SKF

For the corporation that used to be named Smith, Kline & French, see GlaxoSmithKline
Publicly traded Aktiebolag
Traded as OMX: SKF B
BSE: 500472 NSE: SKFINDIA
Industry Manufacturing
Founded 1907
Headquarters Gothenburg, Sweden
Key people
 Leif Östling (Chairman), Alrik Danielson (President and CEO)
Products Bearings, linear motion products, seals, lubrication systems, maintenance products, grease
Revenue SEK 63.597 billion (2013)[1]
SEK 9.612 billion (2013)[1]
Profit SEK 6.224 billion (2013)[1]
Total assets SEK 59.374 billion (2013)[1]
Total equity SEK 21.436 billion (2013)[1]
Number of employees
 44,740 (end 2014)[1]
Website www.skf.com

SKF, Svenska Kullagerfabriken AB (Swedish: Swedish ball bearing factory AB), later AB SKF, is a Swedish bearing company founded in 1907, supplying bearings, seals, lubrication and lubrication systems, maintenance products, mechatronics products, power transmission products[2] and related services globally.

History

SKF office in Montreal Canada in 1940

The company was founded on Sven Wingqvist's 1907 Swedish patent No. 25406, a multi-row self-aligning radial ball bearing. The Patent was granted on 6 June in Sweden coinciding with patents in 10 other countries. The new ball bearing was successful from the outset. By 1910, the company had 325 employees and a subsidiary in the United Kingdom. Manufacturing operations were later established in multiple countries.

By 1912, SKF was represented in 32 countries and by 1930, a staff of over 21,000 were employed in 12 manufacturing facilities worldwide with the largest in Philadelphia, PA.

SKF began its operations in India in 1923 by establishing a trading outpost in Calcutta. The early operations involved importing of automotive bearings. SKF India Ltd was incorporated in 1961 following a collaboration between AB SKF, Associated Bearing Co. Ltd and Investment Corp. of India Ltd. In 1963, SKF set up its first bearing factory in Pune, Maharashtra.[3]

Assar Gabrielsson, SKF sales manager and Björn Prytz, Managing Director of SKF were the founders of Volvo AB in 1926. In the beginning, the company functioned as a subsidiary automobile company within the SKF group. SKF funded the production run of the first thousand cars, built at Hisingen in Gothenburg, beginning in 1927. SKF used one of the company's trademarked names: AB Volvo, which derives from the Latin "I roll", with its obvious connotations of bearings in motion. The ownership of Volvo lasted until 1935 when the last shares were divested.

In the 1970s SKF embarked on a massive production rationalization program in Europe. A visionary project, "Production Concept for the 80s" was launched with the aim to run the night shifts practically unmanned. To increase productivity and safeguard the product quality, a continuous, automatic flow of bearing rings was needed, so SKF developed the Flexlink multiflex plastic chain conveyor system. SKF divested FlexLink as a separate company in 1997.

Present day business

SKF corporate headquarters in Gothenburg.
SKF in Gothenburg.
SKF building in Schweinfurt, 2012

Today, SKF is the largest bearing manufacturer in the world and employs approximately 44,000 people in approximately 100 manufacturing sites that span 70 countries.[4] Turnover for FY2005 was SEK49,285 million, and total assets were SEK40,349 million. The SKF Group currently consists of approximately 150 companies including the seal manufacturer Chicago Rawhide. Since its founding, SKF's company headquarters have been located in Gothenburg. One recent acquisition was that of Economos, part of Salzer Holding, an Austria-based seal company, Jaeger Industrial and ABBA, Taiwanese manufacturers of linear actuators. The company's clients include General Electric, Rolls-Royce plc and Pratt & Whitney. It also supplies bearings for Ferrari racing vehicles, used in Formula One races,[5] and is a sponsor of F1. Another focus area is the energy sector, including wind turbines which generate electricity.

By 2013, SKF Industrial Market, Regional Sales and Services, made up about 40% of SKF's total sales.[6]

SKF employs 3000 people across six factories in India and has 27% market share of the industrial & automotive bearings market.[3]

Products

SKF sells products within five technology platforms:

SKF and Business Excellence

SKF runs its own business excellence program for continuous improvement of its business processes in all parts of the company. The program is based on previous initiatives like TQM and integrates with lean management also statistical methods of Six Sigma along with related project management.[7] Many elements of this SKF program remind of the integrated approach of the actual EFQM model for Business Excellence.

See also

Company history references

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 "Annual Results 2013". SKF. Retrieved 5 August 2014.
  2. ↑ "Annual Report 2009" (PDF). SKF. Retrieved 2010-04-03.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 http://www.livemint.com/Industry/HIXqvf8wM848UX9RBAQ0xK/SKF-and-the-business-of-movement.html
  4. ↑ SKF
  5. ↑ Manufacturing & Logistics IT Magazine
  6. ↑ "SAMA Adds New Board Member". PR Newswire (via Yahoo News). 3 October 2013. Archived from the original on 3 October 2013.
  7. ↑ "Business Excellence in SKF" (PDF). sandholm.se. Retrieved 2011-06-18.
    (Presented by Tom Johnstone during the Lean & Six Sigma 2011 conference in Stockholm)

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to SKF.