Volvo Truck Corportion

ABOUT CASE
VTC Is vertically integrated multinational org. Full range commercial vehicles from cars to trucks and buses . Engine plant at skovde (sweden)

Three distinct production enviroment

Process Manufacturing Assembly

Process environment
Foundry area , which is a capital intensive single-flow process implementing a JIT system. Maintenance workers highly mobile Teams are linked to distinct process areasmelting , forming, cleaning ,core making , heat treatment 50 employees with one supervisor with total responsibility (semi-autonomous) No team leader & no quality circle Only some job rotation

Manufacturing environment
Automated production in a multi-machine set up Finished shafts & casings are transferred from the foundry to either the D factory where they are machined into crankshafts ,transmission covers, & camshafts, or to the a factory where they are machined into cylinder heads & cylinder blocks.

In both the plants

Teams are organized around specific production lines Payment is linked to linked to the achievement of competences Providing more cost effective production environment

Continud
Operators are released to performed indirect task associated with material supply ,qul. House keeping , and task allocation with in teams. Operators are responsible for some control programming function (quality , machine set up & retooling ) Team ,Make it own Continuous improvement Teams rather managers, which are responsible for solving quality problems .

Assembly
Automated elements production Engines go into one of the 12 docks in which the customized elements are added manually . Manual loading & unloading(start and end of the process ) Use roller system ( record information every time an operation carried out .

Cotinued ..
Umea plant situated in northern sewden Which cut , presses, assembles and paints to delivered to assembly plants in sweden, belgium and scotland . Production combination of flow line & dock tech. There are two operators per station with a floating ninth person who also acts as teams leader and an operator replacement as and when requaired. Team leader are not rotated Operate as a blue-collar worker & reduce supervisors Deciding get rid of people & juggling labour shortages .

Observes by manager
We cannot expect a guy to be a craftsman when he is doing the same job 15 or 20 times a day . If you expand the expand the work it will give value. I am not talking about doing the usual work for two hours instead of 30min , I am talking of adding more complicated work outside the usual work by expanding frontiers

In your view, is it right to appoint a team leader like it is done at VTCs umea plant? Is the concept of a floating ninth person suitable in a facility?

In which department of the skovde plant do you find approach to job design the best ?

Why does vtc have different sets of responsibilities for operators in the process, manufacturing , and assembly departments of its skovde plant ?