For seven days, Volvo Cars Engines in Skövde, Sweden will celebrate their 100 years of manufacturing engines. The festivities began this past Saturday with an open house for the employees and their families.
Heavy industry in Skövde has a long background. Sköfde Gjuteri (foundry) & Mechanical Workshop was founded back in 1868. At that time, various types of implements for everyday use were produced.
The first engine was produced in 1907; a marine engine designed by Edvard Hubendick that was called Penta. Eventually, the name was changed to the Penta Works.
In 1927, the year in which Volvo was founded, 297 engines were delivered to Volvo in Gothenburg. Since then, things have kept rolling along. On June 14 of this year, the 15 millionth engine was produced.
Several other milestones along the way were: 1935 when AB Volvo acquired all of the shares in the Penta Works, the opening of the foundry in 1951 and the East plant in 1991, and 2001, when the first five-cylinder diesel engine developed by VCC went into production.
The celebration has been organised jointly with Volvo Powertrain, which is owned by AB Volvo. Saturday's open house was a great success.
"Some 3,000 people visited the engine plant. All in all, there were approximately 7,000 visitors at both of the Volvo companies," says Annelie Kinell, who is a member of the celebration committee.
A number of activities will take place during the week, including lectures, yoga, a combined walk and quiz competition, and a visit to the Volvo Museum in Skövde.
It is fascinating to read about the way in which production has developed. In 1907, 6.7 people were needed to produce an engine. Today, this is done by 0.01 employees per engine.
Today, Volvo Cars Engine consists of engine production in Skövde, component production in Floby, and assembly plants in Torslanda, Uddevalla, and Gent in Belgium. There are 1,512 employees in Skövde, and there are a total of 2,875 employees throughout VCE.
