The ‘Southern Stars’ team from the Scania workshop in Prestons in the southwest of Sydney has won the title of the world’s best Scania service team.
The Australians defeated skilled service teams from New Zealand and Finland in the Scania Top Team 2013 world finals held in Södertalje, Sweden, last weekend.
The world’s ten most skilled Scania service teams participated in the Scania Top Team 2013 world finals and teams from Australia, Finland and New Zealand scored highest in the semi-finals on Friday to merit a spot in the final knock-out round, with team Southern Stars from Australia eventually taking the top spot.
Scania Top Team began as a Swedish national training event in 1989 and has evolved over the years to become the international event it is today. This year, more than 8,000 service technicians and parts experts from 63 countries took part. The 2013 event was the ninth Scania Top Team event held.
“Unbelievable,” team leader Phillip Sage commented on the team’s victory. “It’s the best experience ever. We had great teamwork. We never got stressed. We knew we could do it.”
The finals were closely followed by 400 on-site spectators, including the finalists from Argentina, Austria, Germany, Italy, Peru, Slovakia and Switzerland.
Harald Cederberg, Director Technical Training at the Scania Academy, has followed Top Team for many years: “As more and more countries take part in Scania Top Team, training hours increase,” he commented. “As a result, the organisation develops and the service staff’s proficiency grows.”
Cederberg also pointed out that the teams that have made it all the way to the finals work in a more structured way than they did before. “The teams have only gotten better over the years,” he said.
“We may have just crowned a winner for 2013, but Top Team continues to be a process aimed at improving our workshop services globally.”
The Australian team members were Phillip Sage, Graham Andrews, Michael Farrell, Logan Hoser and Benn Jeffery. They took home the first prize of EUR 50,000 (ca. A$74,000).