A highly motivated team from Scania’s company-owned Dandenong branch has taken out this year’s Australian National Top Team competition once again in a tournament that included the use of virtual reality tests for the first time.
The team will now travel to Bangkok early next year to contest the Asian Regional finals, while the two top teams in that will then go to Sweden for the world finals.
In line with advances in heavy vehicle technology both on trucks and buses but also within the workshop environment, this year’s challenges included working using a virtual reality headset, as well as in a simulated outback roadside, diagnosing and fault fixing in the dark, assisted only by wearable illumination and immersed in surround sounds of a busy freeway.
Other challenges included fault finding on a marine engine, a route bus and an electronic circuit, plus completing a written theoretical exam. All tests were against the clock and required seamless teamwork and logical deductive reasoning in order to successfully complete the tasks.
While Team Dandenong under the leadership of Chris Chilver took home overall honours for the second event in a row, Pinkenba Queensland’s team were runners up with third place claimed by a team largely comprising apprentices from Scania Eastern Creek, aptly named the “Underdogs”.
Captain of the winning Dandenong Team Chris Chilver says that this year’s national finals were the toughest of the four he’s done across his career.
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“We had good team spirit; we weren’t put off if we had a low score from one of the stations when we went to the next one. We held together as a team. It was evident that it was going to be a tough event, so we just buckled down. We allocated each team member to the tasks that best used their strengths. I think we worked quite well together,” Chris says.
“Our team has over 100 years of Scania experience between us all: Danny Manak’s got 30 years, Bede Hutchinson has 35 years, as has Frank Jurinec, I’ve got 15, and Kaelan Johnston’s been in it for five years, and we all have different strengths.
“We were absolutely stoked to win again. We take this competition seriously. We practice a lot. We always go into it wanting to win. Last time in 2023, we lost out in the Bangkok Regional Finals by just one point, which was quite devastating. So, we have our sights set on getting to the World Finals in Sweden this time.”
It wasn’t all nuts and bolts, though, with the Scania Dunk Truck providing some welcome basketball action and teamwork in the sunshine during the day, while in the evening, a ‘Prison Break’ Challenge at Melbourne’s historic Pentridge Prison previewed a gala dinner where the awards were presented.
Seven teams from Scania’s Australian company-owned network of branches took part in the national finals following a knockout round involving a further eight teams from around the nation.
“Top Team is a global Scania initiative that celebrates and develops the professionalism of our service teams, strengthening technical capability, efficiency, and collaboration within our workshops,” Scania Australia director of aftersales Stefan Weber says.
“The success of our Eastern Creek Underdogs team of apprentices shows that Scania’s technical workforce has a very bright future. Their impressive result highlights the depth of talent and technical understanding within our next generation of Scania technicians — a strong sign of the future excellence growing across our network.
“Teams study in their own time in the lead-up to the knockout rounds and the national finals, honing their skills and knowledge of Scania mechanical and electrical system, as well as being able to work as a team to trace faults and rectify them. This has real world benefits in the workshop in their day-to-day activities as well as supporting our corporate value of ‘Customer First’ and maximising uptime for the operators of our trucks, buses and engines.”
This year’s tournament also focused on cutting edge technology through the introduction of a virtual reality headset-based challenge.
“While this technology has been widely used in gaming, Scania is adapting the environment for training technicians to understand how to inspect and diagnose virtually,” Scania product support and training manager Jason Grech says.
“Reinforcing our focus on cutting edge technology, this year we introduced a virtual reality headset-based challenge that fosters good VR hand and eye coordination.
“The challenge in the dark simulates the operating environment experienced by our roadside assistance crews, who have to diagnose and rectify faults in unfamiliar terrain, often with cars rushing past them, as opposed to the usual repair situation in a calm, well-lighted workshop.
“Electronic fault-finding skills are also a critical part of any workshop, even allowing for the sophistication of diagnostic tools, and following the correct protocols ensures timely rectification.”
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