manufacturing

People of Steel

If you can dream it in high-strength steel, Fortaco Jászberény can probably make it.

If it’s made of high-strength or mild steel and weighs between 100 kilograms and 60 tons, Sebastian Kun and his team at Fortaco in Jászberény, Hungary, can probably manufacture it.

While the team mostly produces steel structures for customers in materials handling, energy, and mining, they can also make you a chocolate mixer.

Flexible enough for chocolate

Sebastian Kun, Fortaco Jászberény's sales manager, doesn't foresee a big future for Fortaco in the confectionary industry, but the manufacturing of chocolate mixers are what happens when being agile is in your DNA.

"We're a reliable partner for OEMs, because we’re flexible enough to withstand market fluctuations," says Kun. "In our three business segments we try to serve the top three OEMs. Each of these segments has different market fluctuations, and not being bound to one single segment allows us to balance capacity with demand."

Kun says the chocolate mixers are a real novelty for guests at Jászberény. “Visitors are baffled that the mixers aren’t stainless. But chocolate has so much fat that stainless isn’t required. The customer’s cost savings by not using stainless are significant. We grind the surface, treat it with food oil, and it’s ready to go.”

Secret tank manufacturers

Even before the Jászberény plant joined the Fortaco organization in 2013, it had a history of flexibility. Founded in 1951 under the name Aprítógépgyár, it produced stone crushers and classifiers. Unofficially, it also made military equipment. At one point in its history, it also designed and made its own rolling machine.

Kun joined the Jászberény plant in 2007. He combines a pedigree in steel fabrication — his father owned a steel fabrication company and machine shop — with languages. “Manufacturers in Hungary are very dependent on the German market,” he says, “and surprisingly few engineers of my age were fluent in German.” Born to a German mother, Kun found that his German, combined with his English, made him valuable to both suppliers and customers.

He started in the purchasing department for ready-to-weld parts, implemented the ERP system, and in 2009 switched from sourcing to sales, a move he jokes was “from the dark side to the light side.” He became a part of the cost calculation team, then a sales engineer, and in 2017 became Sales Manager. Kun runs a team of five, three in logistics and two in sales, backed by the plant’s other 400 team members.

Happy birthday, Jászberény!

Next year, Fortaco’s Jászberény plant will celebrate its 70th birthday. What would Kun like to receive as a gift? More customers is one thing. He sees capacity for taking on more clients looking for 20- to 30-ton products and seeking support from the design stage through to final production of plug-and-play equipment.

“We’re uniquely equipped to handle project- and serial business in manual- and robot welding, plus modular assembly,” he says, nothing that the plant is already doing modular assembly for clients like Komatsu and Liebherr. “We support the customer with ready-to-install modular products. When their product isn’t traveling from one factory to another, there’s a victory with reduced lead time and more flexibility.”


New Fortaco Narva Factory Complex from outside

Building New Opportunities

The new factory in Narva was launched this autumn, signifying a milestone in the industrial development of the region. The factory extension project was kicked-off in 2015, when lack of space, capacity constraints and overload of new project implementations were foreseen.

Andrey Ponomarev at Fortaco Estonia was appointed as Project Manager. Working in this kind of project was familiar to Andrey, he has worked in similar start-up projects in the automotive industry. “But this was the biggest project, which I have participated from the idea and design stage. What is great, that our ideas and wishes have now been implemented in reality.”

For two years, before the construction work was started, Andrey participated the project documentation development, and paperwork took quite a long time to be finished. When a contract was signed, things started to be moving on fast. “The most memorable moments were, of course, in the beginning and at the end of construction. We built a good cooperation within our Fortaco team and with our external partners. The project was like a fresh wave for our daily routine jobs.”

Like in any project, there are always things you can learn from, and which need to be taken into consideration to make the next similar project easier. The biggest challenges were found during the construction work, mostly related to extra work, and to keep up with a somewhat tight schedule. In Fortaco team we had some parallel projects ongoing, the new equipment was needed to be purchased and installed to the right places at the same time when the new factory started to take a shape. “We had to investigate each task carefully, and also fast, to keep everything rolling. For example, when purchasing CNC machines and planning their foundation and installation, we had to make sure, these tasks would not influence on the construction schedule, and machines will be available for use when the permission of usage of the new building is received.”

There are some key elements Andrey would like to stress, when working with the project like this:

Carefully check the partners. The cheapest solution might not be the one with most benefits. Surprises during the construction process usually are not good, and you want to avoid them, as they have a habit to turn out to be expensive.

Check the commercial offer precisely, and make sure the contracts with all parties are transparent. Hereby you will avoid misunderstandings in case there happens to be any deviations from the contract or schedule during the process.

Be active - this is very important, time is money. All people involved must understand their role, and they also have to be willing to make decisions, if required. Some decisions need extra monitoring, but also this should be a rapid process.

Andrey was glad to see how the professional cooperation between the external partners and Fortaco team enabled the launch of new factory just according to the schedule, and he hopes Fortaco employees will be happy to work with the new equipment and technology. “I would like to say big thanks to all people who participated, including our partners and my colleagues in Fortaco. I believe, this new factory will create new opportunities to increase our business, and also employment in Narva region”.


Milestone in Narva industrial development – new factory launched

“This was a project, which was really big – maybe it turns out to be the biggest project in my life”.

A factory extension project was kicked-off in 2015, when we first time started to foresee an overload of new project implementations, and lack of space, as well as capacity constraints. Many actions were connected to operational excellence allowing us to accommodate additional work into the company up to +100%. 30 revisions of a business plan were executed before the final approval.

Mid 2017, when we celebrated a 70 year anniversary of Fortaco Estonia, we officially announced the start of the extension project. This will be an investment of 10.000 m2 in factory floor as well as investments in several welding robots, CNC machines and bending capacity, in total 10 MEUR. The extension project was supported by the Estonian government with the amount of approx. 1 MEUR.

Before autumn 2017 old buildings were demolished, and we started technical design for a new production hall. After extensive technical and commercial preparations a construction work was started by a contractor, Rand and Tuulberg, during summer 2019. We assigned Andrey Ponomarev from Fortaco Estonia as Project Manager. Andrey was doing excellent job in cooperation with all stakeholders. Thanks to all dedicated work done by the project team, partners, Fortaco Estonia Leadership Team, we managed to finish construction work successfully in August 2020 – according to time schedule.

”This was the biggest project I have participated from a concept and design stage, and I think this was like a fresh wave for us in our daily routine jobs. There were some challenges during the project, but all of them have been analyzed and worked through for a next similar project. The most memorable moments are in the beginning and at the end of construction; I was participating in project documentation and development for two years before the real construction work was started, and it was nice to see the factory layout starting to be realized with equipment installation” – Andrey Ponomarev.

In 2020 Fortaco Estonia was awarded by the Estonian government as the best company for its’ contribution to the regional development of Narva, Ida-Virumaa county. In 2019 Fortaco Estonia was awarded as the best company of Narva city for the result.

I would like to thank all who contributed to this successful project. I am happy that Fortaco Estonia will now have wider possibilities to boost new business implementation and support customers’ supply chain strategies. I am also very glad that our employees will get working conditions with advanced technologies to develop their skills.

I am sure, this will be a great continuation on our road to success.

Larissa Shabunova
Managing Director
Fortaco Estonia


Fortaco Cabin Operator Showcase

The Next Generation Operator Cabin

Fortaco is the co-designer and manufacturer of the next generation Hyster® operator cabin, which is designed to meet the highest standards and lift them up within the industry.


Factory

Everyone has a role – pay attention to safety

We are wishing all our business partners a safe restart of operations after the summer break.

The increase of COVID-19 cases in many EU countries reminds us to continue paying attention to safety measures. Everyone has a role in this. It is important to continue maintaining physical distancing, respiratory etiquette, and good hand hygiene. People with symptoms, compatible with COVID-19, should stay at home and contact their health care providers.

Fortaco is committed to safety of our employees, and we continue our manufacturing operations. We keep our operations safe by the measures introduced already earlier this year. We have decided to continue with the restrictions regarding travelling, personal contacts at our factories, and remind about the responsibility concerning all of us to keep this situation under control.

Let us stay safe!


Sourcing

The Sorcery of Sourcing

Want to optimize costs in sourcing? The best method is to gain an intimate understanding of your suppliers’ products and technologies.

It’s perhaps no coincidence that the word “sourcing” sounds a lot like “sorcery.” A good sourcing manager can indeed appear to know black magic. But Lenka Hrušecká, Sourcing Manager Holic & Projects at Fortaco Group, says doing the job well comes from a combination of relationship building, pure curiosity, and a willingness to understand the suppliers’ world.

Relationships matter

Sourcing is finding the right source for the right costs and right quality with right delivery. “My job is to ensure that the components for everything we assemble in our factory has a source,” says Hrušecká. “That means we build relationships over the entire supply chain and challenge suppliers to improve costs. But not only costs. We ask they improve delivery, quality, and bring innovations and new ideas.”

Hrušecká’s team deals with approximately 200 suppliers, with around 50 of those considered strategic partners. “It’s impossible for our team to know all 200 personally,” she says, “so we invest real time with our strategic partner suppliers to whom we’re closely connected. We invest time in suppliers who want to grow with us, have a good combination of offerings, have the potential to be innovative, and can offer R&D support.”

Depending on your industry, 200 may seem like lot of suppliers, given the constant challenge to streamline and reduce the number of partnerships. “Before you can reduce the number of overall suppliers, you have to develop your strategic suppliers,” says Hrušecká. And that’s done through as many face-to-face meetings as possible with suppliers and her team, as well as category managers. The objective: learn their businesses, learn the cost drivers, learn the limitations and technologies.

Curious about screws

There are always calls to bring down costs and improve cash flow. But in order to do that Hrušecká says you have to understand what’s behind the prices, and what factors ultimately influence the final price. “You’ve got to have a hunger for information. You’ve got be curious about material groups, like screws, polycarbonates, even the simplest materials. The most basic screw will have a huge story behind it.”

For example, suppliers can tell you how the screw is treated and whether it’s possible to reduce the variety of screws used in assembly. “Suppliers can significantly reduce your costs by not only reducing the price, but also by proposing solutions to reduce assembly time, administration, or warehousing,” she says. “Suppliers, if there’s a good relationship, can offer better tools to allow operators to work faster and more efficiently, and they can support you in bad times, as well.”

“Glue is another example,” says Hrušecká. “How’s it made? Is it curing too long and influencing the final product, and final costs? And polycarbonates: what’s important and what differentiates them? High optical, low optical? What are the regulations and norms? Ours is a strangely wonderful business. You’d probably never imagine that suppliers talk about cabin glass with love!”

A fresh, female approach

Hrušecká studied marketing in Bratislava, worked in media, advertising, and then found herself as marketing director at Bratislava's biggest shopping mall. Moving to western Slovakia with her family, she joined Fortaco as a junior in the sourcing department. "I wanted to learn the business from the ground up," she says, "so I studied drawings, absorbed the technical details, and after six months I was responsible for ready-to-weld parts." She bounced around a bit in the industry, but returned to Fortaco, becoming sourcing manager for three Fortaco factories across Europe dealing with cabin and vehicle assembly.

Hrušecká loves the teamwork in what is a predominantly male industry. "There are very few women in the factories, and women perceive different things than men. This combination actually makes for a great team, though it’s not always easy to convince men of this.”

"I once told a future boss in an interview that I was creative and improvisational, and he suggested improvisation wasn't the best approach to the job,” she says. “But since then I've seen the approach bring some very interesting solutions for customers. This way of seeing the world can really impact the numbers."