Volvo Penta Reduces Custom Engine Lead Time

Volvo Penta Quickline Provides Fast Delivery of Custom Engines for Repowering Commercial Marine Vessels

Volvo Penta’s new Quickline custom production line is now running full steam, reducing lead times for commercial marine customers with short-fuse requirements for replacement engines.

“When commercial boat operators experience a serious engine breakdown, they need action right away to avoid expensive downtime,” said Ron Huibers, president, Volvo Penta of the Americas. “The longer a vessel is down, the more money the operator stands to lose. That’s why we created Quickline, a separate production line that cuts manufacturing lead times for custom engines to as little as a week.”

Introduced in September 2013 at the Volvo Penta manufacturing facility in Gothenburg, Sweden, Quickline runs parallel to the regular production line at the plant. With Quickline, Volvo Penta can produce custom-built, classified and non-classified 300- to 750-hp D9MH, D13MH or D16MH propulsion engines within seven days of order, regardless of the make of engine the customer was using at the time of breakdown.

“Quickline provides an important supplement to the local engine stocks regionally and at our Power Center partners,” said Huibers. “It gives us another way to help commercial marine customers with unplanned repower needs to get back to business as quickly as possible. Because Volvo Penta is also authorized to do full approval tests for DNV, RINA, LRS, ABS and BV, we can deliver engines that are fully classed according to these societies within a seven-day period.”

Quickline owes its speed to the use of base engines in inventory at the Volvo Penta plant. To speed up the production process, these base engines will be custom-built, unlike engines kept in stock at dealers. While engine modules and options are more limited than they would be in regular engine production, they will satisfy most repower applications.

“This new custom production line is just the latest part of Volvo Penta’s approach to 24/7 customer service,” said Huibers. “It’s our way of showing customers we are there to support them in any way we can.”