Uničov, 27. February 2018 – The engineering-metallurgical company UNEX has another successful year behind it, in which its turnover was about 2.9 billion. Already for the second year in a row, UNEX has recorded a year-on-year turnover increase of approx. 400 million crowns and the same figure is planned for this year: in 2018, the turnover should be increased to 3.2 up to 3.3 billion crowns.
Most of the product groups in 2017 exceeded the planned turnover, which was facilitated mainly by global economic growth and signature of contracts with new customers. The earth-moving, mining machinery, handling and lifting equipment market, for instance, recovered. The engineering part of the company realized orders for new clients from the marine industry, handling equipment, automation and power engineering segments. The metallurgical part last year successfully realized new orders in the automation-robotization, handling equipment, marine industry and the recycling and processing industry.
2017 was a record year, for instance, for the Olomouc foundry, which reached a further historical milestone in the production of castings, which amounted to 11,926 tons, which exceeds last year’s record of 800 tons.
Components for machinery and equipment, which are part of innovative solutions for, so-called, “smart manufacturing”, automation and robotization in the sense of the “Industry 4.0” concept, are increasingly getting a larger share of the total UNEX production volume. The UNEX target for 2018 is to continuously increase this share, among others, by entry into new progressive industrial sectors, for instance, autonomous (self-driving) machinery and equipment, alternative sources of energy, etc.
UNEX ranks among the companies, which are afflicted by lack of qualified workers. “At end of year, we employed 2,300 people in our production plants in Uničov, Olomouc and Snina, which was a year-on-rise of 100 employees. We would like to achieve a similar increase in the number of employees, especially blue-collar workers also this year,” says HR Manageress Hana Bartošová. “From the viewpoint of the development of the average wages, there was a year-on-year rise of 10.5% last year; this year, we assume a rise of approx. 6%.” The HR policy of UNEX, among others, includes long-term and systematic co-operation with regional technically and crafts focused vocational schools, secondary schools and technical colleges and universities.
Investments
In 2017, UNEX realized 42 investment projects of total worth 54.4 million crowns.
“We invest across all manufacturing technologies and processes; with rising production volume, we cannot underestimate any sector. Last year, apart from machinery, we also invested in, for instance, IT technologies, thanks to which we have achieved acceleration of data processing by 60%, we have significantly also strengthened our virtualization structure (possibility for remote access to information),” says Pavel Chlup, Technical Manager UNEX responsible for investments.
In 2018, UNEX plans to realize investment projects of approximate total worth 115 million crowns. Among other things, this concerns the acquisition of two horizontal plate boring machines or plasma bevels, investments in milling centres, or automation of the welding process.
Certification
During 2017, UNEX underwent many certifications, among others, according to the TPG standards (in the areas of the process of production of castings, welding and non-destructive testing), thus broadening the opportunities for co-operation with the American market. New opportunities are offered, for instance, also by renewal of the product certificate issued by Bureau Veritas that allows the manufacturing of parts for the marine industry.
In 2018, the UNEX is ready to undergo quality management and environmental management certification according to the newly issued ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 14001:2015 standards and thus prove capability to efficiently manage processes, identify risks and implement measures to eliminate them with objective to continuously increase customer satisfaction.
Interesting references in 2017
- Repair and modernization of the UNEX KU 800/12 bucket-wheel excavator in the Sokolov Region, which among other things, required 235,000 hours of work.
- Manufacturing of the chassis and connecting elements for the mobile building of a new launching pad for the Ariane 6 rocket in French Guyana.
- Manufacturing of components for the gearboxes of the biggest trucks in the world.
- Manufacturing of castings and weldments for military and civil seagoing ships.