Vojtěch Bednář: The year of 2020 brought a lot of challenges and changed the way BEDNAR machines are manufactured

The past year of 2020 was a complicated one. The COVID-19 pandemic brought and still brings substantial restrictions and complications. It was also a year in which we completed an extensive investment in construction of a new two-storey production hall and improved the productivity and quality of the production methods of all machine types. We can say that it was one of the fundamental milestones in the history of our Company.

COVID-19 pandemic brought a lot of new measures

The situation in the first half of 2020 forced us to set up a crisis management team. The team built an internal activation plan in the course of several weeks to respond to the current situation and they regularly determine the level of measures in our Company. The measures do not only ensure maximum protection of our employees, but they also have an uneasy impact on the production. When the highest level has to be activated, it is not possible to avoid a decrease in performance (of up to 20%) in spite of our maximum effort and deployment of all our employees, which naturally leads to some individual delays.

Paint shop fire slowed down production

The pandemic was not the only event that caused production outages. The paint shop fire was also a complication. It stopped the paint shop operation for almost two weeks due to the pandemic. Why due to the pandemic? Under regular conditions, we would have our service done without any delay, however, our service technicians had a hard time reaching us from Italy due to the border closure during the first wave. We had to deal with air transport of spare parts and we also had to wait for permission for the service technicians to travel. I have to say, though, that we managed partial assemblies while the paint shop was down using the stock of painted parts, as well as arrangements of external supplies.

New production spaces and other investments of the Company

The biggest challenge was to move the production to the new two-storey assembly hall that has increased our production space by 9,738 m² and has been the largest investment of our Company so far. In addition to increasing the production space, this investment led to a complete change in the method of assembly work. On the top floor, there is a pre-assembly workstation for subassemblies and the machines are completed on a production line on the ground floor. The machines are completed using two or three lines according to their working width. The new space enabled us to switch to a two-shift operation, which is a positive change when compared with the three-shift operation we used to have, as that put high demands on employees and production management.

The new production hall is equipped with modern technology to make the work of our employees simpler, to increase effectiveness and the the quality of machines. The new technology includes for example an automatic conveyor between the paint shop and pre-assembly, 14m high carousel storages which are also used for transport between storeys, hydraulic loading platforms with a capacity of 8,000 kg, 36 new cranes, automatic torque tools with data storage and a lot of other modern equipment. Together with the new production hall, a new administrative part was also built and so now the plant management is seated in one building which makes communication faster and increases the comfort of the work of our employees.

The two-storey production hall was not the only investment we completed last year. We also built a dispatch hall, equipped with modern cranes with a weighing system. It enables us to ship machines in a timely manner in relation to the expanded production. Other investments and workstation modernisations were also done in Doudleby nad Orlicí. There, we also expanded the number of workstations, crane equipment and other modern tools. In the second half of last year, we also managed to complete and launch a semi-automated warehouse with a capacity of 2,000 pallet spots in KLT boxes. This is another step forward in storage for us and this investment will enable us to switch to a higher level of warehouse management automation in the future. Naturally, we are not only considering our own employees, but also the carriers and storage of our electronically-controlled machines that are manufactured in the off-season. To improve the operation of the production plant, we built a new access road to the premises with a truck car park and we also completed a new employee car park on the premises. In relation to the transfer of the production and the warehouse, we started using the free space to store the seeding technology for example. As of the current winter, the technology is now stored under the roof before being sent to the end customer.

Large investments required reinforcing the team

Vacancies increased in the course of the completion of the new investments. Therefore, we had to establish a separate personnel department in Rychnov nad Kněžnou. The department is in charge of recruiting new employees in the locality. Together with the department, we also established the department of technological production preparation, which is in charge of detail standardization, assembly procedure revisions, improvement in the ergonomics of workstations and production fixtures, production quality control, and productivity increase.

Development of a production information system

Besides the extensive tangible investments, there were also intangible ones, in the form of building a more sophisticated production information system, based on a higher and more precise number of collected and evaluated data in time. It is the time aspect that is one of the most important parameters of the newly implemented system for supplier material flow control (the launch of the Supplier Portal), production, storage and logistic processes, painting, to the line assembly. It enables us to achieve a better synchronization of production centres in time, to predict any bottlenecks and to increase overall efficiency.

Future investment plans

All the investments so far and extensive changes in the production process in 2020 have brought new opportunities for future investments. This year, we are planning to build a new reception with sanitary facilities and resting rooms for carriers and our employees by the new entrance. Moving the production to the new hall created some free space and so we could start the project preparation of an investment into a fully automated paint shop with scanning equipment for frame quality control. Last year, we also created a binding production plant development plan. It reckons with the construction of a fully robotic warehouse, a second two-storey assembly hall, and many other extensive investments. For that purpose, we managed to purchase the needed land in 2020 for further construction.

The production plant is prepared for your visits

In conclusion, I would like to mention that we have prepared a new Factory Tour route in cooperation with the marketing department. I would be pleased if you visited us and toured the modern premises where we manufacture our machines for you. Naturally, as soon as the situation will permit.

GALLERY / MEDIA