill and knowledge in the long run.
Other bits about Scania is that the company is always looking at the future of transportation that is getting more electrified, more connected and more automated as well as the use of alternative fuels like biodiesel and biogas. One thing I asked that Scania will not be doing anytime soon is divert their attention from the manufacturing of heavy duty trucks and buses. No, the Swedish company will stick to producing what they know best and not be producing baby Scania trucks...or buses. No babies. Just proper heavy duty trucks and buses.
They will however be producing more knowledgeable technicians in the long run by the looks of it. Some many eventually become the chief technician at the branch they work at. Some may even have even more ambition. Who knows what the future holds.
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