< Previous| 28 | Manufacturing-Journal year 2001, when the productive units oft he company were separated from the trading ones. It was also then, that after over twenty years of experience PECOL II – Componentes Industriais, Lda. (currently known as PECOL AUTO-MOTIVE) was founded. Today the Group owns an industrial park of ca. 150.000 m² and counts with over 800 employ-ees (some 280 work permanently with PECOL AUTOMOTIVE). It has also several business platforms situated in Portugal, Spain, Italy, Angola, Brazil and Morocco. Its offices in Portugal are- apart from the headquarters in Águeda and the online-store- also in Lisbon, Braga and Alverca. During the last 10 years the growing group purchased also companies like: IMAVI, TORGE, INKATOR (Barcelona, Spain), as well as some in northern Italy. Its logistical support with own facilities can also be found in Spain, Italy, China, Poland, Morocco and Angola.Products, quality, strategies and missionThe company is strongly oriented to the automotive industry- it specializes in manufacturing standard and special parts in the size: from diameter 3 mm to 32 mm, up to a maximum length of 325 mm and in producing special fixing components. PECOL has appli-ances for technical metal surface treat-ment and phosphating of articles, as well as for manufacturing of tools (the Sermocol group). It works with vari-ous types of steel, stainless steel, brass, aluminum and copper, being the main reference supplier and providing all ma-jor TIER1 globally. PECOL AUTOMOTIVE is equipped with modern technology of finest quality. With all its production process in-house it shows a produc-tion capacity of 2,000 Tons and some 80.000.000 units/month. Still, the com-pany’s focus lies in the increase of its productivity, reduction of the produc-tion costs and development of even more complex articles. As up to 95% of the firm’s clients come from the auto-motive sector, its export rate is being actually very high and lies at about 92%. Having however in mind the changes taking place in the automotive sector - the current trend to withdraw diesel cars and increase the market of electro cars, one should ask oneself about the future developments in this branch. The com-pany’s Sales Manager does not see it as being a major issue though, at least for the next few years. However the devel-opment of the sector might be, the most important point is always the quality of the services provided. This is why PECOL products undergo a careful machine in-spection and examination process – all this in order to guarantee the satisfac-tion of the customers. Talking about quality we cannot forget the person-nel. There are not enough professionals experienced in the kind of equipment used by PECOL- as a response to these needs the company decided to invest in the ongoing training of its staff, both internally and externally. The training involves the development of technical skills, abilities to communicate both in English and in the customer’s native lan-guage and trade related technical assis-tance programs. Within the factors that especially count in the commercial dy-namics is also the interaction among dif-ferent departments of the company, the proximity to both Sales and Research & Development departments, where new products are being designed and new opportunities arise. The opportunities of further training, good working con-ditions and the international stability of the corporation are nowadays some of the factors that make PECOL one of the most attractive employers on the Portu-guese market.Looking into the future: goals & plansPortugal managed to overcome the cri-ses of the first decade of the XXI century and turned to be more dynamic, a coun-try with more competitiveness getting more attractive for new business ven-tures. Even if the automotive sector is a significant industrial branch, especially for the country’ GDP, the national market constitutes only about 8% of the overall Manufacturing-Journal | 29 |Innovation PartnershipPecol Automotive chooses the top partners to improve the production process and the final quality and to target the excellence in the fasteners production.Since 2001 Italian Dimac is a strategic partner of Pecol Automotive to ensure such excellence with the supply of top quality automatic 100% inspection and sorting machines.Quoting from the praise words spent by Daniel Santos – Sorting Department GM at Pecol: “Dimac machines are essential to guarantee total-quality parts to our customers. They represent a real added-value for our workshops – We have new projects in progress with Dimac for 2019 for the inspection and sorting of very special parts for automotive”www.dimacsrl.com| 30 | Manufacturing-Journal company’s turnover. Although the main export markets have been up till now Spain and France, many of the custom-ers have decided to move the produc-tion to the Eastern European countries like Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania. The PECOLS’s turnover in these countries is rather sig-nificant - reaching up to 10%. This de-velopment has had a strong impact on the logistics, as a consequence PECOL AUTOMOTIVE POLSKA Sp. Z.O.O was established in 2018. PECOL is strongly interested in encouraging and support-ing innovations, a kind of activity, which is one of the main and most important lines and tasks in the company planning; the enterprise is also trying to keep up with the latest developments on the international markets. In the last two years PECOL has been mainly investing in its headquarters location in Águeda and in Spain, rebuilding the production halls and implementing the heat treat-ment process for raw materials. The new investment are already being made: the company starts by implementing some new forms of surface treatment and machinery based operations- all these and some more innovations shall be sufficient to allow PECOL AUTOMOTIVE to manufacture and market some even more complex products with a higher added value. This may also be the first step and pave the way to the position of a direct OEM (Original Equipment Manu-facturer).Special achievements, certificates and awardsThe certification of a company makes its brand. It is perhaps at this place proper to say that PECOL was one of the first companies in Portugal to gain the IATF 16949 certificate, it also holds the ISO14001: 2004 and different awards, being thus known as the supplier of the year. Nowadays, the company produces the majority of the components and parts used by other corporations, such as TIER 1 and its productive capacity and competitiveness on the international markets makes it look attractive both in Portugal and abroad. This relatively new company - PECOL AUTOMOTIVE as a part of the PECOL Group was created only in 2001 - is trading and operating in an extremely complicated and chal-lenging sector, which is the one of the automotive industry, its annual growth stays nevertheless at the level of 10% on average. This is due to the strong in-vestment capacity, usage of the markets best technologies, the ongoing training of its staff and the ambition to manufac-ture complex articles - all this as profit-able, customer-oriented solutions. Written by Katarzyna Ulma-LechnerFACT BOXFULL NAME: PRESIDENT: INDUSTRY: ESTABLISHED: EMPLOYEES: TURNOVER: PECOL AUTOMOTIVE S.A.Paulo CoelhoFasteners and Special Parts by cold forming200128031.000.000€www.pecol.ptManufacturing-Journal | 31 |History and milestonesSanden Manufacturing Poland company was established in 2004, one year later the production plant in the Polkowice subzone of the Legnica Special Econom-ic Zone was opened. The company itself is a part of Sanden Holdings Corporation, a Japanese holding started by Kaihei Ushikubo in 1943, and currently the second largest manufacturer of car air conditioning compressors in the world. Sanden also has the largest global mar-ket share in vending machines in coolers. Ushikubo’s company exhibited remark-able capacity for adapting to the quickly changing world, offering a wide variety of products such as mica condensers, bicycle dynamo powered lamps and washing machines before establishing a partnership with the American Mitchell Corporation and embracing its current role as a manufacturer of compressors for air conditioning systems used in au-tomotive industry. The company contin-ued to grow and establish itself in more countries, and today parts it supplies are used in a quarter of all the cars pro-duced worldwide. Sanden Manufactur-ing Poland was established to provide the Holding’s European customers with Sanden products, and has since become the foremost of the Holding’s sites. The production and storage areas have been greatly expanded in 2013. A second final assembly line was introduced, as well as multiple new process lines providing the base components for the final product. With its impressive output of three mil-lion units per year, the Polish branch is now responsible for over 50% of all air conditioning compressors manufac-tured by the Sanden group in Europe. FACT BOXThe Lead Manufacturer of Automobile A/C ComponentsSanden Manufacturing Poland is the leading air conditioning compressors manufacturer of the Sanden Group. Its motto, “delivering excellence”, has been both the goal and the guiding principle of the company on its road to success. The following article is based on an inter-view with Junichi Tanabe (Chairman of the Board), Andrzej Michalski (Plant Manager) and Michał Romanowski (HR Director).FULL NAME: PRESIDENT: INDUSTRY: ESTABLISHED: EMPLOYEES: TURNOVER: Sanden Manufacturing Poland Sp. z o.o.Junichi TanabeAutomotive20041184202 mln EUROwww.sandensmp.plARTICLES | AutomotiveSanden Manufacturing Poland| 32 | Manufacturing-Journal Perhaps the most important event in Sanden Manufacturing Poland history was the opening in February of last year of Sanden Logistics Poland, the only such logistics centre of Sanden Holdings in Europe. The 6,500 square meters large warehouse with 6,200 pallet positions, situated next to the production facil-ity in Polkowice and connected to it via transport tunnel, allowed the company to centralize the entire distribution and logistics process in a single location. The cost of the investment exceeded 13 mil-lion PLN and was developed in conjunc-tion with Panattoni Europe, a subset of Panattoni Development Company, one of the world’s four largest industrial space developers. The general contrac-tor for the logistics centre was Mirbud S.A, a company with thirty years of ex-perience in construction and more than 350 prestigious projects in its resume.ProductionThe main production focus of Sanden Manufacturing Poland are PX series air conditioning compressors. There are currently two final assembly lines and twenty six process lines for tasks such as electron beam welding, coating, sand-ing and precise machining. Machines that make up the production lines have been supplied by the best manufactur-ers in the industry, such as MTI, Micron, Muratec, Makino and Brother. Industry’s standard technologies have been im-proved by including innovations such as friction welding of aluminum elements and casting moulds micro-spraying. All of Sanden’s products undergo rigorous quality control. The production process is controlled and every step is designed to ensure the compressors are up to strict specifications of cleanliness, noise levels and infallibility. Other than the compres-sors, the production plant in Polkowice also produces HVAC (heating, ventila-tion, and air conditioning) modules re-sponsible for air distribution and tem-perature control in vehicle cabins. There are presently two HVAC assembly lines, with overall production capacity of 150 thousand units per year. Currently Sand-en provides HVAC modules for five mod-els of Scania (a major Swedish manufac-turer of commercial vehicles) trucks and two DAF (Dutch truck manufacturing company, a division of Paccar) models. Sanden Manufacturing Poland’s other important partners include the biggest companies of the automotive industry, such as Aston Martin, Land Rover, Volk-swagen, McClaren, Ford, Jaguar, GM and Opel. It is however important to note, that Sanden has numerous clients and itself relies on multiple suppliers, and all of those partners are treasured equally by the company. In accordance with its “delivering excellence” motto its goal is to always achieve the highest possible standards and deliver perfect quality, a task it can only be equal to thanks to flawless cooperation with all of those partners. Sanden’s operations are con-ducted with minimizing any negative impact on the environment. Sanden is an eco friendly company, engaged in multiple projects benefitting the natural environment. In Japan, the company has been recognized by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Develop-ment and received an award for Sustain-able Manufacturing Good Practices.Junichi TanabeChairman of the BoardAndrzej Michalski Plant ManagerMichał RomanowskiHR DirectorManufacturing-Journal | 33 |Since 1954 LUMEL has been known as a producer of top quality measuring devices and high-pressure die-castings all over the world. In 2018 company, for the second time in a row, was recognized as the most Popular Brand in Poland.Our activitity is focused on the following business areas:Lumel Alucast:Production and execution of aluminum high pressure die-castingsDesigning and execution of moulds and toolsCNC machining, surface treatment, painting and assemblyIn 2017, we produced more than 7 million castings for our key Customers. More than 60% of the production were sold for Automotive Industry. Nearly 40% of our products are components for compressors and their main customer in 2017 was Sanden Manufacturing Poland.Lumel SA:Production of automation devicesServices of designing and manufacturing of automation systemsElectronic manufacturing servicesLumel is a member of an international capital group which consists of the following companies: LUMEL S.A., LUMEL ALUCAST Sp. z o.o.; Rishabh Instruments, Sifam Tinsley US i UK and GEF.DEDICATED SOLUTIONSLUMEL ALUCAST Sp. z o.o.ul. Słubicka 1 65-127 Zielona Góratel.: 68 45 75 100 (centrala)fax: 68 45 75 508e-mail: lumel@lumel.com.plZakład produkcji aparatury kontrolno-pomiarowej LUMEL S.A.ul. Sulechowska 165-022 Zielona Góratel.: 68 45 75 100 (centrala)fax: 68 45 75 508e-mail: lumel@lumel.com.plwww.lumel.com.plTCM International – for more than 25 year the world leader in technology-oriented tool management.Technology-oriented and manufacturer-independent tool management guarantees our customers long-term targeted tool optimization to sustainably reduce or save investments in machine tools in the medium term. True to our motto „Pre-cision at Work”, we want to live our vision in daily dialog and action with our customers and lead them to mutual success.Our main services and products are:Tool Management;Analyses – Tool Management;Regrinding of cutting tools,Dispensing systems – ToolBase;Tools and Production Resources Software – WinTool;Reporting systems – SAP Cockpit, Education center,For more detailed information please visit our web site:www.tcm-international.comwww.tcm-international.comTCM PolskaTool Consulting & Management Sp. z o.o.ul. Fabryczna 4, 59-101 PolkowicePOLANDTel. +48 76 746 46 61Mail: tcm@tcm-international.comwww.tcm-international.com| 34 | Manufacturing-Journal Human resourcesNeither the success of Sanden Manufac-turing Poland nor its parent company would be possible without the hard work and experience of its employees. Since 2011 has doubled its workforce, and currently employs 1184 people. Rec-ognizing their importance, the company continuously invests in its employees, providing them with on the job train-ing (the method SMP puts the biggest emphasis on) and other kinds of inter-nal and external training, as well as op-portunities to participate in conferences and work on various projects. Teamwork is the key for SMP, and the company relies heavily on Small Group Activity ( SGA) problem solving method, where-in small teams of five to seven people, drawn from related departments, work together to present solutions to particu-lar issues. The groups utilize the so called QC Story or quality storyboard method for illustrating the quality control pro-cess and PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Action) based improvement methodology. The SGA approach to problem solving helps new employees to integrate quickly and easily, and helps them to showcase their unique talents. Sanden Manufacturing Poland is one of the leading companies in the world developing this problem solving approach. Another important feature of SMP’s approach to allow-ing the employees to help improve the company is the “leader index”, an anony-mous poll conducted every six months wherein the employees evaluate their leaders/managers leadership and com-munications skills and their ability to motivate subordinates. The analysis of the poll results followed up by necessary improvements aimed at raising employ-ee job satisfaction are key to ensuring the work environment remains friendly, open and conducive to highly efficient work and innovation. Equally impor-tant is the company’s corporate social responsibility policy. Sanden Manufac-turing Poland is dedicated to support-ing equality, by supporting women and handicapped employees. Pregnant em-ployees can expect flexible work hours as well as an adjustment program to help with returning to work after mater-nity leave. SMP also supports charity, lo-cal vocational education (through tours for students and internship programs) and employee sports teams (soccer, vol-leyball).Looking into the futureFollowing rapid growth in recent years, the primary task of the company in near future is stabilization and optimization and fine-tuning of all those innovations and investments to maximize effective-ness. Nevertheless, while there are cur-rently no plans for further expansion of Sanden’s facilities in Polkowice, the ever evolving nature of the market necessi-tates anticipating future changes. One of such changes is the increasing impor-tance of electric cars for the automotive industry, and SMP is considering making producing components for such vehi-cles its next step. Written by Andrzej KaczmarczykManufacturing-Journal | 35 |Company historyThe plant of commercial transport RUSKOMTRANS was created on basis of Mechanicalplant of Balakhna which had been founded in 1934. The last one produced different metal goods and tools as well as spare parts for vehicles. During World War II, the plant accom-plished defense orders for the Soviet Army’s needs. The years after the War, the plant produced municipal vehicles: refuse collectors and all kind of contain-ers. In 2005, the management changed, and the reconstruction of the plant was done, being exact: building of new pro-duction facilities was started, renovation of administrative building was done, spectrum of products was changed. The plant began stake out the market of vans of various applications acquiring the name of the Plant of commercial trans-port RUSKOMTRANS. In 2000s, the plant was focused on the refitting of full metal body vans, speed shops and mobile laboratories. In 2007, RUSKOMTRANS was awarded the status of an exclusive distributor at the territory of Russian Federation of two leading international brands as СТЕ& EFFER and started to produce working aerial platforms and cranes. In 2011, RUSKOMTRANS was recognized as the Best European Dealer of СТЕ. At the moment, there are two plants producing special vehicles situ-ated in Balakhna and Dzerzhinsk cities of Nizhny Novgorod region.Modern manufacturer of a wide range of special equipmentRUSKOMTRANS is a modern, dynamically developing enterprise. The commercial vehicle plant RUSKOMTRANS, located in the city of Balakhna, Nizhny Novgorod region, is a manufacturer of a wide range of special equipment: loader cranes, aerial working platforms, tow trucks, vans, medical and social transport, small capacity buses, mobile workshops, laboratories and spe-cial vehicles.CEO Yuriy FlegontovARTICLES | Transport & logisticsRUSKOMTRANS| 36 | Manufacturing-Journal Main productsEvery year the commercial vehicle plant RUSKOMTRANS produces 1500 units of special equipment. RUSKOMTRANS pro-duces boom-trucks on Russian and for-eign chassis. The company is also an ex-clusive distributor of EFFER cranes - the world leader in the segment of cranes heavy-duty - at the territory of RF. The product range includes modern, high performance cranes with a lifting mo-ment from 2 up to 300 tons/m. Plant of Commercial Transport RusKomTrans is an exclusive distributor at the territory of Russian Federation of cranes HYUN-DAI. The Hyundai cranes are made ac-cording to the highest quality standards. Optimal performances allow to ensure security and a high durability of design. RusKomTrans is also an exclusive distrib-utor of the trade mark Maxilift – micro series of hydraulic cranes with lifting mo-ment up to 4,8 t/m. These cranes could be mounted on rear bodies as well as inside of vans. Cranes SIBERIA are made exclusively for RusKomTrans Ltd. by an Italian company. The range of SIBERIA cranes are mounted on different chassis of local and foreign manufacturers. SIBE-RIA cranes are designed to meet rough weather conditions. RUSKOMTRANS was one of the first who developed an area of production of multi-purpose vehicles demanded on the market. They com-bine several functions such as truck-mounted aerial platform, crane, drilling machine and others. A multi-purpose vehicle combined with functions of crane, working aerial platform and drill mounting. The company produces vans of carcass-type as well as using the tech-nology of bonded sandwich panels of different applications: speed shops and mobile laboratories, crew buses. High-light projects of 2014 were crew buses on SCANIA & MAN chassis. The vans are manufactured on the chassis of Russian and foreign production. One of the most progressive directions is the produc-tion of the recovery trucks on different chassis with different platforms. From 2014, RusKomTrans produces different tank vehicles for all manner of fields of life necessities. The guidelines are: gas-tank, oil, bitumen and water tank trucks as well as tank cisterns for chemical and food products.Manufacturing process and quality controlA dynamic development of the com-pany became possible because of the totality of positive factors. One of them is the introduction and use of princi-ples and tools of KAIZEN management & Lean production in the manufactur-ing. RUSKOMTRANS Ltd. owns 25 ser-vice centers at the territory of Russian Federation. Perform Quality Control of products in the plant is effected by QC department. The receipt inspection of the quality of the main materials is necessary for conformity of materials and parts to determined national and branch standards as well as to technical conditions for the supply of parts and materials. The company runs in-process control to check documents and tech-nologies, rules of storage and packing of the goods between operations. Final quality inspection is performed to check the conformity of the quality of a ready product to standards, technical condi-tions and customer’s requirements.Working aerial platformsRUSKOMTRANS is an exclusive distribu-tor of the CTE S.p.a company (Italy). It offers telescopic and articulated work-ing aerial platforms wheel mounted and tracked ones with lifting height up to 75m. Concerning the boom type, work-ing aerial platforms differ in telescopic Manufacturing-Journal | 37 |and articulated ones. The advantage of telescopic work aerial platforms is sim-plicity of design (main boom + telescopic booms). Telescopic aerials of High Range could be equipped by telescopic jib that allows to reduce the vehicle size in trans-port position. The main difference from articulated aerials is their small size and agility by means of Z – shaped configu-ration of the boom, that ensures a par-allel moving of the boom respect to the object and allows to use the vehicle in narrow spaces. All the work aerial plat-forms of the RusKomTrans Ltd. company could be made on chassis of domestic and foreign manufacturers.Strategic potential The Company has its own Design and Manufacturing Engineering Depart-ment that allows developing a quality design documentation, necessary for the production in conformity to require-ments of Russian Standards and Safety rules. Specialists of the Advanced design Office perfect products taking in con-sideration new tendencies and using various technical innovative solutions. The company is constantly working to increase the upturn in technologic and economic cycles as much as the well-being of the employers; to extend sales markets, upscale production and to cre-ate new job positions as well as to main-tain reputation of the Supplier of the quality product for competitive prices. It is very important for the company to maintain the relationship with the Custоmer to evaluate his requirements and satisfaction and constantly improve the Quality management system in ac-cording to the requirements of GOST R ISO 9001-2011. The company’s goal is to perfect the Perform Quality Control of products through the introduction of PDCA cycle, one of the KAIZEN tools; to provide an efficient and punctual after-sales service and to make an internal dy-namic of improvements the systematic one. RUSKOMTRANS’s clients on the ter-ritory of the Russian Federation are large oil companies, energy companies, man-ufacturers and sellers of special equip-ment, as well as a state leasing company. The partners of the plant are domestic and foreign chassis manufacturers: GAZ, KamAZ, MAZ, URAL Automobile Plant, Mercedes-Benz RUS, Ford Motor Com-pany, Scania, Hyundai ComTrans Rus LLC, Sollers-Elabuga LLC, Nissan Motor RUS LLC, Hino Motors Sales LLC and oth-ers. RUSKOMTRANS is the exclusive dis-tributor in the Russian Federation of the two largest international brands in the sphere of lifting and moving cargoes and people of STE and EFFER, as well as the dealer of Palfinger, UNIC, PM, FASSI, Kanglim, etc., which makes it possible to offer the customer the most effective so-lution for his business.Export to other countriesThe share of export deliveries in the whole volume of goods the com-pany produces is around 10%, but RUSKOMTRANS is constantly working on increasing this share. The company is interested in collaboration with the CIS countries and countries outside of the Commonwealth of Independent States because of the potential demand on the products. The company supplies goods to Armenia, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Turk-menistan, Uzbekistan and has a strong wish to extend the geography of deliv-eries to introduce a large range of equip-ment it produces to the customers. New investmentsAll the profit of the company is now di-rected to the construction of a new pro-duction and the purchase of equipment. RUSKOMTRANS invests continuously into the renewal of plant. The company is constantly buying new equipment, restoring the production and bringing new production technologies. In the nearest future RUSKOMTRANS is plan-ning to make the main investments in new facility situated in Dzerzhinsk Cty, Nizhny Novgorod region. The plant continuously issues new products to the market, develops new projects and improves existing products. Every year, RUSKOMTRANS introduces the new models of working aerial platforms, complicated laboratories, workshops with cranes and this year won’t be an exсeption. Concerning tank vehicles, RUSKOMTRANS is thinking to start pro-duction of aluminium semitrailer tanks and these ones on chassis. Written by MadinaTuravaFACT BOXFULL NAME: CEO: INDUSTRY: ESTABLISHED: EMPLOYEES: TURNOVER: RUSKOMTRANSYuriy FlegontovTransport & logistics20053402 750 016 000 RUBwww.ruscomtrans.ruNext >