Annual Report 2006 (pdf) - EuroMaint Rail

EuroMaint Rail
Baltic establishment the first
step in international development
Within a year EuroMaint Rail will be beginning its own reprocessing of mechanical and electric products
in Jelgava outside Riga in Latvia. The new establishment serves several purposes. In the long term, the
company wants to be present and active in a brand new railway market for EuroMaint. In the short term,
the company is aiming to reduce its production costs to strengthen competitiveness.
This is EuroMaint’s first step in international development, and the
first time an operation stemming from the Swedish State Railways
public enterprise has established itself outside of Sweden.
So why relocate, and why to the Baltic region?
Our own operation in the Baltic region is very much in line with our
aim to expand internationally, because the Swedish market for train
maintenance is limited. Moreover, competition on our domestic
market is tough. To remain competitive we must continuously show
that we are streamlining and rationalising our production in different
ways. This latest move is a part of that process.
The Baltic region is facing major investments in infrastructure,
and a physical presence engenders completely different opportunities
to have an influence and take part in that change. The alternative of
working with partners would not bring this benefit, and it would also
be harder to assure expertise, quality and delivery reliability.
Assuring high quality
A well-composed project group is working on the establishment in
Latvia. Once the first steps of hiring premises, finalising the workshop
layout and procuring certain machinery is complete, there are great
challenges ahead. The personnel not only need to have the necessary
professional skills and learn both their tasks and how to operate
our systems; they must also become an integral part of EuroMaint’s
corporate culture.
“We’re not only relocating production, but also developing administration
and working methods, and thereby also quality,” explains
project owner Steven Davidsson. “We have an excellent starting point
in our existing production and we’re now investing to be even better.”
He also explains that the advanced work process aims to reduce
lead times in production and that the logistics need to be adapted
accordingly.
“Obviously it’s different having to plan for overseas transport by
sea compared to domestic transport over land. But we still need to
find ways of further improving our delivery quality.”
The main challenge lies in assuring quality and deliveries. The
operation will initially encompass reprocessing of a few mechanical
product groups. EuroMaint Rail has already begun assessing new
subcontractors on the Baltic market, with the aim of assigning the
workshop in Latvia total delivery responsibility for reprocessed products
at the lowest possible cost.
Future investment to increase customer values
The Baltic initiative enables the company in Sweden to focus on
increasing the technical level of maintenance for the new, more
advanced and more complex rolling stock. EuroMaint Rail’s aim
is to move up the value chain and increase the customer value in
its offerings.
The workshop in Latvia will initially supply our domestic market.
In the long term, the operation may develop to also include
reprocessing of more complex products, as well as service offerings
for the local market. We also see potential to offer refurbishment and
train maintenance in the Baltic region in the future.
“We’ll also be developing
administration
and work methods,
and thereby quality”
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