7908 Hexagon 207:Layout 1 · Hexagon Polymers is the global market leader in the development,...
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NEWSLETTER FROM HEXAGON POLYMERS No. 2 – 2007 In May the board of Hexagon AB approved the investment in a plant for manufacturing gaskets for plate heat exchangers (PHE) in the People’s Republic of China. Hexagon Polymers is the global market leader in the development, manufacturing and sales of gaskets for plate heat exchangers. Today Hexagon Polymers has two production facilities, one in Sweden and one in Sri Lanka. To be able to meet our customers’ demand for future volume increases we have decided to establish a third production facility. The choice of China was natural as the region is expected to have the largest growth during the forthcoming years. This base will bring us closer to customers who are already esta- blished in China, as well as those that are planning to invest in China. The new plant will be established in Jiaonan, a satellite city of Qingdao, located on east coast, in the province of Shangdong. Hexagon Polymers has for this purpose acquired land next to the existing Comp- ounding and Wheels factories operated by Hexagon Polymers. The plant will have an area of 8 000 sq. m. The production start is planned for the beginning of the second quarter 2008 and will give us a substantial capacity increase. It has been our strategy for several years to manufacture low to mid-volume gaskets and exotic materials in Sweden and mid to high-volume gaskets in Sri Lanka. The new production facility in China will enable us to meet our customers’ demand for future volumes and thereby secure the long-term availability on the market. Hexagon Polymers starts PHE Gaskets production in China Message from the President... The world economy continues to grow at a fast pace. Especially in Asia with China as the leader, the growth has been, and is, exceptional. Of course we might see slow downs in this growth but long term we believe that Asia show strong growth in the decade to come. We also believe that a lot of focus in the future will be on energy saving and alternatives to oil. This will increase the sale of plate heat exchangers and consequently the market for PHE gaskets will grow strongly. Against this background Hexagon Polymers has decided to invest in its third factory in Qingdao, China. We will now have a presence in China in all three product areas, which makes us well positioned in this fast growing market. Lars Olofsson, President and CEO HEXAGON POLYMERS
Transcript of 7908 Hexagon 207:Layout 1 · Hexagon Polymers is the global market leader in the development,...
NEWSLETTERFROM HEXAGON POLYMERS No. 2 – 2007
In May the board of HexagonAB approved the investment ina plant for manufacturing gasketsfor plate heat exchangers (PHE)in the People’s Republic ofChina. Hexagon Polymers is theglobal market leader in thedevelopment, manufacturing andsales of gaskets for plate heatexchangers. Today HexagonPolymers has two productionfacilities, one in Sweden and onein Sri Lanka. To be able to meetour customers’ demand for futurevolume increases we have decidedto establish a third productionfacility. The choice of China wasnatural as the region is expectedto have the largest growthduring the forthcoming years.This base will bring us closer tocustomers who are already esta-blished in China, as well asthose that are planning toinvest in China. The new plant
will be established in Jiaonan, asatellite city of Qingdao, locatedon east coast, in the province ofShangdong. Hexagon Polymershas for this purpose acquiredland next to the existing Comp -ounding and Wheels factoriesoperated by Hexagon Polymers.The plant will have an area of 8 000 sq. m. The production startis planned for the beginning ofthe second quarter 2008 andwill give us a substantial capacityincrease. It has been our strategyfor several years to manufacturelow to mid-volume gaskets andexotic materials in Sweden andmid to high-volume gaskets inSri Lanka. The new productionfacility in China will enable usto meet our customers’ demandfor future volumes and therebysecure the long-term availabilityon the market.
Hexagon Polymers startsPHE Gaskets production inChina
Message from the President...The world economy continues to growat a fast pace. Especially in Asia withChina as the leader, the growth hasbeen, and is, exceptional.
Of course we might see slow downs inthis growth but long term we believethat Asia show strong growth in thedecade to come. We also believe that alot of focus in the future will be onenergy saving and alternatives to oil.This will increase the sale of plateheat exchangers and consequently themarket for PHE gaskets will growstrongly.
Against this background HexagonPolymers has decided to invest in itsthird factory in Qingdao, China. Wewill now have a presence in China inall three product areas, which makesus well positioned in this fast growingmarket.
Lars Olofsson, President and CEOHEXAGON POLYMERS
New appointmentsHexagon Polymers Compounding,CanadaMichael Cassin joi-ned the Canadianteam on April 10 inthe role of BusinessDevelop ment, focu-sing primarily onthe Canadian mar-ket. Michael hasover ten years of successful experiencein developing business in the rubbermixing industry.
Mohammed Dssoulijoined the Canadianoperation on April25 as ProductionManager. Prior tojoining Hexagon,Mohammed wasOperations Man -ager for a Canadian automotive sea-ling system manufacturer.
Jean Perron joinedthe Canadian teamon April 30 asQuality and Labo -ratory Manager. Jean has a degreein Mechanical Engi-neering. In addi-tion to his experience in managingquality systems. Jean has extensiveexperience in implementing continu-ous improvement.
Stellana (Qingdao), ChinaKalle Liu has beenappointed Man -aging Director forStellana in China.Mr Lui, 41 yearsof age, holdsMaster's degreesin Material Science from Xian YangUniversity and Jönköping Uni versityand brings with him experience from
Stellana (Qingdao) Co. Ltdprogressing according toplans Construction of Stellana's new wheel factory in Qingdao is on track. Thecivil construction work is nearing completion and during the comingweeks production equipment will be delivered and installed.Commissioning of production equipment will start in July. In parallelwith setting up the physical factory building the organisation is pro-gressing. Serial production will start in the fourth quarter of this year.
Grand opening ceremony in ChinaHexagon Polymers Compounding (Qingdao) Company, the 7th Com -pounding manufacturing facility of Hexagon Polymers celebrated itsgrand opening on April 26. Approximately 80 guests attended the ceremony including top officials from local government, customers,suppliers, and construction contractors. Short speeches were given bythe management of Hexagon Polymers as well as officials from localgovernment. After the speeches a plant tour was organized, followed bya welcome lunch for all guests and the employees of Hexagon Polymers,Qingdao. The weather was very much in favour of the ceremony and itturned out to be a successful event. The Compounding facility in Chinahas one mixer with a yearly capacity of 12,000 tons. It is also the mostmodern of Hexagon Polymers’ facilities.
The polymer specialist
First customer trials inMexico planned by July
The following progress was achieved by Hexagon Polymers CompoundingSA de CV in May.1. New offices at the plant ready and functional. 2. Building finished.3. Over 90% of the equipment on site and being installed. 4. Over 90% of the organization staff team hired and undergoing training.
Currently the Mexican team consists of 17 employees.
By June the focus will be:1. Training of staff personnel at other Hexagon Polymers Compounding
(HPC) locations and hiring of first operators. 2. Equipment commissioning. Mixing of master batch by mid – end of
June.3. Definition of Quality and Environmental Systems which includes
working procedures for Mexico as per HPC Standards.
The plan is to carry out trials on the first customer recipes by July, sothat SOP can be confirmed.
previously held senior managementpositions in sales and production witha Chinese automotive sub supplier.
Hexagon Polymers Gasket, ChinaMr Jeff Liu will join Hexagon Polymersas Managing Direc -tor for our new gas-ket plant in Chinaeffective June 11,2007. Jeff has aBachelor of Sciencein chemistry and aMaster’s in poly-mer processing. He also has a MBAfrom Canada. Jeff comes from a posi-tion as General Manager for a filtrationmedia company. Before that he spenteight years in the PHE business, wor-king for a global PHE manufacturingcompany.
Hexagon Polymers Compounding,MexicoThe company now has 17 team mem-bers. By the beginning of June all thecontractors will have finished theirjobs so the plant will be fully opera-tional under the new managementcontrol. The latest positions to havebeen filled are the following.
Hexagon Polymersexpands capacity for PHEgaskets in Sri LankaHexagon Polymers is expanding capacity in Sri Lanka. All presses from theinvestment programme approved at the end of 2006 have now been installed.Between week 2 and week 17 a total of 12 presses were installed, and thecapacity for post-curing and extrusion has also been increased. Beginning ofthis year the decision was taken to invest in another new jumbo press. Thispress will be installed in week 30. By the end of April approval was obtainedfrom the board to continue expansion by investing in another four newpresses. Installation of these presses will take place in autumn 2007.
Filiberto Castillo Antonio RoldanProduction Manager Technical
DevelopmentManager
Guillermo Cardenas Cesar OlveraQuality MaintenanceManager Manager
© www.g-byran.se 7908/2007.06.
Hexagon Polymers ABKråketorpsgatan 20, SE-431 53 MÖLNDAL, Sweden Tel: +46 (0)31 67 96 90, Fax: +46 (0)31 67 96 [email protected] · www.hexagonpolymers.se
Stellana U.S. Inc.999 Wells StreetLake Geneva, WI53147 USA Tel: +1 262 348 5575Fax: +1 262 348 [email protected]
Elastomeric Engineering Co Ltd371 Colombo RoadBokundaraPiliyandala, Sri LankaTel: +94 112 518 524Fax: +94 112 518 [email protected]
Hexagon Polymers Compounding GmbHOttostrasse 34DE-41836 HückelhovenGermanyTel: +49 24 33 9755 0Fax: +49 24 33 97 55 [email protected]
Hexagon Polymers Compounding SprlIndustriestrasse 36BE-4700 EupenBelgiumTel: +32 87 59 54 30Fax: +32 87 74 44 [email protected]
Hexagon Polymers Compounding HQ SprlGewerbestrasse 8BE-4700 EupenBelgiumTel: +32 87 59 61 50Fax: + 32 87 59 61 [email protected]
Hexagon Polymers Compounding s.r.oSumperska 1344CZ-78391 UnicovCzech RepublicTel: +420 585 004 011Fax: +420 585 053 [email protected]
Hexagon Polymers Compounding ULC1635 Industrial BoulevardMagog, QuebecJ1X 5B3, CanadaTel: +1 819 843 7802Fax: +1 819 843 [email protected]
Hexagon Polymers Compounding NC Inc.280 Crawford RoadStatesville, NC 28625USATel: +1 704 872 1585Fax: +1 704 872 [email protected]
Hexagon Polymers Compounding (Qingdao) Co., Ltd899 Qingdao Middle RoadCN-266431 Jiaonan, QingdaoChinaTel: +86 532 81731118Fax: +86 532 [email protected]
Hexagon Polymers Compounding S.A de C.V.Aguascalientes, MexicoTel: +52 449 912 6090 #122 [email protected] www.hpc-mx.com
Stellana (Qingdao) Co., Ltd Qingdao, China Tel: +86 532 81731118 [email protected]
Hexagon Polymers Gasket(Qingdao) Co., LtdQingdao, China Tel: +86 532 81731118 [email protected]
Interview with Jan Munkstrand Hi Jan, you were appointed GeneralManager for Wheel production in SriLanka in January 2007. What does thismean to you and what does it mean forElastomeric?I have been working within manufacturingand logistics most of my professional career, which involved a lot ofinternational work, but I have never lived abroad. So, when mywife and I moved to Sri Lanka in the middle of January we werevery much looking forward to experiencing a new region of theworld. It is a new challenge for us!
On a professional level it means that I will use my internationalexperience within the lean manufacturing area. One of our mostimportant objectives is to implement a systematic work processwith focus on continuous improvements at the Wheel plant in SriLanka. This means a standardized way of working by implementingstep-by-step working processes according to the principles of LeanManufacturing such as 5S, Kaizen, statistical process control, PokaYoka etc. etc.
I will be contributing many years of experience mainly from theautomotive industry, as well as leadership and knowledge withinthis area, to ensure that we achieve our objective.
What is your responsibility?I have the operational responsibility for running and improving theWheel plant in Sri Lanka. This involves R & D, production, qualityand deliveries amongst other manufacturing issues, as well as theresponsibility for approximately 500 employees divided betweenWheels, Solid Tyres and Moulded Parts.
Describe your view of Wheels at Elastomeric today.Wheels in Sri Lanka has undergone major growth in recent years,with new investments, new products and increased volumes. Theorganisation is highly motivated and engaged, competent and hasa wealth of knowledge concerning wheels and rubber.
Which areas for improvement do you see?Competitiveness needs to increase for the products being developed,produced and delivered by Wheels in Sri Lanka. Our productionstrategies to ensure this are safety, quality, delivery performance,productivity and cost efficiency. With the implementation of thesystematic work process as our foundation we will be able to meetour production strategies and consequently improvements will come.
Gislaved Gummi ABBox 522SE-332 28 GislavedSwedenTel: +46 371 848 00Fax: +46 371 848 [email protected]
Stellana ABBox 54SE-695 22 LaxåSwedenTel: +46 584 44 48 00Fax: +46 584 44 48 [email protected]
