Group working at Volvo Olofström

Reports

63

REPORTS Group working at Volvo Olofstrijm

of a sharp Against a background increase in labour turnover for the whole of the Volvo organisation in 1979 (to 12%-up 4%), it is interesting to plant at examine a particular Olofstriim. This had the lowest turnover of all Volvo plants, at 4.9%, (and it was only 3.3% in the previous year). Volvo has been among the pioneers of group working. The new plant at Kalmar, for final assembly of cars, has received much publicity and is the undoubted showpiece of the company. Excellent though conditions are, the results have not reached the high expectations of its progenitors: the labour force, in an area unaccustomed in mass production working to factories, is only lukewarm in its reaction-turnover and absenteeism are only marginally less than in the conventional factories at Torslanda, near Gothenburg. In contrast, Olofstriim has a long history of industrial activity in the metal-working field. The present operations are concerned with subimmediately the assemblies, so glamour of the finished product at Kalmar is lacking. To simplify the picture, operations can be regarded as functions, taking having two main place either in a heavily mechanised press shop, or in the assembly shops. Both are potentially noisy and physitally arduous. The press shop has been largely automated, and now lends itself fairly working. The readily to group assembly shop is a collection of heterogeneous processes, where the technical problems of automation are more difficult to solve within economic

FUllJRES

FabNay

1981

constraints but, even so, a number of projects satisfactory have been completed. Some involve mechanical buffers to release the operators from continuous dictates of the the machines. Robots are under active development, with 50 in use by 1980 and a further 70 on the drawing board. Group working is also being developed continuously. The magnitude of the problem can be seen from Table 1; a 40% labour turnover occurred in the press shop in 1974. The concepts underlying group working are that, by extending the job content and by involving the operators in local decision-making, boredom will be replaced by an active interest in the Absenteeism and personnel job. turnover would then be reduced. There are also social consequences of the desirability of people determining at least part of their own day-to-day destiny; or maybe it is the feeling that is important than more the actual In some plants, group decision. working has become an important element in shop floor democracy. Both the blueand white-collar unions (LO and TCO repectively) at Olofstriim recognise the advantages of group working, but comment that some workers feel the democracy is too TABLE

1. IABOUR TURNOVER AT PRESS SHOP AT VOLVO, 0LOFSTRC)M

Year 1971

% 11

Year 1976

% 20

1973 1972 1974 1975

3:0

1978 1977 1979

: 11

20

64

Reports

weighted in favour of the cornpan) view: the unions are themselves trying to convert these people. The): arc agreed that it is a good idea to discuss within the group methods ofmaking the job easier, particularly since this procedure seems one of the better ways ofcounteracting boredom. ;\I1 are agreed on the changed attitude to quality control. Before group working was in operation, quality control was regarded as a policing function, from which defects should if possible be concealed or at any rate not disclosed. Now quality control is discussed openly in a problem-solving spirit, a change much appreciated in the quality control department as well as by management. There is general regret that group working has been largely confined to the shop floor. One reason advanced is that the company behaves as a matrix with ‘IX:0 organisation, many members being closely associated with shop floor groups in a specialist capacity. as planners or engineers for instance. TCO members have also been involved in special projects, such as goal setting for budget purposes. But equally, there are many TCO for whom there is 110 members invohrement. One of the few initiatives from office when some 50 workers occurred female secretaries, working in different locations throughout OlofstrGm, met together to discuss various aspects of In effect, they became a their jobs. pressure group to upgrade their own job, so they are now authorised to approve expense accounts and certain invoices. The same women followed this success with a drive for a wordprocessing machine, the selection of which became their responsibility. The unions would be critical of a management that failed to invest in the best technology; the present attitude is that the technology must first be decided, and then the manning levels will follow as a natural consequence. It

is perhaps easier to adopt this stance in Olofstrijm where, e\.rn in 1980. unemployment in a town of 16 000 amounted to only 150 population women and 50 men. .Zt this lr\,el ot unemploy-ment. there \vas little call for training courses run by the Labour XIarket Board (LIRI.). but some 5% 01‘ the blue-collar workers had ‘gone back to school’ for further education. ‘I‘(:(> the white-collar that acknowledge has got out of step, and manning expect 200 of the present 1 200 jobs to disappear over the next five years. It is paradoxical that, in spite of a low le\,el the firturr is unemployment, of expected to 1)~ a struggle thr survi\,al. Group working is regarded as an important factor in the performance of the works. and therefbre in the survi\.al plan; so important that it cannot be left to develop or fail as a result of chance. In a critical situation. the Swcdes turn to analysis as well as action. .1 study of the status of ,group working has been conducted by an outside consultant working alongside Olofstriim reprea ftiature being that the sentati\.es. stud). is not an exercise in passive reporting but seeks an active role in promoting an extension of’ the concept. The fi\,e levels of activity shown in Table 2 had been earlier identified: naturally, not all groups are on the same level and probably never will be, but the target for 1980 is decided& ambitious. In due course. it will be interesting to compare performance with target. physical There are no obvious there should be the reasons wh) disparity in achievement indicated in Table 2. One of the groups with the biggest degree of freedom from the production line is still on level 2, instead of level 4 or 5 as theory would suggest: this is a relatively new group, whereas the only group on level 5 is one of the original groups, dating back to 1970. In general, many of the groups on level 2 are working on assembly lines where the operators are more tied to the

women more process. There are workers on these lines, but this is not believed to be a significant factor, although women have been less active in group working so far. In the spring of 1980, at an early stage in the investigation, a two-hour meeting was held with each group, to establish the operating level of the group against the check fist of Table 3. The chairmen of the discussions were either a manager, a foreman, or the consultant. In the few cases where agreement could not be reached, a ruling was given by the chairman. If the TABLE 2. DEVELOPMENT

group was enthusiastic for further development, two days training offthe-plant were given for them to formulate an action plan. Some 50 groups were thus involvrd. Two already well advanced groups on the press lines undertook training in economics. LYhat is clear is that the foreman has a kev role; he must be enthusiastic regarding group working but? without a responsive group, he can achieve little. Progress meetings are held at monthly roughly three intervals. r%‘ritten reports or proposals are kept to

OF WORKING GROUPS IN VOLVO, OLOFSTR&vl

No of groups on this level Level

1978

Added functions

1

Working as a group

: 4 5

~~~~~sibili~ for planning Job rotation increased possibility of making own decisions and of developing responsibility

TABLE 3. CHECKLIST OF ACTIVITIES

2 30 2 1

Spring 1888 :

“??lZd 1;

4:

1

: 4

FOR GROUP WORKING AT VOLVO, 0LOFSTRC)M

Level 5

4

3

2

1 0 : l

: 0 : 0 : 0 0 : l : :

FUTURES

5

-y

1w

Production Questions of safety and order Report activites Control of production order Die setting Contact at breakdowns Contactman against work study regarding payment Man the line Introduce new line group members Make adjustings and maintenance Preventive maintenance Planning and coordinate resources. Contact with plan. department Classify parts to adjustment or scrap Divide manpower within given time Quality check Report production and pay dates Utilii job-rotation Report correct and infomr reported dates Personnel ant. Needs for educati ~~n~f~~n reseive contactman

66

Reports

TABLE 4. WAGE STRUCTURE

PROPOSED AT VOLVO, OLOFSTRiiM

Percentage of pay 75-84 13 lZ5

IN 1976

Make up Basic pay, determined by job evaluation relative to environment and responsibility Individual merit Training Depending on level of working group Productivity Quality

a minimum, being replaced by verbal presentations which are recorded in a set of minutes. The pay scheme of Table 4 enables an extra 7% to be earned at the highest level of group working. It also enables 10 to 15% extra to be earned for productivity and quality performance, but only 300 out of 3 000 workers are in the productivity scheme: LO are not happ? about this seems its extension aspect, so unlikely. The size of a working group can vary between 5 and 30, depending on the degree of mechanisation of the production unit; the average is about 19. .A foreman is usually responsible for two production lines. Under the i\lBL arrangements, corresponding to each of the 56 foremen there is an ombudsman and a safety steward. There are

News from the Shanghai Under the sponsorship of the general director (Du Tagong) of the Chinese Society for Futures Studies the Shanghai Group of the Chinese Society for Futures Studies was established in October 1979. Most of the 40 members of this group are middle-aged, interested in social and natural sciences, and include college lecturers, research fellows, engineers, authors, editors, journalists, and translators. Since its establishment, the emphasis of its work has been the preparation of

five managers in Olof‘striim and, corresponding to each of them, there is an ;ZIBL group. Finally, there is a works hlBL group acting as a coordinator. Parallel with the lZlBL structure, there is a negotiating organisation, often containing the same people but functioning differently. Fifteen workers in Olofstriim are concerned almost fulltime with these activities, “Official from the work place absences” average about 4% of working time. Throughout \‘olvo, the working ofunion arrangements cost a total of E2.2m in 1979, or just under 0.1% of the sales turnover. H. G. Jones Operational Research Department University ofStrathclyde Glasgow. l:K

branch reports on the education of only sons or daughters, education in the future, etc; on publishing a popular journal about futures studies, called Futureworld; and calling on all members to write or translate books or articles on futures studies. The main purpose of Futureworld is to knowledge scientific communicate about the future and development. It may also cover articles on our four and programmes, modernisation science fiction about the future world. It

FUTURES

Febnmy

1961