Annual report Maintenance's Sujuva produces results
Between 2010−2015, maintenance services has created the SUJUVA (Suoraan Junat Valmiiksi, Getting Trains Instantly Ready) management system that is based on Lean thinking. Lean thinking is a management philosophy that focuses on removing unproductive operations. This aims to improve quality and decrease operational costs while also shortening lead times in production.
The different tools of Lean have been widely adopted in maintenance services. Sujuva has progressed by growing individual expertise and self-building operating models. The management system has challenged employees to think about their work more critically while providing the tools and possibilities for developing it better than before. The results can be gradually seen and the maintenance service personnel's expertise and commitment to Sujuva are on a high level.
The implementation of Sujuva has made the working habits in maintenance services even more participatory than before. For example, personnel have played a key role in designing working spaces, modulating the maintenance system and deciding work orders. At the early stages of Sujuva’s implementation, it was decided that individual expertise would be a key focus area, and now many units can creatively utilise different Lean tools for new purposes.
Improved satisfaction and safety
A great deal of employees think about their work in more development-oriented way than before. Especially mechanics have found that Sujuva has provided concrete benefits for realising improvements to their own work, and this has been an important result of the new operating model. The development of work methods and approaches has affected job satisfaction and occupational safety, as it is more satisfying and efficient to work when you can find your tools and when they are in good condition. The actual figure for increased efficiency in individual maintenance projects is at best 20−35 per cent per year. These developments have strongly focused on the main products, i.e. maintenance projects with the greatest workloads.
In several units, daily management has developed into a comprehensive solution for the whole depot or machine shop. At best, information and decisions travel systematically up and down the organisational stairs multiple times a day. Even great distances do not necessarily pose an obstacle for managing work. Even at this moment, work can be effectively managed daily, even though the offices might be hundreds of kilometres apart.
Decision-making and systematic problem solving have developed over the years and now there are tens of trained and skilled problem solvers in the organisation. Continuous improvement has become a concrete part of everyone's daily work life. In addition, daily management has unified the organisations and strengthened the internal team spirit. Even management has changed significantly through daily management as the agreed-upon themes are processed through the organisation daily.
There has been development in all units, despite the units being on different stages of the process in different areas. Sujuva is about solving problems and each unit has slightly different problems that should be focused on.
