Unit handling plant opens

It is an investment of over 3 million Euros that is part of a further engagement towards supplying a market that has increasingly challenging service levels.

The target is to provide customers with delivery times of between 6 to 8 days, in line with the general requirements of the European market.

The new production facility is organised into cells; each cell is individually specialised to work according to the basic principles of the “Lean” approach for production and according to the “Kaizen” principle of continuous improvement. Three of the expected 5 cells have been operating since June 2016. Every cell is composed of 3 working points: a shaft machining centre, a tube machining centre and a final assembly machine.

Rulmeca has created this new production building to be totally dedicated to the machining and assembly of non-welded rollers. It was decided that the production of welded rollers with their slightly differing production cycles and techniques was better optimised by remaining in the original building. 

The main principles in the design of the new plant were the speed in throughput and the flexibility of manufacture: every cell is specialised but is also flexible to receive the special requests for tailor-made products.

The investment meant new lines of production in new buildings and so required an especially strong effort on the people employed. (about 24 people, of which 15 are new workers) This was needed in order to reach the necessary level of interchange on the different locations inside the cells and for the learning of the Kaizen techniques of continuous improvement.

With this investment Rulmeca is further strengthening its market position as a quality components manufacturer in the European Unit Handling field of applications.

“Moving ahead” is the motto that Rulmeca has adopted: 11 production companies, 9 sales companies with a total of 2,100 employed people globally for the service to our international customers.