BUSINESS ROZHOVOR
Siemens: 75 Years
of Production of
Electric Motors
in Frenštát pod
Radhoštěm
Three-quarters of a century have passed since the
gates of the production plant of the then national
company Moravské elektrotechnické závody MEZ
in Frenštát pod Radhoštěm left the first electric
motors. This plant has belonged to the German
Siemens Group since 1994, and in twenty-seven
years it has become one of the world‘s leading
manufacturers of electric motors. We spoke with
the director of the Siemens production plant in
Frenštát pod Radhoštěm, Roman Valný, about
production, research and innovation, but also about
cooperation with schools or development activities
in the Moravian-Silesian Region.
Mr Director, what would you briefly say about Siemens
in Frenštát? What electric motors do you produce right
here in the heart of the Beskid Mountains?
We are a modern plant with a very long history dating
back to 1946 when, after the war, electrical production
was moved to Frenštát pod Radhoštěm from the then Baťa
concern in Zlín.
This year, we are celebrating the seventy-fifth anniversary
of the start of production and the delivery of the first
electric motors to the Czech and European market.
A lot of time has passed since then and in 1994 we
became part of the German concern Siemens, which
invested considerable funds in the Frenštát plant. We
are currently the largest European manufacturer of lowvoltage asynchronous electric motors from 37 to 500 kW
for industrial applications worldwide, i.e. not in electric
cars, as people sometimes mistakenly believe. We supply
our electric motors to manufacturers of water distribution
pumps, compressors for the production of compressed air,
fans for cooling other production facilities or entire power
plants, manufacturers of transport systems such as cranes
in ports. However, you will also find Frenštát motors in the
conveyors of airport terminals or in infrastructure such as
tunnels and subways, where our motors are used for flue
gas removal. Here, in the event of a fire, the motors must
operate at very high temperatures for some time, often at
hundreds of degrees Celsius, to extract the fumes, thus
protecting people‘s lives.
It could be said that the trajectory of its seventy-five-year
history is already in the ‚retirement‘ age, but the opposite is
true. With its product and production process innovations,
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the company is one of the world‘s leaders in the field of
automation and digitization of the industry.
How important is innovation for you and how does it
affect your business?
The ability to innovate is the absolute basis for the long-term
success of any company. In addition to the development
centers that we have had in all production plants for a long
time, we are also intensively building development centers
in larger Czech cities with close ties to technical universities.
This is no different with the development of electric motors.
In the last four years, we have launched four new products
and are currently working on the development of electric
motors with the highest efficiency class in order to reduce
electricity consumption and carbon footprint.
Along with the innovations of our electric motors, we are
working very intensively on innovating all processes that are
necessary for their production. Automation and digitization
play a key role in this area. We started the digitization and
automation of Frenštát more than ten years ago, and today
some solutions are taken over from us not only by other
Siemens production plants but also by our customers.
Thanks to the innovation of our products, acceleration
and automation of processes, we have practically doubled
the turnover of our plant in the last five years and we have
created jobs for another four hundred employees, not
only in production, but also in very technically specific
professions.