Word: kalmar
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...shown for tedious, repetitive factory jobs. In the U.S. and other countries, that attitude is reflected in heavy absenteeism and high turnover among factory work forces, poor-quality production and occasional strikes by workers desperate to get away from the line for a while. Volvo's system at Kalmar is attracting worldwide attention as an imaginative effort to set up a factory that will keep workers interested while busy...
Instead of a clanking, high-speed conveyor line, the Kalmar plant uses 250 "carriers"-18-ft.-long computer-guided platforms that glide silently over the concrete floor. Each carrier delivers the frame for a single Volvo 264 to each of the plant's 25 work teams. The teams consist of 15 to 25 workers who are responsible for a certain aspect of assembly; one team, for example, will install the car's electrical system and another will work on the interior finish...
...teams organize themselves as they wish and work at the speed they choose. While a worker on a conventional assembly line might spend his entire shift mounting one license-plate lamp after another, every member of a Kalmar work team may work at one time or another on all parts of the electrical system-from taillights to turn signals, head lamps, horn, fuse box and part of the electronically controlled fuel-injection system. The only requirement is that every team meet its production goal for a shift. As long as cars roll out on schedule, workers are free to take...
...Kalmar system was worked out by Pehr Gyllenhammar, Volvo's managing director (see box). Three years ago, when he stepped in as chief executive, he had to cope with an incredibly high labor turnover rate. At Volvo's main assembly plant near Goteborg, turnover reached an annual rate of 41% in 1971, even though the company pays some of the highest wages in Swedish industry...
Gyllenhammar assigned a task force of young executives (all under 30) to design a new plant where "machines would be the product of people and not vice versa." After two months of intensive work and study the group presented its plan. Kalmar (pop. 53,000) was chosen as a site in large part because of its high unemployment rate. Ground was broken in 1972, and 19 months later the first team-made model Volvo rolled out of the workshops...