master factory Festo

master factory

The fourth industrial revolution relies heavily on digitalisation and requires production technologies and future-orientated professionals. Festo is leading the way in automation and its production site in Hungary is now opening up opportunities for small and medium firms to join the digital revolution. Edina Beale reports.

Festo is a German multinational industrial control and automation company based in Esslingen am Neckar. The company was set up by Gottlieb Stoll and Albert Fezer in 1925 to produce wood processing machines. Later, pneumatic technology, which is closely related to automation technology, was brought in from the USA by one of the founders. Festo soon realised that there was little knowledge about automation technology in Germany at the time, leading to the establishment of Didactic in 1965 to provide technical education services whilst introducing this new production technology to the market.

Since the founding of the family business, quality and innovation have been the highest priorities and its philosophy is to ‘maintain the same quality anywhere in the world’. Over 300 patents and more than 80 awards for its products and business practice prove that these principles are worth focusing on. Today Festo is present in 61 countries and employs 20,000 people worldwide.

Second largest production plant in europe

Festo was established in Hungary in 1982 but the company only began production in 1992 with 30 people. In the past 10 years, over €100 million has been invested to extend the size of this plant, and today it employs 1400 people.

In Europe, Festo-AM Gyártó Kft is the Festo’s second largest production plant after its German site. The group manufactures products in Hungary that are not produced anywhere else in the world and therefore the majority of product development is also carried out at the Budapest plant. Production is only semi-automated, as products are manufactured in small quantities. Core products include pneumatic engines and equipment, compressed air preparation units and handling systems. Vacuum technology, cylinders and valves for movement and operations are also important areas of production. Although Festo serves a wide range of industries with these products today, the main target markets are the automotive, food and electronics and – more recently – the chemical and pharmaceutical markets.

education and consultancy services

Besides production, Festo operates an educational unit and consultancy business at its Budapest site. “We stand on three legs: as a manufacturer, as an education provider and as a professional consultancy business to serve all industrial partners with our products and their applications,” explains Mr Márton Szövényi-Lux, managing director of Festo Kft. “This is lucky because we see all parts of the process: what product we need in order to become more efficient, and how we need to educate people in order for them to learn how to use this product. Furthermore, our engineering consultants are able to provide our partners with high quality advice as their knowledge is based on in-house experience.”

Industry 4.0 initiative

Festo is a member of the German Federal Government’s ‘Industry 4.0’ initiative, and is involved in all key standards associations and programmes on this topic. Recently Festo in Hungary has been selected

to become one of the five Master Factories that will facilitate small- and medium-sized companies in Hungary to get involved in the multinational and digital industry. From the spring of 2018 the firm will welcome company managers in its Budapest production site where various automation solutions will be presented with the aim of helping them think about their own processes and how they can improve on them. “We believe that managers need to take a different approach in order to see the importance of joining this futuristic world,” says Mr Szövényi-Lux. “Our task first is to convince them that they are capable of introducing these technologies step by step into their operations.”

Workplace requirements have changed over the last decade and education today is vital. It is no longer the case that a person can learn a profession at a young age and work throughout their lives with the same skillset. “Today employees at all levels must train themselves continuously. Festo is the world leader in technical education and that is the basic pillar of this programme. It is important that we already have a tool system that is able to teach the technologies of Industry 4.0 and provide practical learning opportunities.

“We expect 1700 visitors in the next two years. ‘Industry 4.0’ is related to digital technology and this is developing so fast that in our second host year we may have to replace some of the technologies. This is a flexible project in which we will have to be prepared daily in order to stay completely up-to-date.”

Special know-how

Festo normally invests 8 per cent of its turnover every year into research and development. “What is fantastic about Festo is that the group is continuously thinking about the future and making long-term strategic plans to maintain its leadership,” says Mr Szövényi-Lux. “They consider our opinion, no matter what the size of our country. They look at what added value we bring to the company and what ideas we have. Some unique solutions that our engineers have recently developed are now being transferred to the US and Chinese factories. Here in Hungary our know-how and extensive experience is so valuable now that we could hold our own anywhere in the world.” n