Scandinavian Group visits the Volvo factory in Gothenburg and test drives the latest cars!

Members from Norway, Sweden and Denmark met for Scandinavian committee meeting followed by a test drive experience at Volvo and behind the scenes factory tour.

The IMechE Scandinavian committee met in November in Gothenburg for a committee meeting and technical visit. Following a successful committee meeting hosted by Sweco, the group and several members visited the Volvo factory.

The first Volvo car was made in Gothenburg back in 1927 and since then Volvo is one of the most respected car brands in the world, and the largest industrial enterprise in Scandinavia. Volvo car group was acquired by Geely Holding of China in 2010 and has since had a turnaround in both investment and profit.

The day at Volvo started with a visit to the Volvo Cars Demo centre where there was the opportunity to drive up to 20 different Volvo models on a purpose built test track including the new V90, XC90 and S90 models as well as hybrid and electric cars (V means Versatile, XC is Cross country – 4WD and S is Saloon).

After the test drive experience the members took a ride on a train around the factory where they saw car manufacturing behind the scenes from sheet metal to the completed vehicle. Seven different cars are made on the same automated assembly line creating huge logistics challenges. Despite this, the failure rate for the supply of parts to the workers on the line is less than 10 per million.

Kathryn Bjärkvik, the Sweden and Europe Young Member representative was there on the day, “It is amazing that Volvo produce 50 cars per hour each of which are tailor-made to the customer. This means that all the specific parts need to be in the right place at the right time on the production line. A really impressive engineering feat.”   David Llewelyn, Chair of the new Group was impressed with the focus on morale and how the assembly line workers changed job on the line every hour to eliminate boredom and muscle fatigue.

To find out more about the Scandinavian committee or to attend future events in Norway, Sweden and Denmark, please visit the Scandinavia near you page.