From Buzzword to Baseline: Making Virtual Commissioning a Practical Capability at Volvo Cars

Abstract:

Virtual Commissioning is increasingly introduced in industrial production system implementation as part of broader digital advancement by leveraging virtual testing through co-simulation. In practice, organizations often face a capability gap between the technical method and the competence required to apply it, supervise it, and realize its benefits in real projects. This seminar breaks down the fundamentals of the concept as part of a three-step training program developed at Volvo Cars to establish Virtual Commissioning as a practical and usable capability across Manufacturing Engineering. The program differentiates competence needs into awareness, project supervision, and technical execution, aligning content and examples with the roles and responsibilities that arise in implementation projects. The seminar also presents the scope and objective of the training program and the strategy of addressing an appropriate level of knowledge in each step, and concludes with insights from rollout, reception, and the current state of the initiative. It closes with how the training was refined into a consistent standard that is now considered a fundamental offering for project teams across Volvo Cars, contributing to the positioning of Virtual Commissioning as a concrete value-adding method rather than a transient buzzword.