Delivering innovative, cost-effective solutions

Adiator is a technology leader in the development and production of tailor-made electromechanical solutions. Philip Yorke spoke to Rikard Rockhammar, the company’s managing director, about its unique products, its innovative human-interface solutions and itsmove into new market sectors.

Stockholm-based Adiator is part of the well-known Addtech Group of Sweden which comprises of more than 100 specialist engineering companies. As part of the financially strong Addtech Group, Adiator benefits not only from its liquidity but also from its broad engineering expertise, and works within the goals set by its parent company. Adiator is a highly specialised company whose core products include customised push-button solutions, control panels, sensors and human interface components mainly for the automotive and construction industries.

This innovative company has a business model which optimises manufacturing efficiency and cost-effectiveness through a proven network of production units which are designed to enable it to achieve maximum flexibility. In addition, this gives the company a unique ability to handle relatively small production volumes, which in turn bridges a gap in both of its core markets.

Adiator is well respected within the industry and complies with a number of key industrial certifications, such as ISO/TS 16949 (automotive), ISO9001 (management) and ISO14001 (environment) and takes full responsibility for the entire lifecycle of a product from feasibility and design, through to production, delivery and after-sales service. In line with its customer’s own work parameters, the company subscribes to the latest ‘lean’ production protocols where cost-effectiveness and efficiency enable it to deliver its products on time and within budget.

Better by design

Another major advantage that helps to differentiate Adiator from its competitors is the importance that it places on the ability of its innovative design teams, whose main task is

www.jfv.dk

WHO WE ARE

Jaegerspris Finmekanisk is a Danish family business that has been engineering and manufacturing small precision mechanic components for more than 40 years. Our focus is mainly on the needs of pharmaceutical, Electronic and offshore clients.

WHAT WE DO

We take charge of the entire process and provide: • Preparing the construction data for production. • Climate controlled precision measurement. • CNC turning and milling. • Laser welding and laser engraving. • Surface- and heat treatment. • Assembly and completion of product lines from 1 to 500.000 units p.a. • Certifiable management and control according to ISO 9001:2008 standards.

to fully understand its customers’ needs. Its ability to meet tough requirements and delivery schedules in volumes that are uneconomic for the bigger companies, makes Adiator unique. Thanks to its extensive expertise and experience coupled with its good relationships with key suppliers of standard components, Adiator can develop the most cost-effective turnkey solutions for its clients.

Mr Rockhammar said, “We pride ourselves on our ability to come up with innovative, creative ideas that offer optimal solutions for our customers. We work with everything within HMI (human machine interface) and design and manufacture a diverse range of products and solutions from sensors and switches to heating and cooling controls. We market products under licence, as well as our own, and we are seeing strong growth in areas such as sensors, HMI and more recently in the design of heating and cooling solutions. All our R&D is conducted in-house and we have considerable resources at our disposal considering the size of our company, which currently has a turnover approaching €12 million.

“Today we supply some very big automotive brands such as Scania and Volvo, who we work with in three key areas: truck, bus and the construction sector. Unlike the big players, we are only interested in small to medium-size production runs of between 2000 and 100,000 pieces and have the advantage of being a small player in a big construction and automotive world. Therefore we can offer a very flexible, more personal and dedicated service with a wider range of options. More and more companies are trying to copy our business model but it takes many years to amass the skill-sets that we have acquired over many years.”

Mr Rockhammar added, “Our in-house experts all operate as project managers, and work closely with our strategic partners so we can always guarantee the highest level of competence for any individual project. A significant growth area for us is sensors where we can offer in-depth expertise and a wide range of standard products. With these we can add value solutions in low volumes. For example, we might have a client with a situation where they want to change an aspect of a sensor’s function in the human interface and they would not be interested in making a unique part for such a low volume. Here we can be the processing step in between, by adding a communication module between the sensor and a vehicle’s ECU. In fact, in some cases we have also developed solutions with several sensors with just one common interface.”

Flexible, dedicated production process

Adiator has perfected a design and production flow process that optimises its efficiency and cost-effectiveness. The company operates two state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities, one in Solvesborg, Sweden, and another in Riga, Latvia. This arrangement means that at the beginning of a project, Adiator can establish a production line in Solvesborg and then when it is optimised, move it to Riga for even more cost-effective production. Often engineers from Riga come to Sweden to work and familiarise themselves with the project and receive training on the production line prior to starting full scale production in Riga.

There are on going projects at all times in Solvesborg, but for larger volumes it makes more economic sense to move larger scale production to Latvia. This kind of production flexibility is uncommon in the automotive industry and rarely seen in the construction industry either, which makes Adiator a company that is matched in price and innovation by very few. n

For further information about Adiator’s innovative products and services visit: www.adiator.com