Global Insider 02/2010 - Seco-Warwick

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2/2010 CLOSER LOOK AT THE CAB TEAM With great pleasure we would like to present an interview with Piotr Skarbiñski, the CAB GPL. Piotr Skarbiñski Who is a GPL and what is his function? The SECO/WARWICK Group includes companies with a long-term technological achievement in the USA, India and Poland. Recently a new plant in China has joined the Group. A number of products and technologies successfully developed on local (or rather continental) markets constitute the Group's accomplishment. The point is to launch these products in other companies of our Group. It is essential to introduce broadly defined technical management of individual products, management which is involved with all aspects of the Group's activity; in practice - global management. That is why a GPL (Global Product Leader) has been appointed for every product. Who is the GPL's partner in this task? This is a very relevant question! Long-term activity in our trade, beginning with activity of our mother company SWCorp., and later SW in Œwiebodzin, has proved that an organization based on teams is the best solution. These teams are focused on individual products. They work on product marketing, sales, design, quality control and assembly as well as start-up and service. Shortly speaking, teams are responsible for fulfilling requirements and achieving customer satisfaction while maintaining each projects' profitability. When it comes to the product which I am in charge of - Aluminum Brazing Furnaces (CAB), in every company of our Group there is at least product specialists for the team. We have created a model where teams take products to their respective markets and the GPL supervises the technical and marketing strategy. This is what the should look like in the future and how it already works in SWC and SWSA. In cases where a product is first introduced, the GPL should have a large contribution to the training process and participate in meetings with customers, ensure support during offers and project creation and at a later stage, supervise product manufacturing. So the GPL's task is to be a global 'master' of the product? Yes, the GPL's job description contains functions like supervision of the product global marketing, price strategy, development and research, but also supervision of offers' technical content, in particular, guarantees of fulfilling technical conditions and norms and selection of key materials. The GPL has influence on the selection of an order's executor within SW Group, taking into account not only the costs, but also the technical capacities of the individual Companies. It sounds very ambitious, but what does this look like in CAB practice? In practice I have performed this function for a few years now, but during the SECO/WARWICK PRESIDENTS MEETING, which took place in April of this year, the rules and principles for cooperation within the Group were established in detail, including principles for the GPLs functions. The rules take into account the unique characteristics of the situation and experience between individual companies. For example, SWC in the USA is the company who had been the first to develop CAB as early as the eighties. Chuck Field, who is the CAB Team Leader in SWC, has the greatest experience in this product within the whole SW Group. I have been learning from him and Jeff Boswell while introducing CAB to SW in Poland 10 years ago. At present, a limited market in the NAFTA region does not require a full expansion of the CAB Team in SWC, but Chuck along with Mike Jacobs, sales SWC CAB Team (from the left: Dan Maloney, Mike Jacobs, Bruce Kramer, Chuck Field) engineer and customers contact project coordinator, are independent. In turn, SWAllied is only starting the development of CAB furnaces. The team that is formed there does not yet have experience in aluminum brazing equipment, however, they have vast general experience in industrial furnace production. Assistance for Nambiar Sreenath, CAB Team Leader and P.V. Marydas, sales engineer, consists of preparation of initial projects and offers and joint visits at potential customers. I hope that we will not have to wait long for the rewards for this work as there are at least two 'hot prospects' which should result in orders shortly. S.Nambiar P.V. Marydas A good learning opportunity and a chance to gain some experience for SWAllied is the relocation of CAB line from the USA to India. The main order executor is SWC and SWAllied will perform the role of a subcontractor providing staff for assembly and supporting start-up. I hope that after this task our colleagues from India will be able to put their first furnace into service with just a little help on our side. What is the situation in China, it is yet the fastest growing market, also in CAB? Key market has received key support. As everybody certainly knows S³awek WoŸniak who is the pillar of our CAB team in SWSA, is S³awek WoŸniak currently the Deputy Director in SWR in Tianjin. CAB furnaces, next to vacuum furnaces, are one of the two strategic products. Thanks to S³awek's presence there we do not need to waste time on training. The company has been in operation since May this year. One furnace has already been shipped to the customer, the second one is in final assembly stage, and the third one has been contracted a few days before our conversation. Congratulations S³awek! 2 Poland • USA • China • India • Russia
2/2010 At full blast – the Cab Team SWSA What company operating only for a few months is able to develop so fast and perform sales? SWR operates within the SW Group and receives support from the CAB Team in Œwiebodzin. Obviously, market saturation poses the ultimate external condition. Activity in China (and not only there) means making a large quantity of offers. Their preparation must be preceded by the initial specifications. This is the role of our CAB Team in Œwiebodzin and Shwan Zhang, SWR project engineer, who has a vast experience in this area. After receiving an order, the technical specification frequently, the delivery of key components and technical supervision of production quality is performed by Sebastian Brzemiñski who has also been assigned exclusively to Chinese projects. At this point I would like to thank all of my colleagues from the CAB Team for their involvement in projects executed in cooperation with China and initial projects, calculations, offers, etc. executed for the needs of other teams of the SW Group. I think that we are all aware how significantly this contributes to the global development of the product. I believe that the development of CAB in new companies within the Group will allow us to maintain our leadership position in new markets at the moment when 'old' markets are facing difficult time. You are also responsible for technical development of CAB product. What have you managed to achieve lately in this field? We have introduced many unique projects, for example a furnace for brazing industrial "plate and bar" type heat exchangers in a vertical arrangement. We know that the parameters of our furnace go beyond all other equipment for brazing this unusual product. Nevertheless, the most significant project of R&D is the brazing center, which we established in Œwiebodzin. It is based on three chamber furnace with semi-continuous operating mode. This project, for which we received a European Union subsidy, has a few objectives. First, it enables brazing of heat exchangers prototypes for potential customers who want to commence production line based on the CAB technology. Second, it allows us to establish or check the technological parameters for the brazing process of unusual products, which in turn facilitates accurate preparation of initial projects. It is also a place where we can launch and test construction innovations of our furnaces. What are your aims for the future? Apart from the main GPL tasks, I would like to continue working on costs. The SW brand in the CAB trade is known all over the world. We are perceived as a "top shelf" supplier and we do our best to keep it this way. However, in this more difficult time we have to ensure maintaining competitiveness in relation to other products from a 'lower shelf' offered by competitors in the Far East. Thank you for the interview. NEW EQUIPMENT IN THE ALUMINUM PROCESS TEAM In August this year finalized an agreement to acquire of the IP (Intellectual Property) from Swedish company - IUT (Industriell Ugnsteknik Sweden AB) for two types of equipment that complement the range of products offered by the Aluminum Process Team. The first equipment type, that plays a crucial role in the SECO/WARWICK development strategy within aluminum industry, is a complete technological line for continuous billet homogenization (Picture 1). Continuous homogenization furnaces are used by manufacturers of aluminum alloy billets. Aluminum billets are an intermediate product in production of aluminum profiles. The final product applications include such popular and diverse industries such as: aviation, transportation, including the automobile and railway industry, construction and road infrastructure and many others. Continuous billet homogenization lines enjoy continuous interest on the market to improve material handling andprocess efficiency. Through the acquisition of this incredibly advanced equipment we now belong to an exclusive group of only a few significant that have the capability to design and manufacture continuous lines. The second group of equipment acquired by SECO/WARWICK includes vertical furnaces for saturation (hardening in water or chemical substances) of elements made of aluminum alloys (Picture 2), frequently called drop-bottomsolution heat treat furnaces. Application of this type of furnace is very popular in the aviation industry, primarily due to fast transfer speed of the hot load from the heating chamber to the quench tank. This type of equipment is also popular in the automobile industry. The current market trend, forcing manufacturers to continuously search for savings in a car's weight has led automotive manufacturers to continue to replace steel components with aluminum. This undertaking extends our oportunities and reinforces the market position of SECO/ WARWICK as a global supplier of industrial furnaces for a variety of many elements in production chain in aluminum industry. Jaros³aw Talerzak, Aluminium Team Director Poland • USA • China • India • Russia 3
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