At the time of TRATON’s tenth anniversary in the summer of 2025, the company began a new chapter in the collaboration between its brands with the launch of its Group-wide Research and Development Department, known as Group R&D. This brings together around 9,000 employees from across the four brands into one central organization. 3,000 additional R&D colleagues will remain with the brands to work successfully on brand-specific solutions in what is known as Brand Identity Development (BID). Marvin Kalberlah, who is based at the Munich site, has played a significant role in this groundbreaking project. He sees the outsourcing and consolidation of R&D activities as one of the key prerequisites for improving the Group’s performance: “The transportation industry is facing a significant transformation with digitalization, alternative drive systems, autonomous driving, and global competition, forcing companies like TRATON to rethink their structures and improve their efficiency,” he explains, adding, “The consolidation is much more than simply an organizational measure. It represents a commitment to transformation over the next ten years.”
Individual brands combined to form a united force
“Our brands have a powerful legacy,” says Kalberlah. “In the future, our new, centralized R&D department will enable us to use the latest technologies and to exploit the Group’s expertise to the full. R&D lies at the heart of our business and enables us to find the right solutions for our customers.” Kalberlah goes on to explain that, thanks to their use of the TRATON Modular System, pooling the Group’s expertise does not mean sacrificing any local requirements.
Founding the new R&D organization represents a milestone in TRATON’s history, but the transformation process has only just begun. The next task is to streamline workflows and consolidate the new way of working. Employees all over the world are now collaborating within the new structure, and this needs to run smoothly.
The first step involves bringing together the R&D sites, as well as the Enabling Functions in the USA, Sweden, and Germany, to be followed by other sites throughout the world. The new global organization will continue to grow.
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Leveraging past experience in acquisitions and restructuring
Kalberlah’s global experience will bring benefits during the ongoing consolidation. Before he became involved with the restructuring of R&D, he worked for TRATON in the USA and supported the acquisition and integration of International. He helped to secure the financing by establishing the EMTN bond program. The approach to challenges in the USA has shaped his view of the cross-brand collaboration: “Americans solve problems quickly, while Europeans are more cautious. I am convinced that combining American pragmatism with European thoroughness is exactly the right approach to take.”
Kalberlah has already learned a key lesson from the first stage of the consolidation of R&D: “We realized that the most important thing, alongside all the technical considerations and the PowerPoint slides, was to listen to people. What do they need? What are their concerns? Of course, they were worried about the impact that restructuring would have on their daily routines. We have tried to find solutions but also to be transparent about what we know and what we don’t know.”
Preparations in place for the next chapter
Kalberlah will make use of these lessons and his experience during the next chapter of the TRATON story — the ongoing development of the global innovation network that will lay the foundation for transforming transportation. “We will continue to increase our efficiency while pooling innovation and expertise, especially in dynamic growth regions with rapid economic and technological development, such as Asia and Latin America. This will enable us to remain alert to global developments and apply our expertise in a targeted manner where it creates the greatest added value.”
