Raising standards KLEIN Automotive

RAISING STANDARDS RAISING STANDARDS

KLEIN automotive, based in North Moravia near the Polish border, has supplied metal parts to the automotive industry for over 40 years. In the past decade, the company has become a strategic partner of Skoda Auto, and in 2015 it won the Volkswagen Group Award Certificate granted to the best suppliers. Romana Moares spoke to managing director Radek Hansmann about the company’s latest achievements and its plans for the future.

KLEIN automotive, a successor to a traditional metal component manufacturer, specialises in the production of pressed, welded, machined and assembled parts for the automotive industry. Currently the company offers over 800 products plus a further 200 as spare parts. The automotive sector consumes 95 per cent of its output, while the rest is sold to the electrical sector, which is now declining. About 25 per cent of production is sold to export markets.

Automotive now and always

Klein’s products can be found in the vehicles of most major carmakers, such as Skoda, Volkswagen, Audi, Seat, BMW, Mercedes, Ford, Citroen, Peugeot and Opel. To these leading companies, as well as their suppliers, Klein offers not only reliable manufacturing performance, but also qualified partnership in product and process design and development, quality planning and after sales service and logistics.

Last year, the company changed its name from Klein&Blazek to KLEIN Automotive. “Today’s Klein Group consists of several different companies but the word ‘automotive’ is a clear statement of our business direction as well as our history. Supplying the automotive industry has been our long-term priority, and all internal processes have been set to match the standards required by this very demanding sector. This will remain so well into the future – we do not plan any major diversification into other industries,” says Mr Hansmann.

As mentioned before, although the company’s key customer is Skoda Auto, Klein’s products are supplied to numerous other industry leaders. Among these are: EDSCHA Kamenice nad Lipou, a supplier of door, bonnet and booth hinges for all major European car producers; ThyssenKrupp Bilstein, which uses Klein’s machined parts for its active undercarriage shock absorbers; and KEIHIN Thermal Technology Czech, a major global producer of air conditioning condensers.

Investing in modernisation

The company currently operates two manufacturing plants, both of which have been substantially modernised and equipped with the latest technologies. “The investment was necessary for further company growth. For example, we have purchased a new 1000tonne capacity press to satisfy new projects for Skoda Auto, and have built a new dispatch hall to increase storage capacity as well as to improve internal logistics,” says Mr Hansmann.

Currently there are several parallel improvement projects running to increase production efficiency. Elements of 5S, SMED and the other building blocks of lean manufacturing have been implemented in all workstations and workshops, supported by the recently established Industrial Engineering department.

“For a company such as ours – i.e. a supplier that does not develop the final products – efforts should be directed towards technology and process innovation. We must continuously monitor new trends in production technologies and make use of the latest appli-

cations. This means, to put it simply, purchase modern machines, appropriately train operators and continously seek reserves as well as limit wasteage in internal processes,” Mr Hansmann says.

He further explains that in the next few years the focus, in terms of investment, will be on the welding capability. “We plan to build a new hall for this activity. Current premises have now reached their limits and their layout no longer meets our needs,” he admits.

Among the best

Like any manufacturer, Klein’s biggest concern at the moment is the lack of human resources to support increased capacity. Its management has therefore decided to take a proactive approach to address this issue – within its ‘Partnership’ Project, it contributes to supporting technical education as early as primary school. “We want to show children, in an easy and fun manner, that technical subjects may be interesting, varied and highly promising in terms of their future, while offering them the prospect of stable employment. Together with secondary technical schools and apprenticeship colleges we organise technical work placements, summer jobs etc. We also prepare seminars and workshops for teachers and educators to make them aware of modern technology trends,” explains Mr Hansmann.

These should, of course, continue to support the company’s reputation as a highly reliable and promising business in line with its strategy to further strengthen its position in the global automotive sector. The fact that Klein is well on its way towards this goal was proven in 2015 when the company won a prestigous VW Group Award, the highest possible award for all VW suppliers. “We were the only company nominated from the Czech Republic and we succeeded in getting the award. In this context, I would like to thank all our employes, without whom this success would not be possible,” concludes Mr Hansmann. n