Meet Johan: Project Manager and Returning Team Member at Avalon

Isn’t it wonderful to have returnees! Johan, who is now a project manager in the core team of our project management office, left Avalon for a few years to broaden his horizons. Most recently, he worked as a production manager at Koenigsegg. Exciting! We took the opportunity to ask him a few questions about why he came back and what experiences he brings to the projects he manages at Avalon today.

Hi! Today, I work as a project manager in our project management office at Avalon. My career has been somewhat varied and hasn’t exactly followed a straight line. After studying to become a development engineer in Halmstad, I got my first job as a design engineer at a consultancy firm in Gothenburg.

After two years, my wife had the very bright idea of moving to Helsingborg. We went there for interviews and had four apartment viewings booked. We returned to Gothenburg with new jobs for both of us and our first shared condo—a centrally located apartment. That was in 2001, and I walked into Avalon for the first time, getting to work on exciting projects with fun colleagues like Gert Hanner, Johan Persson and Jesper Sjögren, who are still at Avalon!

Yes, that’s right. My last assignment at Avalon was at TetraPak, where I worked in a prototype department dealing with procurement of injection molding tools and planning various prototype series. It was fascinating to see the next step — not just designing the plastic part. My interest was sparked, and in 2007, an opportunity arose to start as a project purchaser at Haldex. After a few years, I got the chance to become a logistics manager, broadening my horizons further toward production — another step beyond design. It’s not just about designing and sourcing parts; you also have to ensure they arrive on time.

Later, I worked as a production manager at JBT. There, I had the chance to handle purchasing, planning, production, and shipping of the machines I had once designed during earlier assignments at Avalon. Some drawings still bore my name in the title block, which the assembly workers were quick to point out when things didn’t fit as intended.

In 2019, I got the opportunity to start as an assembly manager at Koenigsegg. Over time, I became the production manager responsible for manufacturing their then-production model, Regera — a hybrid with a V8 engine and three electric motors.

During the last of my five years at Koenigsegg, I also worked as a planning manager, overseeing production planning. Working with production planning is like being a central hub for information between design, procurement, inventory, and production. All deviations created along the way seem to converge in the focus of planning.

I’d say the reason I’ve returned to product development — this time as a project manager — is that I’ve walked quite a few miles in different shoes and now understand the importance of ensuring all the “legs of the stool” are equally strong to avoid wobbling. I hope to contribute to product development so that the design isn’t just good in CAD but is also feasible to procure, manufacture, plan for, transport, use, document, recycle, update, and so on.

In production, you’re fairly close to the end of the cycle, and any mistakes made earlier in the chain become painfully evident. I hope to help reduce deviations so that production is a smooth journey, focusing on optimization rather than rework.

Returning to Avalon specifically was an easy decision because I have fond memories and positive experiences from both the social aspects —conferences, Christmas parties, summer celebrations — and the professional approach, which is marked by humility and seriousness. Knowing both old and new acquaintances at Avalon also made the choice easy.

One key principle I carry with me is the well-known 80/20 rule:

• 80% of the results come from 20% of the time. The last 20% takes 80% of the time.
• Spend 80% of the time planning and preparing so you can execute in 20% of the time.

It’s a fine balance between planning too much or too little. I have experience from both extremes—neither is a good path.

If you can describe the goal well and think through potential pitfalls and how to navigate them if things don’t go as planned, you’re on the right track. It’s not good if it doesn’t work for all stakeholders. You need to be aware of your choices but also be bold in decision-making.

You also shouldn’t underestimate the importance of following up on the plan. Time lost at the beginning of a project, when the timeline feels endlessly long, is impossible to recover at the end. If the relay team has three runners jogging their legs, the fourth runner would need to sprint unrealistically fast—and possibly cheat—because the finish line/deadline tends to stay in the same place regardless of when you start running.

At the moment, I split my time between working as a project manager for a couple of smaller client projects within our project core team and serving as a Senior Adviser at our sister companies, TC TECH AB and Hardgrid Technology AB. There, I’m involved in a productivity project and an exciting technology development project involving induction heating of sheet metal for various applications, such as press hardening.

I hope we can assist companies with larger projects that allow us to leverage all the different disciplines in product development that we have in our core team—project management, mechanics, electronics, and software. A broader scope of development increases our ability to contribute to good and sustainable product development.

Aside from that, I hope spring comes early so I can play golf, barbecue, and enjoy the outdoor environment in beautiful Helsingborg…