Oerlikon Drive Systems celebrates Suppliers Day worldwide

July 8, 2013: The Oerlikon Group’s Oerlikon Drive Systems segment has announced that it has celebrated the Suppliers’ Day in India, China, America and Italy. The meetings saw members of Drive Systems Segment Management and Drive Systems Procurement team together with about 300 suppliers from different countries. The attendees focused on the goals and performances achieved in the past year by Drive Systems and share future development strategies and the future business growth plan. The presentations and debates covered future improvement areas, showing suppliers the cross-segment initiatives and expectations in terms of OTD, PPM and VA/VE. One of the lead objectives shown was that the Global Procurement Team wants to move from a regional organization to a global one, serving customer demands. The expectations are to increase savings on costs and productivity from 3 percent to 5 percent per annum, without affecting quality, on-time delivery and flexibility. The final goal is to reach a best-in-class position in procurement initiatives.

During the meetings, improvements of the quality system were promoted with the focus on high- performance service and a willingness to establish long-term relationships with suppliers. Awards were handed over to the four different regions covering the areas of zero PPM, best quality rate, best on-time delivery, best performance, best new product launch, best cooperation in VA/VE activities, best capacity ramp-up, engagement and cooperation and special recognition for prototyping. Chris Frey, head of global procurement Drive Systems, said: “Our aim is to increase our ability to interact with our global and local suppliers base. We are one, we focus on customers, the suppliers are part of our success!”

Oerlikon Drive Systems is the second largest division in the company with a turnover of CHF 826 million (Rs 5,162 crore). Out of its total workforce of 5,500 employees, 2,500 employees are based in India. With two subsidiaries Oerlikon Graziano and Oerlikon Fairfield and their major production plants in Noida and Belgaum respectively, the company caters to OEMs both in India and overseas. In India, it supplies to Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, JCB and the India operations of New Holland, John Deere and Carraro.

Also read: Oerlikon plans Gujarat plant, to shift small equipment manufacturing to India