Gothenburg
Last Day
The day has finally come, alas, it is our last day in Scandinavia and the last day of our grand adventure. We cannot believe our time in Scandinavia is almost over! The past two weeks have been so extraordinary with our classmates and professors. From all the business visits to the sightseeing of the many cities, this trip has exceeded all our expectations. For our last business visit, we had to take the train from Copenhagen to Gothenburg, Sweden, where we will stay for two nights until making the venture back to the states. This last visit was with Volvo Cars and Volvo Group outside the Swedish city of Gothenburg.
Volvo Cars
When we arrived at Volvo Cars in the morning, we were shown an introductory video and then were able to walk around the showroom. Our tour guide was able to provide very insightful facts about the company and the Sweden plant specifically. The Gothenburg plant has been in existence for over 60 years and is entirely carbon neutral. Throughout the presentation, one can notice that Volvo puts a huge emphasis on safety and people. They put so much emphasis on this that Volvo had waived patent rights on their one-of-a-kind safety features so others could use them. Another feature of Volvo cars that we found interesting was that the company caps vehicles at 112 mph and Volvo seat belts have saved at least 1 million lives. While Volvo is known for their safe cars that does not mean they do not like to create concept cars. While in the showroom we were able to see a concept car called the 360c. This car is an autonomous vehicle where people can have meetings and sit facing each other. This car was built for the experience.
After the showroom visit, we were then taken in a train around the Volvo plant where they produce the cars. This factory is not open 24/7, but includes a press shop, body shop, paint shop, and assembly plant. While we were not able to take our phones into the factory for employee safety and secret reasons, this was an amazing tour. It is crazy how much goes into making one single car and how many people and robots are needed to do so. This plant specifically has over 1,400 robots in just the body shop alone. At this plant specifically there are only 16 colors that are produced when Volvo has 24 colors that they offer. The reason why they only produce 16 is because of the geographic region they are in and the demand for specific colors. The train ride around the plant was one of the most fascinating business visits we have ever been on.
Volvo Group
Once we left Volvo Cars, we ventured over to Volvo Group which was a short bus ride away. We visited Volvo Group's innovation lab called CampX. We were greeted by Volvo Energy’s Director of Technology Strategy and Outlook, Jenny Erneman. Volvo Energy is a department within Volvo Group that specifically offers trucks, buses, construction equipment, and power solutions for marine and industrial applications. With over 102,000 employees working within Volvo Group the company's long-term ambitions are to be 100% fossil free and to have more production. With a workforce this large nothing seems impossible! Volvo realizes that they have a huge company with lots of opportunities and the leaders have stated they need employees who are competent, and they must be placed in the right area for this relationship to work. While Volvo Group and Volvo Energy are ready to take over the energy sector, they have three core values, and they are quality, safety, and environmental care. The company is determined to not stray away from the values as they continue to grow and join new areas of business.
Our Final Goodbye
After our amazing day spent at Volvo, we wanted to soak in Sweden one last time. We made our way over to the park where we enjoyed the sunshine and relaxed and talked about our amazing memories on the trip. We then went over to the final group dinner and said our goodbyes to our wonderful classmates and amazing professors! To our surprise, both our professors prepared speeches to roast the students and a wonderful duet.
Overall, we are so grateful and thankful for this wonderful experience. To travel to Scandinavia is not something many people are given the opportunity or privilege to do, but we are so grateful that we were given this prodigious chance. Scandinavia was not an area the two of us had ever pictured going, but we can safely say that we are so excited to come back! This trip has excited our expectations in a variety of ways. Each business visit taught us something new personally and professionally. We were so surprised and shocked by the overwhelming kindness of the Swedes and Danes. Each business has taught us something that we will take with us on our professional endeavors. As far as the cities go, each one was beautiful and unique in its own manner. We really felt part of the culture and were able to learn so much about the way individuals behave and live in Scandinavia. We couldn't be more grateful for this experience and are extremely sad to be leaving but so happy to be leaving with memories that will last a lifetime!
We could not recommend going on this trip more. As individuals now on the other side, we understand why other classmates recommended taking this course. There will always be a special place in our hearts for Scandinavia when we think of it. That's it for our journey, Swede Dreams Scandinavia, until we meet again!
Signing off Halle and Rutha
