Wesam Patros, Parts Manager at Scania’s site in Erbil, Iraq

Ten years ago, he left Iraq to build a new future in Sweden. Recently he returned to Iraq as Parts Manager at Scania’s site in Erbil. Meet Wesam Patros.

 

At 11 years old, Wesam Patros was taught the watchmaking profession by his father. He remembers the techniques to this day, and he would still rather repair precision mechanical equipment himself than have someone else do it. Later, he followed in his father’s steps and studied to be an auto mechanic.

When he was 24 years old, Patros left his family in Erbil in northern Iraq to start a new life outside the country. He ended up with relatives in Södertälje, Sweden, and completed the basic Swedish language course for immigrants. He began a more advanced course, but he soon quit.

“I started working part-time at McDonald’s in Nacka, a suburb to Stockholm,” Patros recalls. “That was a much better way to learn Swedish.”

Patros converted his Iraqi driver’s license to a Swedish one soon afterward and changed jobs to drive for a bakery in Stockholm. His former boss at McDonald’s offered him a job as manager at McDonald’s in Södertälje, but Patros wouldn’t be distracted from his goal: he wanted to work for Scania.

On June 26th, 2007 he achieved it. Patros started at the engine assembly line in Södertälje where he assembled five-cylinder D9 engines and learned their construction – invaluable experience for his future, it turns out.

Patros filed an application for the position of Parts Manager at Scania’s Erbil location on January 29th, 2010. A few months later, the job was his. By then he had turned down an offer as Quality Manager at Scania’s Iskanderiyah site near Baghdad.

“I have my family in Erbil, and I wanted to reunite with them,” he says.

Not surprisingly his family is very happy that Patros is finally coming back. They are building a house for him and the family he has formed during his years in Sweden.

“My wife is from Iraq, and she came to Sweden two years ago. Since then we’ve had a son. They’ll stay in Sweden until the house is finished.”

To prepare for the challenges of his new position, Patros attended a tailor-made, two-week training session at Scania-Bilar Region Stockholm’s parts warehouse in Hovsjö in Södertälje.

Patros education as an auto mechanic, combined with his experience from the engine assembly line, makes him a perfect fit for the job in Erbil. But he returns with mixed emotions.

“It’s a new situation and role for me, and I feel a bit anxious. I will also miss friends and relatives in Sweden,” Patros says.

But his contacts with Sweden will continue. Patros will attend training sessions in Södertälje, and his colleagues have assured him that he can call whenever he needs any support.

Name: Wesam Patros
Age: 34
Family: Wife and a son
Interests: Malawi cichlids and photography
Languages: Swedish, English, Chaldean Neo-Aramaic, Arabic and Kurdish

There is persistent uncertainty about short-term market trends. Scania will thus continue to focus on counteracting the build-up of inventories that has occurred due to weakening demand, in the wake of the global financial crisis and general uncertainty about developments further ahead.

“This is why during the immediate future, our production will be substantially smaller than was the case when the financial market turbulence arose. In this situation, however, we are planning to focus on boosting the proficiency of our employees instead of issuing lay-off notices. This is an investment in our core competency, whose outcome will be to make us even better equipped when the market rebounds,” says Per Hallberg, Executive Vice President and Head of Production and Procurement.

In planning its training programmes, Scania has pursued a dialogue with the Stockholm County Administrative Board, whose chief executive – County Governor Per Unckel – has been assigned by the Swedish government to study various possibilities for easing the impact of the financial crisis on the labour market. The County Administrative Board believes that widespread lay-offs would result in a great loss of skills and has thus applied to the European Social Fund for resources. Its application is related to the coordination and implementation of training efforts targeted to the heavy vehicle industry.

“For employees, human resource development not only means that they will improve their potential within the company. They will also strengthen their position in the labour market generally,” Mr Hallberg says.

In Sweden the ambition is to offer employees at the production units in Luleå, Södertälje and Oskarshamn general and individually adapted training in such fields as production engineering, Scania’s working method based on continuous improvements and the company’s common principles and values. Employees will also be offered the opportunity to supplement their knowledge of languages and mathematics. The scale of the programmes will depend on the outcome of the County Administrative Board’s application.

For similar efforts at the production units in the Netherlands and France, for example, Scania has the option of utilising existing public labour market and training grants.

“By training employees in improvement work and implementing it in practice in our workshops, we increase our ability to respond to competition when volume recovers. Employees who undergo continuous professional development feel a greater sense of participation and dedication and help boost our productivity and efficiency. For the future success of Scania, it is important that operational and human resource development go hand in hand,” Mr Hallberg says.

To adjust production to lower demand, since the end of October 2008 Scania has applied the existing flexibility agreements with trade union organisations – by not renewing the contracts of its 2,000 fixed term temporary employees in the global production network, as well as by taking advantage of the time bank system, which allows total weekly working hours to be increased or decreased. Scania’s extended production halt in conjunction with the Christmas and New Year holidays occurred within the framework of the flexibility agreements.

For further information, please contact:
Erik Ljungberg, Senior Vice President, Corporate Relations, tel +46 8 553 835 57.

See it for yourself in the movie (in Swedish only).
Click here to view the embedded video.
Each year, 48 students begin training at Scania’s own school. Over three years, theoretical subjects are combined with practical work in the workshop. The school’s profile is directed towards production with an emphasis on cutting processing.

The students are employed within Scania from the first day. Many choose to go further to a position within the company after completing the education while others choose to continue their studies at a college or university.

Scania employs 35 000 persons worldwide and 9 000 of them are located in Södertälje. Watch the movies to get an idea of what it is like to work within research & development, production, IT, finance, purchasing and sales & marketing.

(Movie language: Swedish)

Working at Scania Research & Development (in Swedish)

Working at Scania Sales & Marketing (in Swedish)

Working at Scania IT (in Swedish)

Working at Scania Finance (in Swedish)

Working at Scania Production (in Swedish)

Working at Scania Purchasing (in Swedish)