COO – Regional Operations — Commercial-Vehicle Platform

The mandate

A commercial-vehicle platform operates regional plants and final-configuration centres through different planning, supplier and escalation routines. Each can report local performance, but customer programmes cross sites and supplier failures propagate without a common view. Two years of uneven delivery have exposed incompatible definitions of readiness and recovery. The board is creating a Regional COO seat to establish one operating system while preserving justified local variation.

The COO will lead approximately SEK 14,900 million in revenue and programme activity and 1,225 employees and material partners. Accountability covers regional operations, planning, industrialisation, supplier delivery, logistics, quality execution, capacity, productivity and operating leadership. Product and engineering retain design authority; site leaders retain statutory responsibilities. The COO owns end-to-end delivery and the regional response when local priorities conflict.

Commercial vehicles magnify variation. Customer configuration, body-builder timing, payload regulation and fleet acceptance can differ even within a platform. Standardisation will therefore focus on evidence, decision rights and interfaces rather than forcing identical layouts. Every site will use common definitions for supplier readiness, conforming output, work in progress, release and recovery while retaining processes that genuinely fit its product mix.

Supplier resilience must be operational. Purchase coverage and named alternates do not prove that a component can reach conforming production. The COO will map sub-tier material, tooling, validation, transport and knowledge constraints, then rehearse recovery for parts that can stop several sites. Strategic inventory will be explicit and time-bound, not hidden inside local buffers.

Why this seat is open

This is planned new hiring under an approved regional operating model; no incumbent is being replaced. A four-to-six-month search permits consultation and assessment before the next capital and capacity cycle. Current site and functional leaders retain their responsibilities until the regional remit is activated.

What you will own

• Install common regional planning, readiness, escalation and recovery standards.
• Resolve customer, capacity and supplier conflicts across sites.
• Verify supplier resilience below nominal sourcing status.
• Improve productivity and working capital without shifting failure downstream.
• Align site mandates, leadership and investment to the platform portfolio.
• Build successors across operations, planning, supply and industrialisation.

The regional cadence will distinguish control from learning. Daily forums will address safety, stoppage and critical shortage; weekly reviews will decide cross-site allocation and programme recovery; monthly meetings will revisit capacity and supplier assumptions. Items must carry an owner, decision date and consequence of delay. Status forums without authority will be retired.

Operations data will be reconciled to physical flow. Output counts must separate completed, held and reworked vehicles; supplier performance will include conforming arrival and recovery behaviour; productivity must reflect overtime, premium freight, quality and inventory. The COO will visit plants and constrained suppliers to test whether dashboards represent actual work.

Workforce and employee relations will enter sequencing early. Cross-site transfers, new shifts and capability moves require realistic training, consultation and manager capacity. A recovery dependent on sustained overtime or borrowed experts will be labelled temporary. Capital will follow demonstrated bottlenecks and product strategy, not equal distribution among sites.

Customer allocation during disruption will use pre-agreed principles reflecting safety, contractual priority, fleet criticality and recoverability. Regional commercial leaders will participate, but local revenue pressure cannot silently override the common rule. After each major interruption, the COO will examine decision speed, information quality and downstream backlog, then change source, buffer, capacity or authority rather than celebrate heroic recovery.

The first 12 months

Within 90 days, the COO will establish a regional delivery baseline, review the 20 most consequential supplier and capacity dependencies, and assess site leadership. The sponsor will receive common readiness definitions and decisions on immediate programme risk.

By month eight, three sites or configuration centres should operate one planning and escalation model, five critical suppliers should have tested recovery, and two recurring inter-site hand-offs should be redesigned. The future site mandates will be reflected in capital and talent plans.

At year-end, customer milestone adherence should exceed 92%, premium freight fall by 20%, and regional work in progress reduce 15% without lower conforming output. Ninety per cent of critical-source recovery objectives must be proven, severe cross-site escalations close within 21 days and operating forecasts remain within 5% for three months.

What the board will measure

• Regional delivery controlled across site boundaries.
• Recovery capability proven beyond supplier declarations.
• Productivity supported by quality and cash evidence.
• Clear site mandates and responsible workforce change.
• Strong operating leadership and succession.

The person

You are a Regional COO, manufacturing president or multi-site operations executive with 22–28 years in automotive, commercial vehicles or engineered products. You have governed at least SEK 8,650 million and 950 employees. Evidence should include a cross-site delivery recovery, a supplier interruption and an operating-model change sustained through later programme pressure.

This onsite Gothenburg role requires extensive site, supplier and customer travel. You can balance regional standards with genuine product and statutory differences.

Compensation and terms

Base compensation is SEK 4.0–5.5 million plus annual incentive and LTI. Measures include delivery, resilience, productivity, working capital, leadership and customer quality. Final terms reflect scope; notice up to six months can be supported.

Confidentiality

The platform, sites, customers, suppliers and recovery evidence remain confidential. Controlled information follows qualification and an undertaking. Gothenburg and approximate figures are non-identifying.