Last Empty Workplace Filled

The big relocation of the production line from Mönchengladbach to Bytča was preceded by months of planning and several delays. They were caused by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Thanks to the high vaccination rates of employees in both Germany and Slovakia, D-Day finally arrived. It was not only a milestone for the production in Bytča, but also for Mönchengladbach, because it was one of the largest logistics operations in its history.

Thanks to the great Slovak-German teamwork, the assembly line for the automatic pay stations (KA40) took only 7 days to complete and only 5 of those were working days! The credit for this also goes to the clever transport solution. Instead of complete dismantling, the individual devices and racks that make up the line were attached to special pallets. "Although we transported more 'air' by truck, we saved a lot of time during the subsequent assembly of the line in Bytča. We brought the individual devices to the pre-marked places and dismantled them from the pallet," says Ing. Peter Sirotný, Head of Logistics at the Bytča plant.

• September 25 – 26: Dismantling of the line in Mönchengladbach.
• September 27 – 30: Shipment of the line by 5 trucks.
• September 29 – 30: Unloading, stacking and installation of the line in Bytča.
• October 2: KA40 line starts production.
• October 5: 1st finished automatic pay station assembled and tested in Bytča.

The assembly line for the so-called PGL, PXU, PTL devices, i.e. terminals for entry and exit (entervo.entry and entervo.exit), passage (entervo.lane) and door readers (entervo.key) also stood for 7 days. On Saturday, October 2, the dismantling of the line in Mönchengladbach began and on October 12, Slovak colleagues took a photo with the first entry terminal with the attribute "Made in Bytča".

A great deal of credit for the successful start of production of parking devices also goes to the German colleagues, who introduced the Slovaks to the entire assembly process and subsequent quality control. They praised not only the cooperation but also the ample space for the new line in Bytča. In return, the Slovak colleagues introduced them to the flavours of Slovak specialities after working time and it was also their turn to compare the quality of Slovak beers together. They all got to know each other better and agreed that it made the work much better.

Martin Matta, Team Leader, Hardware Quality Department, Bytča

"The challenge for our department was mainly training. Until now we have only been involved in quality control of automatic pay stations for the Fare Collection Systems division. Therefore, first our 4 colleagues completed a 2-month training stay in Mönchengladbach. After the launch of the line in Bytča, we were assisted for a month by 6 German colleagues. I would like to thank them for their excellent cooperation. A significant change in our work is especially the fact that with parking automatic pay stations we have to correctly set up the currency to be used for payment at the parking facilities. We work with up to 30 different currencies, which is new for us. In our exit control tests, we have also started to work with the entervo system, which is also being developed by our colleagues from Slovakia."

Peter Sirotný, Head of Logistics, Bytča

"Sincere thanks to all colleagues from production and logistics in both Mönchengladbach and Bytča for managing this event without any delays or unexpected situations. Thanks to thorough preparation, we even managed to launch the line earlier than was planned. I would like to emphasize that this action was not only about the physical transfer of the line and production assets but also the setup of processes, supply cycles, control plans and master data in the SAP system, which also went smoothly."

Juraj Gašpierik, Deputy Production Director, Bytča

"On behalf of the management and employees of the Bytča plant, I would like to thank the management of Production, Quality and Logistics in Mönchengladbach, the head of the Parking Solutions division, Martin Kammler, and the owner of the company, Dr. Norbert Miller, for the trust they have placed in us! We will work to continuously strengthen it because the relocation of the Parking Solutions lines and the transfer of know-how is not the end of our task. We are at the beginning of a journey that requires a high level of personal responsibility at all levels of our branch organisation. Another essential is team spirit. You can feel it in the legacy of the teams around Sebastian Kamp, Stefan Herten, Markus Koennes and Christian Pollmanns, who prepared and coordinated the entire transfer. They stood by our colleagues during the installation of the workstations and the launch of the assembly lines in Bytča. They showed us how wonderfully passionate they work for Scheidt & Bachmann. I thank them and I will be very happy if we can further develop this set trend in our team as well!"