Annual Report 2003 - Kardex

ay shelving system. The remaining 10% of the complete
system are taken care of with special and supplementary
parts from traditional production. Stow was equally consistent
when it came to the color range. Parts are only
made in two standard colors, blue and orange. Big
customers like Ikea can have the parts for their high-bay
systems supplied in their corporate colors. Highly qualified
teams of engineers are responsible for making the
system as standardized as possible and for adapting it to
new and ever more creative individual storage solutions.
The secret of rational series production lies in having
seamless production lines for each component. From the
point at which the steel enters the production line and via
profiling, welding, coating, packaging and storage, the
manufacturing process is never interrupted and there is
no intervention by staff. Depending on the volume required,
one or two production lines are available for each
element. Seamless, fully automated production lines like
these cannot be bought “off the peg” on the open
market but were developed by Stow itself, working closely
with automation specialists. The robots were purchased
and then adapted precisely to Stow’s needs.
Offering the most competitive prices on the market, however,
is not achieved simply by automating production
from A to Z. It also means buying in the raw steel at the
best terms: the right quality in the greatest possible
volumes at the lowest price. About two-thirds of the cost
price is determined by the price of the raw material and a
third by personnel and capital costs. With these factors in
mind, it is not difficult to see why Stow leads the market
on costs.
STOW: AMBITIONS IN THE FAR EAST
Since 1996 Stow has had its own production facilities and
distribution organization in Shanghai (China). More than
10% of the total volume is already being produced by the
Stow factory in Shanghai. In view of the local labor market
situation, the first step has simply been to expand the
capacity of the conventional factory. However, should circumstances
in the Far East change, Stow would be ready
at any time to build a fully automated factory. About half
of Stow Shanghai’s customers are European investors
while the other half consists of local Chinese companies.
www.stow.be
STATIC STORAGE SYSTEMS DIVISION
1) Production of standard components at the Stow
factory in Dottenijs (Belgium) is fully automated, from
steel in-feed through to coating.
2) Permanent quality control: every weld seam is
compared with an image of the ideal seam stored
in the system.
3) Handling at the Stow factory in Dottenijs (Belgium)
is almost fully automated, from packaging to removal
from the warehouse.
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