“Machine tool manufacturers will increasingly sell productivity, quantities or manufacturing costs rather than just individual machines.” Helmut Bode, manager of Schaeffler Group Industrial’s production machinery sector, is certain that suppliers will have to react to these requirements placed on their customers and help them. Schaeffler Group Industrial’s production machinery sector management sums this up under its “Added competence” motto. The approaches behind this motto will be presented to the general public at the 2005 EMO trade show for the first time.

Bode believes that leading manufacturers will increasingly look for optimization and partners for complete systems. This is why suppliers, just like their customers, will be required to look beyond subsystems and find new solutions. A supplier’s potential to synchronize subsystems in order to produce complete systems will become more and more important in the decision making process. The same applies for the related process chains, from development to purchasing components and systems all the way down to after sales services. “Added competence” will now demonstrate the transition from supplying top-quality bearing components to transferring expertise to system solutions.

The core message of this concept is a clearly defined commitment to supplying system solutions for production machinery: Thinking in terms of systems, manufacturing products as modular systems and systematically and consistently integrating the expertise of all divisions involved – all of these represent concept guidelines.
Specifically, this means working on developments at two levels:

·Bearing components become compact, multi-functional system solutions

·Core expertise in a subsystem becomes system expertise for the entire machine

The production machinery sector’s core expertise consists of consolidated INA and FAG know-how and also includes customers’ know-how. For this purpose, development partnerships are formed with leading manufacturers that result in increased performance and a unique selling position for both customers and Schaeffler Group Industrial. This is where state-of-the-art technologies have been developed that have set standards for the entire sector
At the 2005 EMO in Hanover, sector management will present sophisticated solutions for all bearing applications and relevant service areas. This includes thermally stable rotary table groups and linear tables with double-sided motors as well as integrated non-locating bearing units for main spindles. Anti-corrosive and anti-wear plating and the Bearinx® calculation software that can be used for the entire machine tool are also part of this new concept. In time for the EMO, this range of products and services has now been expanded by introducing spindle calculations. New features include application-specific components for linear guides that significantly improve machine performance, for instance damping and maintenance, and much more.

The goal of the “Added competence“ concept is to pass on to customers all benefits that result from the new services network of the production machinery sector management:

·Increased application know-how and high product quality are reflected in greater machine availability and significant performance increases.
·The wide range of products for machine tool bearing supports makes it easy to find the right product that is both the best technical and most cost-efficient solution.
·Being able to supply added expertise and the widest range of products worlwide from a single source represents direct process chain advantages and technology synergies.
·A worldwide, close-knit network of support, services and sales stands for direct and prompt support from development partners and technology leaders anywhere in the world.

The “Added competence” concept has been visualized by merging the green-and-red INA-FAG world and publishing a customer newsletter of the same name.


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