Pride in every move Aarbakke

PRIDE IN EVERY MOVE

Aarbakke AS is one of the world’s leading machining companies. Abigail Saltmarsh reports on its operation.

AT Norwegian Aarbakke AS the motto is Pride in Every Move – and president Inge Brigt Aarbakke can be justifiably proud. Under the guidance of its CEO, the company has gone from strength to strength, and today, as one of the world’s leading machining companies, it is about to expand its capacity to meet increasing demand.

“I started the company back in 1981 with one CMC machine,” says Mr Aarbakke. “We started off just machining parts for Norwegian industry. After five or six years, however, we began supplying the oil and gas industry and that is where we are today.

“Now all our customers supply and install critical systems for the oil industry.”

He goes on: “We have seen significant growth since then. Today we employ 280 people and last year we saw a turnover of €110 million and are now about to embark upon this expansion.”

Complete control

Aarbakke is located in the Stavanger region, in the heartland of Norway’s oil industry. The region also has a long industrial tradition, based on practical solutions to specific problems, says Mr Aarbakke.

“This tradition remains important to our employees. Our core values include knowledge, honesty, fellowship, winning culture and quality. Aarbakke has been built on this region’s industrial heritage, characterised by pride, hard work and innovation. Quality, delivery time, traceability and documentation have been key success factors for us.

“In order to meet customer expectations on these factors, we have developed our Monza engine, a complete control and production monitoring tool that controls every process in the company.”

Global customers

Aarbakke delivers advanced turnkey solutions, assembly and parts to the oil industry. It focuses on subsea and downhole systems.

“We produce everything in house and have complete control of everything,” he explains. “We can deliver entire projects from the initial idea to engineering, purchase of materials and components, production, assembly and testing. All parts and components are verified and documented at all stages throughout the process.”

Aarbakke, who has six major customers, prides itself on developing long-term relationships. It works closely with its customers to develop those relationships.

“Our customers are all global operators, who are based in Houston – the biggest oil sales centre in the world,” he adds.

Extra capacity

As part of its growth plans, Aarbakke is building a new hall for assembly and testing. The hall will be built on a 12,000m2 plot near the current facilities at Håland in Bryne.

“Many of our customers are growing and demanding greater capacity. In addition, we have recently signed several long-term agreements that require predictability,” he says. This expansion is therefore an important and integral part of our plans for the future. We plan to start building work after the summer.”

The new hall, which represents a total investment of more than €26 million, should be operational by May or June 2014, he continues. It will see Aarbakke increase its workforce to 325 employees.

“The new facility will also allow us to double production,” Mr Aarbakke stresses. “Many of our customers are growing and demanding greater capacity. In addition,

The company was started in 2004 and we have grown to be one of the leading paint workshops in this region.

Jaeren Overflatebehandling provides services for oil companys in industrial coating, xylan and metallisation.

www.j-overflate.no

we have recently signed several long-term agreements that require predictability. This expansion is therefore an important and integral part of our plans for the future.”

Engineering department

The growth of Aarbakke is also seeing it establish a dedicated engineering department. The new department will be located in the Forum Jæren business centre in central Bryne.

The plan is that the department will eventually have 20 engineers in addition to an administrative head. The recruitment process is already under way to ensure that the department is operational as soon as possible.

“Several of our customers want us to be more involved in the engineering aspects of projects. The establishment of an engineering department will enable us to deliver turn key projects, as well as allowing us to take on larger projects.

“The engineering department will work in close collaboration with both the customers and the production team to ensure top quality in all our deliveries and quick service. Our goal is to develop in line with our customers’ needs, which is why we are taking this step now,” Mr Aarbakke says. “Our plan is to grow by about 20 to 25 per cent every year.”

And he adds: “This is another example of how we aim to be best at whatever we do, and to develop together with our customers. That means top quality machinery, control of all processes and a highly qualified workforce. But above all, it means that we take pride in every move we make.” n