The world is changing in ways that affect everyone, and Volvo Group is no exception. But this doesn’t prevent Volvo from having high ambitions for when internal combustion engines are to be phased out in favor of battery powertrains, hybrid solutions and electricity-generating hydrogen gas fuel cells. Volvo Group intends to remain at the top of the world and their PLM system will play a decisive role.

But IT technology is not the soloist on the journey forward; the people in the organization are perhaps the most important success factor, says Josef Schiöler, head of Volvo Group's PLM/PDM Core Product Area.

“We will continue to take the technological edge. But just as obviously, all parts of the business will be affected, digital product development support such as PLM and automation solutions included. However, two things are crystal clear. KOLA—Volvo’s product database—will continue to be the heart of the heart of our PLM logic. But that does not change the fact that the people in the organization will be number one in this work towards the new digital future.”

That was the essence of Schiöler's message to the audience in a packed hall of the Lindholmen Conference Center, Gothenburg, during CIMdata and Eurostep's global PLM Road Map & PDT 2022 event in Europe last week.

Schiöler's presentation, entitled "Transformation Journey and PLM & PDM Modernization for the Digital Future," was one of several highly anticipated items on an agenda that also contained presentations from several prominent company representatives from players such as Airbus, Boeing, Siemens Energy, ABB, Stora Enso, Saab Aeronautics, European Spallation Source and many others.

But it was no coincidence that Schiöler's presentation was the opening keynote, after CIMdata's Peter Bilello shared his words of welcome and discussed the critical elements needed as the world's companies undergo digital transformation.

What the Volvo Group does both for Europe and globally is of utmost importance in a transport industry that represents one of society's most critical functions. The truck side of Volvo Group has come a long way in terms of electrification, autonomous functions and new operating and business models.

What does the IT support required to optimize these efforts look like? I discussed this with Volvo Group’s head of PLM/PDM Core Product Area.

Volvo Group has several parts that already sail under a common flag. Even if not all the company's product data pieces are covered by this, KOLA is the common internal product data platform. KOLA is, as Josef Schiöler describes it, the "heart of the heart" in Volvo Group. But the underlying IT structure needs to be modernized, he says.

Schiöler doesn’t contend with PLM on a detailed technical level. Rather, he talks about the core values one desires from the platform and the architecture relative to the challenges that come with electrification, fuel cell technology or changed business models. He does not mention software names, or specific software suites. In fact, he mentions neither Volvo’s main PLM supplier PTC nor any of the others that have installations within the group, such as Dassault Systèmes, SAP, Ansys, ESI and Siemens. Instead, he speaks about information, how to share it and how to make people in the organization excited about the possibilities that come with digitization so that they want to move forward.

Volvo Group Must Tie Together Many Threads

The background to Schiöler's speech is that the company must modernize its underlying IT technology. But there are many threads to tie together, he says, as the group owns a number of different truck, bus, contracting and marine engine companies, which means that the underlying picture for PLM and IT support looks quite varied.

In total, Volvo Group has approximately 100,000 employees, operates in 190 markets and had revenues of nearly $40 billion in 2021. Among the companies in the group are Volvo Trucks, Mack Trucks and Renault Trucks, while the bus side includes Volvo Buses, Prevost and Nova Bus. Other areas are construction machinery, where Volvo owns Volvo Construction Equipment (VCE) and Rokbak, while another well-known brand applies to marine engines, Volvo Penta.

A broad group of companies with many threads to weave together. Among the companies in the group are Volvo Trucks, Mack Trucks and Renault Trucks, while the bus side includes Volvo Buses, Prevost and Nova Bus. Other areas include construction machinery, where Volvo Group owns VCE and Rokbak. (Image courtesy of Volvo Group.)

It is natural for there to be a lot of differences in how to organize the details of PLM support for all these divergent environments. There is also currently a plethora of different software being used within Volvo Group, both on the PLM and sub-PLM level.

However, the ambition here is to establish a more cohesive IT architecture within the group.

Of great importance for an efficient product realization apparatus are strategic alliances, partner collaborations (such as with the Chinese company Dongfeng) and other external suppliers, all of which play a significant role in a world-class IT architecture set up.

This is always challenging, especially in terms of technical communication with the group of strategic alliance companies. These include Daimler Trucks (with the joint company Cellcentric for fuel cell technology), and both Daimler and the Traton Group in the context of the development of a European high-performance charging network for electric trucks. Other interesting alliances are those with Samsung SDI (batteries), Ovako Steel (fossil-free steel) and NVIDIA (data processors, among others). Other automotive players are also involved.

All this requires a great deal of investment in developing coordination improvements and a platform environment optimized for communication.

KOLA as "The Heart of The Heart"

Centrally, the Volvo Group has several parts that already sail under a common flag. Even if the company's product data pieces are not all covered by this, KOLA is the common internal platform. KOLA is, as Schiöler describes it, the "heart of the heart" in the company. This proprietary product database contains product structures and acts as a backbone for product configuration.

CAST is a platform where internally developed technologies can be shared between the companies in the group. (Image courtesy of Volvo Group.)

Another centrally important platform is CAST, which stands for Common Architecture Shared Technology. As the name suggests, this is a platform where internally developed technologies can be shared; for example, as has been done in the field of electrification or in the case of autonomous technology.

“Regarding KOLA, I want to clarify that Volvo Construction Equipment in relevant parts, due to CAST and when it comes to embedded software and engines, integrates with parts of the KOLA logic, but Volvo CE as the PLM/PDM backbone has chosen to base this entirely on Windchill and no proprietary PDM platform,” says Schiöler. “KOLA, PLM/PDM and CAST are keys to achieving our 2030 vision. In short, these are our catalysts on the IT support side.”

“With this arsenal as base equipment, with PLM/PDM and other sub-PLM solutions, we are equipped for things that are already underway in terms of our global electrical set-up of vehicles, development of autonomous solutions, management of mixed model-assembly of hybrid and pure battery solutions. But the underlying digital environment has some work left to do,” Schiöler continues.

This can include things such as digital end-to-end supply chains, battery cell lifecycle solutions, fully digitized PLM infrastructures—or, to take a workshop-oriented piece, virtual commissioning. But the partner and supplier area also have its challenges; for example, in terms of transparency in relevant sections.

3D CAD model of Volvo Tractor Truck 2020. The group's goal is to consolidate the CAD arsenal on PTC's Creo, according to a central decision made last September. (Image courtesy of Hum3D.)

Central Decisions Around the PLM Landscape

But there is more on the PLM agenda at the moment. Among other things, Lars Stenqvist, EVP and CTO for Volvo Group Trucks Technology, announced last September that the group has decided to consolidate operations on PTC software.

We are no longer talking just about CAD on the truck side, where Volvo’s sights are set on using Creo throughout, while Dassault Systèmes' CATIA is being phased out. The cPDm/PDM area will also be affected when, during the first stage of consolidation, Volvo intends to switch to a pure PTC environment for CAD related to the truck area.

This indicates that buses, VCE, Penta and more will also work on the PTC platform. The bottom line is that with this consolidation, the cPDm/PDM side will switch to only using PTC's PDM solutions in the Windchill suite.

Regarding PLM/cPDm, PTC's Windchill suite has been used (e.g. MPM Link and PDM Link) alongside the configuration logic that was and continues to be in Volvo's KOLA product database.

“Using a PLM and CAD platform will act as an important enabler in our digital technology transformation,” said Stenqvist in connection with the announcement of the PTC consolidation. “Using this foundation, we see great opportunities to connect PTC's IoT/IIoT and AR solutions to our digital wireline strategy.”

A PLM and CAD platform will serve as an important enabler in our digital technology transformation, said Lars Stenqvist, CTO at Volvo Group. (Image courtesy of Volvo Group.)

PTC in Pole Position

This puts PTC in an excellent position. Volvo Group is among PTC’s largest global customers.

“Indeed, it does,” PTC’s CEO Jim Heppelmann says. “Our capabilities to create and manage 3D digital twins of manufactured products is well known in the industry, and so is our ability to derive manufacturing and service information such as MBOMs and EBOMs, routings, plus manufacturing and service work instructions—even in 3D augmented reality—from the digital mockup. We call this concept ‘3D model-driven.’ But in recent years PTC has developed a ‘special sauce’ for companies like Volvo that rely on configure-to-order or platform approaches. Newer versions of PTC software can automatically configure 3D digital twins to match the variant configuration ordered by the customer, and then generate variant-specific 3D manufacturing and service information to match. This enables an extremely efficient approach for any configure-to-order business, and is the only practical way for such a company to leverage 3D data for manufacturing and service.”

But KOLA is there as a foundation in the PLM setup. What does the role distribution look like between this product and configuration database, and Windchill?

“Volvo has long relied on a very sophisticated proprietary system called KOLA to generate order configurations and then drive related sales and manufacturing processes. It has been key to Volvo’s high growth and profitability. The mutual goal of PTC and Volvo is to connect KOLA to Windchill in a way that KOLA can continue to own and process the configuration logic that drives each variant, but then Windchill can in turn generate 3D engineering models plus manufacturing and service deliverables to match that order configured in KOLA,” Heppelmann added.

PTC’s CEO, Jim Heppelmann. (Image courtesy of PTC.)

But as many presenters pointed out during the PLM Road Map & PDT conference at Lindholmen, it is unusual to be able to manage everything within the framework of a system. One example is that currently there are solutions other than PTC’s being used to achieve optimal communication flows on the partner side. For example, Eurostep's standards-based PLM software, ShareAspace, is used to share product data, documents and models with certain suppliers on the engine side.

"People First. They Are the Core of the Business"

Having discussed the PLM landscape as the foundation for Schiöler's speech, we will now take a closer look at what the head of the core PLM/PDM platform at Volvo says about future orientations in the group—and especially the important role of people.

What makes the matter particularly interesting is that Schiöler emphasized that the digitization journey Volvo Group is now on is far from simply about technical IT platforms. The people in production and how they are organized are just as important, if not more important, for the journey to lead to success, he noted.

This was echoed by Peter Billelo, CEO of CIMdata, who quoted Fredric Bolling in his opening remarks: "People are the core of the business and a company is an expression of the people who are there.”

“We often talk about ‘people, processes and technologies’ as the core of all industrial operations. So it is, and in this particular order. The people first, then, but why? It is they who create the information, while most assessors today agree that information is the new equivalent of oil. But there are also many other things, such as information being one of the most important foundations for innovation.”

The engineers in organizations don’t always have this understanding in at the forefront of their thoughts. Instead, the technology is often considered to be more important. But Volvo's Schiöler stands out in this respect. Firstly, as he told me, he is not an engineer, but a behavioral scientist, which says something interesting about his remarks on Volvo’s digital journey.

Not that he devalues the importance of technology; far from it. But he points out that it is important to get the people enthusiastic for the movement into something new. Get them to cherish the technology—not only for the sake of technology, but because there are great individual values to be gained, in parallel with the long-term commercial situation of the company group.

Schiöler emphasized the importance of people on the digitization journey in his speech at the PLM Road Map & PDT 2022, at Lindholmen's conference center in Gothenburg.

Where Is Volvo Group Heading?

What does the world in front of them look like, as seen by Schiöler and the Volvo Group. Where are their aspirations headed?

An overarching goal concerns the idea of sustainability. The company's long-term ambition is that, alongside a focus on 100 percent safety, the business as a whole must be fossil-free by 2050. This means that Volvo's products must be 100 percent fossil-free as early as 2040, when the lifespan is approximately ten years. Then there are sub-goals below this, such as that at least 35 percent of Volvo's product volumes sold must be electrified by 2030.

If you drill down further, Schiöler pointed out the following:

The Solution and Service side must grow to 50 percent of turnover by 2030.
They also want to scale up new business models which include, among other things, arrangements for “product-as-a-service.” In this, you catch on to the trend that says you don't necessarily need to sell trucks, but rather “transport capacity” which—if you are now responsible for the product itself, which is ‘rented out’—must among other things invest heavily in quality and predictive (preventive) capacity.
eMobility is central when the world's truck fleet is electrified.
As indicated above, the various alliances— of which we will probably see more—are also of great importance, which means that you develop a strategic global Partner Program.
Robust Profits are a prerequisite for creating the necessary resources.
Develop solid Value-Based Leadership.

Important to Avoid the Modernization Becoming a Pure IT Initiative

Generally speaking, Volvo Group's Schiöler concludes that the mission now is to, "modernize the PLM and PDM strategy."

“The development work is about several things. In general, shorter time to market is an endeavor we prioritize. To succeed in this, sharper solutions for collaboration are needed, which in turn can contribute to faster feedback loops.”

A collective high five among the staff at Volvo Electromobility Technical Support. (Image courtesy of Volvo Trucks.)

Another thing that is high on the development list of core values is that the solutions put in place must contribute to increasing trust in the virtual pieces, which Schiöler expects will accompany the modernization of the digital environment.

“We will also focus on an open architecture in relevant parts, as under-builds the digital flows and accessibility for all stakeholders,” he says. “It is of course of great importance. But none of this will land in the form of a quick fix that will magically cover all needs. The development of next-generation PLM/PDM will instead be characterized by iterative platform building.”

“How do we get there? As I said before, the people in the organization are number one. We have to create the new platforms together with those who are in product development, on the workshop floors in production, in administration and those who work associatively with us in the field and in the partner and alliance chain. But we also have to find tools for more effective collaboration with customers,” Schiöler says.

The level of ambition is high, but unlike much else you hear from many companies in PLM and product development, it is the person-first approach that applies to the Volvo Group. They want to build a design-driven culture and as CIMdata’s analyst Bilello pointed out several times when it comes to PLM and modernity:

“It's about people, processes and technologies, in exactly this order.”

It is no surprise that Schiöler agrees.