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SKF celebrates its brand new engineering centre of excellence in Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire (Indre-et-Loire), the SKF Solution Factory France. A true state-of-the-art technology platform, it brings together all the high-value industrial value services entirely dedicated to bearings. The opening of the new SKF Solution Factory France is part of a group change and marks a decisive turning point in SKF's industrial strategy in France.
At the beginning of 2015, the SKF Group is beginning a necessary shift in its organisation and its industrial strategy to ensure sustainable and profitable growth. The company has simplified its structure and reorganized its business around three Business Areas: Industrial Market, Automotive Market and Specialty Business. The first of the three is of paramount importance as it generates two-thirds of total sales and a significant portion of SKF's profits.
It is within the framework of this dynamic of change that SKF in France created on the Site of Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire a centre of excellence in engineering around its core business, turnover, with the ambition to always better meet the changing needs of customers and users.
The SKF Solution Factory France, a major industrial project initiated by the French subsidiary, is a high-end showcase of the 21st century, where the best of SKF's expertise and industrial know-how coexist, to build tailored solutions, at the service of the customer. 18 months of preparation, a substantial investment, a successful social dialogue, the opening of the SKF Solution Factory France will play a decisive role in the deployment of the brand in France, but also internationally. SKF in France is already focused on industrial excellence, performance and the search for competitiveness, and now devotes 70% of its business to exporting. SKF wants to launch new growth drivers, optimize synergies between its activities and mobilize all its experience and grey matter around the use of the product. Serge Ailhaud, Managing Director of SKF in France explains: "The SKF Solution Factory France is the embalming of a strategic action plan initiated two years ago; as we designed it, it was the tool we needed to better position ourselves in the markets of tomorrow and anticipate the needs of our customers." In total, seven activities, all related to SKF's core business, turnover, are grouped within the SKF Solution Factory France to promote the pooling of skills.
In total, between 2014 and 2016, the SaintCyr-sur-Loire site will have generated nearly 70 jobs. It produces 60 million bearings per year and has the widest range of products and solutions in France, applied to the industrial, automotive and rail sectors. The SKF site in Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire also includes logistics services, a laboratory and a test centre, as well as research and development activities
The seven activities grouped on the site:
- Industrial Tightening technique: designing and optimizing tools to ensure the perfect tightening of the bolted assemblies of the applications.
- Pin renovation: from simple rolling replacement to reliability or complete refurbishment, regardless of application or brand.
- Rotation transformation: from damage expertise to ring grinding or complete refurbishment according to SKF quality standards and ISO standards.
- Lubrication systems: from manual greasing solutions to the most sophisticated lubrication systems.
- Waterproofing solutions: design and machining of standard or special seals all materials, on a unit or in series and prototype development.
- Sensor rolls: intelligent solutions that provide feedback for optimized control of rotating applications.
- Prototypes: bespoke products developed at the request of customers.
Find out more: www.skf.com
