As Scania bus and coach enters its second century, an Australian delegation visited the Scania production lines at Higer in China and Södertälje in Sweden
April 8, 2011
To celebrate the 100th anniversary of bus building by Scania a select group of 23 Australian customers and Scania Australia Bus and Coach Account Managers travelled to China and Sweden in February.
Scania Australia National Manager Bus and Coach Trevor O’Brien says the recent trip to Sweden was a good way to explain how Scania is gearing up for the next 100 years.
“Also, the trip to Higer was important because many of our customers had not seen this plant before and did not fully understand how massive it is,” he says.
“They were able to view the regular Higer production line and the Scania-Higer one and the differences in standard and expected quality levels were obvious to all.”
O’Brien says the tour party could see how Scania independently completes the demanding Body Builders Manual requirements for Quality Assurance and pre-delivery inspections before leaving China to ensure uniform and consistent high standards.
Premier Motor Service Managing Director John King says the trip showed Scania had a customer focus that flowed all the way to the top of the organisation.
“The Scania team is technology driven, they get the right product to market and they have excellent attention to detail,” King says.
“I was very impressed by the Scania organisation, and the trip gave me a better appreciation of the production process – Scania has a product range that is second to none.”
As well as taking in the Higer bus building plant, the party headed across Asia and Europe to the headquarters of Scania bus building in Södertälje, which included a walk around the research and development centre.
Despite the typically wintry weather in Sweden, and a cheerfully light dusting of snow, Karim Hussein from Blue Mountains Bus Co., was able to find a chassis that is destined for his fleet, at the factory.
He took pleasure in signing his name on the chassis as it stood outside, coated in a few inches of snow.
The K280UB Euro 5 is one of two destined for Australia and will be fitted with a Custom CB80 body.
As a reflection of the importance of Australia in the eyes of the Scania bus hierarchy in Sweden, the group had dinner with the head of bus operations, Melker Jernberg, and also met with his two product line directors Anders de Woon and Anders Liss.
The tour of the R&D facility included a walk around the stress lab.
Here a crankshaft was shown under a substantial longitudinal loading, to test its ability to flex, while there was dead silence in the acoustic chamber, which measures engines noise output.