News

A Look at 2022 by Vojtěch Bednář, the Production Director of BEDNAR FMT

We entered 2022 with slight optimism. The difficulties related to COVID-19 restrictions seemed to have been forgotten and fortunately, the situation remained unchanged for the rest of the year. In the first half of the economic year we achieved a growth of about 24% in the reported standard hours when compared with the previous year. Unfortunately, the second half of the year was considerably affected by the conflict in Ukraine.

Changes in the Production Organisation Due to the War

A lot has changed since the war started. The cost of metallurgical material, its lack, disruptions in the supplier chains up to the sharp increase in the energy costs. Product prices were often valid only for several hours and most orders could not be confirmed in terms of material availability. That ultimately affected the precision and quantity of deliveries. Almost no machine was complete when entering the assembly line.

We had to react and start doing things differently. To maintain the production operation, it was enough to have at least the main components for the machine assembly to allow its handling along the line and towards the storage areas. When the missing parts were procured, the machines did not go back to the assembly lines but they continued to new designated workstations.

We Are Continuing to Innovate, Build and Modernize

We have decided to increase the energy safety of our production considering the deepening conflict and insecurity in the area of energies and the introduction of regulatory levels. We have implemented the project of a secondary connection of an alternative heating medium, including the required legislation and propane-butane storage tanks.

During 2022, the first stage of the oversized parts vertical storage project was implemented. We created the first outdoor rack, followed with the second stage of constructing three rows of outdoor bracket racks. The benefits include an unambiguous part localization, their protection against damage, immediate availability and a significant improvement in the efficiency of receiving and discharging such material.

Central Purchase Project Aims at Keeping the Prices

Improving the situation in purchase deliveries was the key to maintaining our production. Changes had to be implemented in this area as well. We are gradually re-contracting suppliers with new delivery terms, with the aim of increasing the accuracy of deliveries and quality of components.

To eliminate turbulent changes and improve purchase in the cost of metallurgical material, we started a project of central purchase and metallurgical material price fixation for all our suppliers.

Production Volume Increase Demands Optimization

The concepts of the individual lines are gradually changing, as well as their harmonization in order to increase the line throughput and incorporate the output inspection into the pace. This year, we managed to integrate a workstation for the EFECTA seed drill into the seeding machine line by compressing the space while maintaining all the paces.

This year’s challenge includes finding and implementing a concept of adding another large workstation. There are some possibilities but those require some changes to the internal logistics, or almost JIT (just in time) supplies to reduce the quantity of pre-released material in the area of assembly.

Despite many obstacles, the Company managed to increase the total year-on-year production by 20% of standard hours in 2022, which I believe is a success. However, we cannot expect a similarly favourable economic result due to the increasing costs of input material, energies, downtime and other factors.

In 2023, we have to focus on building and reinforcing internal production processes, on improving the supply chain, seeking internal reserves, as well as training employees and on their personal responsibility.

Vojtěch Bednář
Production Director, BEDNAR FMT
It’s a joy to farm with us
[email protected]
BEDNAR FMT s.r.o.