All revved up BorgWarner Turbo Systems

ALL REVVED UP

The small town of Oroszlány, Hungary is home to the second largest production site of the world-leading automotive supplier, BorgWarner. Established in 2001, the factory has seen dynamic growth and investment to date of €25 million. Edina Beale reports.

The American BorgWarner group is a technology leader in the field of turbocharging and today has 59 locations in 19 countries. The group achieved USD 7.2 billion net sales last year; two-thirds of their products are turbocharger systems that allow customers to meet current and future emission standards whilst achieving significant reductions in fuel consumption.

The company sets high standards with regards to performance, smooth running, reliability and durability. BorgWarner Turbo Systems have established sites in Mexico, China, South Korea, Poland and Germany in addition to the Hungarian site in Oroszlány. The German manufacturing site in Kirchheimbolanden is the European centre.

Dynamic growth

BorgWarner turbo chargers are made for cars as well as for light trucks and commercial vehicles. The Hungarian production facility was built in 2001. The factory, located in Oroszlány, was originally built to serve the Audi factory in Hungary. Initially it was only a site to assemble the turbochargers, but soon began to manufacture and assemble the products. The company has seen dynamic development ever since, and has doubled its turnover every year. Parallel to its increasing turnover, the capacity of the production site has also continuously grown, requiring greater investment in infrastructure. Most

recently was in November 2007 when a new 4000m2 production hall opened, increasing the company’s total area to 13,386m2 .

Initially BorgWarner only manufactured turbo systems for passenger cars in its Oroszlány plant. The plant was recently successful in adding a first commercial vehicle turbocharger customer to its portfolio.

The company’s largest client is still Audi but its client base is expanding and now includes other prestigious car manufacturers including Renault, Fiat, VW, BMW, GM/Opel and Volvo.

The demand for cars with turbochargers is on the rise because of their reduced carbon-dioxide emission and increased performance. Therefore it is not surprising that whilst the growth of the global automotive sector was an average 3 per cent in the last decade, BorgWarner achieved five times greater growth in the same period.

The company will continuously improve its product range with newly developed, improved products whilst maintaining high quality. “The company has a really balanced customer portfolio of mass- and premium segment OEM which at the very moment is very beneficial.” admits Mr Attila Bogár, managing director of BorgWarner Turbo System Kft.

In order to cope with expected growth the company, which currently employs 700 people, plans to recruit more staff as well as investing in new equipment and the implementation of new production lines. “At the time of its foundation in 2001, BorgWarner Kft had one customer here; today we have 10 different clients. The complexities of the projects are getting harder, but our excellent team of professionals and existing capacities provide the basis to fully meet the needs of our partners,” says Mr Bogár. Currently more than 90 per cent of products are exported abroad, mostly in Europe, but the company’s turbochargers are also distributed to North America and Asia. “Maintaining the relationships with our

partners on a daily basis is fundamental. We only need to make small changes on our well-developed site to smoothly realise our planned growth.”

Lean management

Besides significant technological investments BorgWarner puts great emphasis on training its human resources, using a new and unique training method. “In order to maintain our competence we have to continue to produce market-leading products and this requires excellent engineering staff that speak many foreign languages,” says Mr Bogár.

Predominantly the company is aiming to maintain its lean concept whilst developing its current site. For example the assembly equipment will be implemented in one direction, whilst the factory will aim to take full advantage of its existing equipment and bring in changes that will increase the efficiency of the production. “We would like to manage our operation based on a concept where decisions are made at the lowest possible levels, which will increase the quality of our products and improve our customer service,” reveals Mr Bogár. “This is quite a serious investment, which is not put into bricks and iron but into our human resources. It is a serious training concept which is only used by a very few companies in Hungary.”

Although there are no rivals in the domestic market, there are many competitors in the region especially in Germany and Slovakia. The managing director of the Hungarian subsidiary however has a clear view how to maintain the business for the long term future: “In the long run we want to be the most effective turbocharger factory that also gains everybody’s support; most importantly we would like to gain the full satisfaction of our partners.” n