Investment in precision Linamar

INVESTMENT IN PRECISION

Linamar has been investing in its Hungarian operations for 20 years now. Its latest investment project was completed in March this year, when the capacities of Linamar Hungary Zrt were significantly increased to maintain competitiveness in both the automotive sector and in general machine production. Edina Beale investigates.

The Canadian multinational Linamar Corporation is a leading designer and diversified manufacturer of precision metallic components and systems for the automotive industry, energy and mobile industrial markets. The group acquired a presence in Hungary in 1992 and introduced new technological solutions and an efficient working culture to the small town of Orosháza, in the south-east of Hungary. Since then the staff number of Linamar Hungary Zrt has grown from 354 to 2170 whilst the initial turnover of HUF 602 million has now reached HUF37.3 billion.

At present there are three production centres in Hungary, two of them engaged in the automotive and precision component production. These plants are located in Békéscsaba and Orosháza whilst the division in Oros specialises in general machine production. Today Linamar Hungary Zrt is a vital part of the Linamar global operations and investments have been constantly made by the group to increase the firm’s competitiveness in its markets. The latest investment project was completed in March this year. Mr Csaba Havasi, the managing director of the Linamar group in Europe said in its statement to the MTI: “We opened a new manufacturing facility of Linamar Hungary Zrt as part of a HUF 6.9 billion investment. The company’s 11 000 m2 capacity was increased by 5 000 m2 in Orosháza, whilst new modern reception area and offices were built. The company received a HUF 1.5 billion fund from the Economic Operative Programme.

“Linamar in Hungary is the largest employment provider in the region. Significant investments were made to acquire new machinery and assets for both the automotive and machine manufacturing units, and we will continue with these investments this year. As a result of this development we created an extra 250 jobs.”

Diverse portfolio

The company manufactures a wide range of products for the automotive industry; the portfolio includes engine components, gearbox-, driving-, braking-, steering wheel-, and

compressor components. In addition to this, the production of large size generator components and motor generator components is also significant. Both automotive divisions acquired the ISO TS 16949 quality assurance certificate in addition to meeting the criteria of the environmental EN ISO 14001 and the health and safety requirements of the OHSAS 18001standards.

The Oros division specialises in general machine production; its product range includes agricultural machinery, road construction machines and erector machines for the construction industry. The Oros division has been developing and supplying corn and sunflower adapters for over 35 years. During this period 30,000 pieces of corn harvesting adapters have been made and sold in many different parts of the world. Recent product launches

The company’s core product is the high quality corn harvesting adapter, the Oros cornhead, that can be fitted to all types of harvesters, and is suitable for harvesting corns and sunflowers that are planted in 70–100cm rows. The company’s CORNADO corn harvesting machines were redeveloped this year; customers can choose from 6 rows to 16 rows, or whether they want the product to be fixed or foldable.

Continuous product development has always been a priority focus in the Oros division. The Oros Sun hydrostatic sunflower harvesting adapter was launched in 2011. This is an innovative quality product, which is equipped with a stalk crashing facility whilst operating with reduced energy and minimising seed dropping. During the development process the company’s aim was to develop an adapter that reduces harvesting waste to a minimum: the adapter is fitted with a row of trays that collect the falling sunflower heads and seeds. Its simple construction and light weight also allow users to significantly reduce costs during the harvesting process.

Strong presence

In parallel with the global strategy of the Linamar group, Linamar Hungary Zrt mainly concentrates on the European market; more than 80 per cent of the products are exported to countries including Germany, the UK, France, the Ukraine, Russia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Croatia. The company’s own development products are also sold in North America.

The HNS ANDON System is an emergency call system that is based on light and sound signals. It is a means of visual management, which is primarily used in the production.

The HNS ANDON System makes it possible that at the defined points of the production process, commendably at all work stations, there is a tool, by whose help with different light and sound signals the colleagues can alert the competent professional that is able to solve the problem. Each signal has this meaning, so from the signal it can be immediately defined, where and which problem has occurred.

HNS ANDON System enables: line workers to indicate their quality problems, material or maintenance needs, or furthermore, to call their team leader to measure the frequency and the nature of the calls and the time passed till the beginning of and during the service the management to be well informed by getting automatically generated daily reports to record and help the activity of the workers to increase the problem recognition ability and problem solving effi ciency during the production process

HNS Technical Development Ltd. 9027 Győr, Gesztenyefa 4, Hungary www.hns.eu/spc

Mr Janos Ivanics, CEO of the Linamar Hungary Zrt has numerous reasons to be confident about the company’s future: “We have strengthened our position in the domestic market in both activities, and in 2012 we expect further growth as a result of the large and increasing demand for our products. Due to the considerable amount of funds we received for investment purposes, our technological developments have been significant in recent times. In addition to this, we have increased our efficiency by raising our requirements to recruit skilled professionals and by continuously improving our work environment. “We will continue our investments in the next few years in both automotive component production and in the machine manufacturing division too. The customer base of Linamar is continuously expanding, and our capacities in both automotive divisions are 100 per cent utiliSed. In the next few years we would like to continue to extend our capacities in this sector as well as in our own machinery production.” n