Siemens: 75 Years of Production of Electric Motors in Frenštát

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.