AWARD WINNERS
Five-time Winner of Gold Founded six decades ago in Kaunas, the company Kauno Energetikos Remontas is not only one of the oldest but also one of the largest energy sector companies in the Baltic States. For a fourth time in a row and for a fifth time since 2000, it has received the gold medal under the Product of the Year nomination.
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Chemijos St. 17 LT-51331, Kaunas Ph. +370 (37) 456702 Fax. +370 (37) 452948 E-mail. ker@ker.lt www.ker.lt 30
Lithuanian Business Review
n the competition Product of the Year 2007, organized by the Confederation of Industrialists, the company earned the gold medal for the manufacturing and installation of heating surfaces for exhaustheat boilers KU-125 of the oil refinery Mažeikių Nafta. In addition, it excelled at the Confederation’s competition Successful Company 2007. In the opinion of Albertas Kazys Navickas, Director General of UAB Kauno Energetikos Remontas (KER), the main secret of the company’s success is balanced and professional staff: “A good team and good specialists are the basis of our company. As a leader, I have the responsibility to maintain this team. So far, I believe I have been successful, as the majority of the qualified staff have been working for us for more than one decade.” Working at oil industry objects is a very complicated process because specific technological requirements apply there. “The conditions were exceptional, as we had no special technical documentation and no knowledge of similar technical solutions in the past. Using their prior experience, our specialists manufactured and assembled a unique product. This boiler is a complicated structure of metal pipes,” says Mr. Navickas. The company’s specialists have worked in nearly every corner of Lithuania. The customers of KER include hydropower plants, heat and nuclear power plants, industrial enterprises, electric and heat networks and construction companies based in Lithuania and abroad. Having earned the trust of its clients through its work, UAB Kauno Energetikos Remontas reconstructs and builds energy objects, builds and installs 330 kV substations and switchyards. It performs diagnostics, modernization, repairs and installation of power machinery and manufactures its spare parts as well as containers of various sizes and designation and metal structures for con-
• 2007/06
struction organizations and industrial enterprises. The company’s laboratories use destructive and nondestructive methods to perform the control of metal structures and pipeline metal and their welded joints, carries out complex diagnostics of power transformers, thermographic control of steam and hot water pipelines, electric tests of power engines etc. In 2006-2007, the company carried out works at a variety of energy objects and industrial enterprises. They include AB Lietuvos Elektrinė, Kruonis Pumped Storage Power Plant, Kaunas Hydro-power Plant, AB Mažeikių Nafta, UAB Vilniaus Energija, UAB Cosmica, UAB Enerstena, VĮ Visagino Energija, UAB Kauno TE, Alytus machinery plant Astra, and others. The company is wellknown in Europe. KER has been successfully functioning in competitive conditions. It makes products and provides services to companies from Germany, Denmark, Poland, Norway, Estonia, Latvia and other countries. Export accounts for 15% of the company’s production volume. UAB Kauno Energetikos Remontas keeps in step with technological novelties. Therefore, its future plans include the strengthening of its technical facilities. It intends to renew equipment, modernize technologies and reconstruct structures. In addition to the current automated welding line, in the first quarter of 2008 the company is going to acquire a computer-controlled automated machine for pipe bending, which will enable the modernization of manufacturing processes and make operations faster and more precise. KER has implemented an integrated management system of quality, environmental protection, occupational safety and health in accordance with the international standards ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001, the application of which help the company maintain its leadership.