Case IH and STEYR factory wins prestigious award
Case IH and STEYR’s European base at St. Valentin, owned by the parent company CNH Industrial, has been named ‘Efficient Company of the Year’. The factory produces tractors from 100hp to 300hp for the agricultural / municipal / forestry sectors, including Optum CVXDrive, Luxxum, Maxxum and Puma models for the UK and Ireland market. The prestigious award was one of the categories in the ‘Factory 2020’ competition organized by Fraunhofer Austria and Austrian Industriemagazin.
Ten of the leading manufacturing companies in Austria participated in what has been one of most difficult years ever for the manufacturing sector due to the challenges presented by COVID-19. These have tested even the most experienced management and production teams, together with all elements in the supply chain.
The Award was the culmination of a comprehensive process involving self-evaluation, detailed questionnaires, on-site assessments and in-depth interviews with key personnel. After rigorous scrutiny, the original group of ten companies was narrowed down to four. These finalists were put through a comprehensive evaluation process by judges from Fraunhofer Austria, which researches application-oriented solutions for the benefit of the economy and society, together with Austrian Industriemagazin, the leading medium for decision makers in the manufacturing sector.
The St. Valentin factory, which has built approximately 600,000 tractors since 1947, covers 170,180m2, employs 600 staff from 18 different nationalities and enjoys an impeccable reputation within CNH Industrial. Incorporating World Class Manufacturing (WCM) principles, it was the first CNH Industrial agricultural plant within the Europe Region to achieve Silver WCM status.
Coordinating 12,000 parts from over 400 suppliers around the world, the factory produces approximately 10,000 tractors annually for customers in the Europe, Asia, Middle East and Africa Region and Australia and New Zealand, with a total of 24 product lines, 98 models and 4,857 options.
Hannes Wögerbauer, Manager of the St. Valentin factory, states: “We are delighted to win this prestigious award, but this was only possible thanks to the dedication and commitment of the employees who make our production better, safer and more efficient.”