A lot of time and great effort has been spent during the year on travelling, attending trade fairs, meeting customers and other stakeholders – gathering as much input as we can for spotting customers’ needs, finding inspiration and ideas for collaboration and development.
In terms of collaboration, we have found a new business partner in TechROI from Trollhättan, Sweden. This was a direct result of the thought of being better as one instead of good as two. Being stronger together is a highly valued factor in our relations, and equally important internally, with customers and business partners. TechROI have their origin in the automotive industry and, with their knowledge and skills, in combination with mutual ideas of solutions, we aim to launch more new products in the future and shorten the time to market.
To raise the innovation spirit and for more creative ideas, we have worked a lot with our internal development process. We aim to have the whole organization involved in different ways. An important success factor for us is to collaborate to become faster, more efficient and secure the quality when implementing new products or concerning product updates in general.
Collaboration again, proved to be a success when Provexa became our partner for the ED surface treatment process in 2019. Instead of making new investments in our own ED surface treatment process, we now have available space for future development in our premises and a thriving collaboration that assures a world-class corrosion protection for our products.
For our galvanized K20 pillars, we collaborate with Zinq. When applying an extremely thin layer that provides excellent protection against corrosion, this thin layer also provides the possibility to use the same details as in ED and aluminum pillars. In a wider perspective, this also means that we can reduce spare parts articles and that the K20 range is fully exchangeable between different surface treatments. The effect is increased flexibility and less need for different components in stock.
This month we have attended two fairs, both Transport CH in Bern and Solutrans in Lyon.
We are so grateful for the opportunity to exhibit together with our partners, first out in November in Bern with PWP. The fair was great for networking, and to show our new solutions for our T50 rear pillars and K20 pendulum pillar for tippers. We experienced great focus on electrical vehicles within the small commercial vehicle segment, and we find that our high quality T50 range, especially concerning the low weight it can provide, will be of great importance in the future.
Next up in November was Solutrans in Lyon. The total K20 range, the T50 range, and our new K9 concept for medium weight vehicle segment were displayed in Blueflex and Resma stands, and visitors showed great interest in the products and their functions. We found the fair a great place for networking and gathering of market knowledge. Together with all our partners in the French market, Pommier, Blueflex and Resma, we have a strong presence and look forward to continuous growth.
We also want to mention that the establishment in Poland follows our plan. Next up for the following months is to hire personnel for logistics and assembly processes.
Our Maintenance and Industrial Engineering Group is an important part of our high-quality prototype production, in addition to taking care of preventive maintenance and continuous improvements. The department is often a great advantage also for internal safety improvements. A recent example was addressed at one of our PULSE-meetings about the risk involved when handling steel coils. When moving the coil, it tends to slide sideways, which could cause the steel tape to come loose, and this could be a great risk for machine operators. Our Maintenance and IE employees solved the issue together with the operators and produced special “steel arms” which is mounted on the center of the coil and safely holds it in place. The internal knowledge and collaboration are truly valuable in such cases to create a safe working environment.
Sign up for our
newsletter
Stay up to date with the latest news, insights, and product innovation from Kinnegrip.
New factory and warehouse in Poland
