Volvo 2006 Annual Report Download - page 25

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The Volvo 3P business unit has contributed
strongly to the improved profitability in recent
years within the Volvo Group in general and the
truck units in particular. Despite this, Volvo 3P
is unknown to most people outside the Group.
Volvo 3P combines development
In a newspaper, Volvo 3P was described
as probably the most unknown business
unit of the Volvo Group. And Torbjörn
Holmström, who has been the President
of Volvo 3P since 2003, has no objec-
tions to that. “Volvo Tr ucks, Renault
Trucks and Mack Trucks are natur-
ally the ones that should be vis-
ible externally, but it could be
said that we are the cement or even
the soul in the collaboration between the three
truck brands,” says Torbjörn.
Volvo 3P is namely responsible for several
significant areas, which are no t always visible to
customers, shareholders or other stakehold-
ers, but which are significantly important to the
Group’s profitability. The areas of responsibility
&
DEVELOPMENT
SYNERGIES
Torbjörn Holmström
Torbjörn Holmström, born in 1955, has been the
President of Volvo 3P since 2003. Between 1999
and 2003, he was an executive at Volvo Powertrain.
During the first two years, he was responsible for
transmission development and the last two years for
driveline development. He has held other executive
positions at Volvo Powertrain and was responsible for
drivelines at Volvo do Brasil. Torbjörn Holmström
received an engineering degree from Chalmers
University of Technology in 1979.
Volvo 3P in brief
Volvo 3P is a business unit responsible for product
planning, product development and purchasing for
the three truck companies, Volvo Trucks, Mack
Trucks and Renault Trucks.
The business unit has 2,872 employees and offices
in Gothenburg (Sweden), Lyon (France), Allentown
and Greensboro (USA), Curitiba (Brazil), Bangalore
(India), Shanghai (China) and Brisbane (Australia).
are summarized in the three ps: product plan-
ning, product development and purchasing.
And, it stretches over the entire Volvo Group’s
global truck operations.
The mission is to produce synergies and
industrial efficiency. In daily numbers, this
means that Volvo 3P must produce improved
products at lower costs than in the past. And,
there is a great deal of cost savings to be made.
Each ye ar, Vo lvo 3P a nd Volvo Powertrain ma ke
purchases for nearly SEK 70 billion and the
Volvo Group invests about SEK 8 billion in
research and development.
“The Volvo Group saved a total of SEK 3.8
billion already two years after the acquisitions
of Renault Tr ucks and Mack Trucks. W i th regard
to Volvo 3P, profits to date were primarily from
purchasing, but we estimate that jointly with
Volvo Powertrain we will contribute a similar
amount in 2006 and 2007, as the new trucks
are introduced. The new trucks contain several
more components and systems that were
developed and purchased jointly,” explains
Torbjörn Holmström.
A global group 2006 21