Patrick Collignon, head of truck cab and vehicle assembly for the Volvo Group in the Americas, met with White House officials July 9 to discuss innovative supplier collaboration at the Group’s New River Valley plant, where all Volvo Trucks for the North American market are built.
Volvo Group North America joined other leading manufacturers, suppliers and federal officials as they discussed collaboration, communication and leveraging federal assets to strengthen small manufacturers during the White House Supply Chain Innovation Roundtable conducted in Washington, D.C.
Collignon participated in the roundtable with other manufacturers committed to partnering with small businesses in their supply chains to accelerate technology adoption, strengthen the domestic supply chain and improve product design and process engineering.
“Volvo has developed tools and ways of working to create win-win opportunities for suppliers, as well as our own business,” Collignon said. “Through these opportunities, we hope to see added value, less waste and increased performance of our supply chain to better meet the demand of our customers.”
Volvo has helped several of its U.S.-based suppliers reduce transportation and logistics costs through its Supply Chain Optimization Race to Excellence (SCORE) Program.
Senior officials from the White House, the Departments of Commerce and Energy and the Small Business Administration also participated in the event and announced federal efforts to help small firms adopt technologies and improve the flow of information within supply chains.
