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,

12 ǀ POSITIV 4/2021

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.