To celebrate its 100 years in the business, the Sweden-based SKF Group, one of the world`s leading manufacturers of bearings and related technologies, held a technical press day in Tokyo on May 20, 2007 to further build its global presence, especially in the Asian region. The press day held in Tokyo was followed by another in Shanghai, mainland China.



The SKF Group, founded on Feb. 16, 1907 by Swedish engineer Sven Wingguist, inventor of the self-aligning ball bearings, is the world`s leading supplier of products, solutions and services related to rolling bearings, seals, mechatronics services and lubrication systems. The group also offers technical support, maintenance services, status monitoring and training.

Today, SKF is the largest manufacturer of not only bearings globally, but also seals, linear motion products, maintenance products, condition monitoring systems as well as industrial decision support systems.

The group`s Taiwan subsidiary-SKF Bearing Services Taiwan Ltd. organized a contingent to take part in the special event aimed at brining in advanced technology information to help nurture related industries in Taiwan.

SKF Group CEO and president Tom Johnstone hosted the technical press day. The Taiwan group was headed by Charles Chang, managing director of SKF Bearing Services Taiwan, one of SKF`s subsidiaries.

In addition to the top management from SKF Bearing Services Taiwan Ltd., other participants in the technical press day included representatives from Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry, Hua-chuang Automobile Information Technical Center Co., and Taipei-based China Economic News Service (CENS).

Major topics discussed at the Tokyo technical press day included: "SKF foresees large energy savings and carbon dioxide (CO2) reductions in its manufacturing operations," "SKF energy efficiency solutions lower total operational costs," "SKF introduces new energy efficient bearings and further steps to help reduce the world`s energy consumption," "SKF presents new energy efficient bearings saving at least 30% energy consumption," "SKF solutions for compressors save energy and increase performance and safety," "SKF solutions increase compressor uptime," "SKF develops new energy efficiency service for process plant and manufacturing industries," "SKF innovations for the truck industry increase performance and are environmentally friendly," and "SKF innovations for the truck industry increase performance and safety, and reduce weight."

Help Upgrade Production Skill

Chang noted that his company is dedicated to helping domestic manufacturing industry upgrade production skill for securing sustainable operations, particularly in a period of industrial transformation domestically. Over the past 17 years since its establishment, SKF Taiwan has introduced a flurry of sophisticated manufacturing skills and precision components as bearings and spindle systems to help domestic manufacturers of machine tools create more value-added services.

"As in 1907, SKF`s service offering today is to help customers get optimal value out of their investments. So over a hundred years, there is a straight line combining cutting-edge technology with exact knowledge of customers` service needs into knowledge engineering solutions," Johnstone noted.

After joining SKF in 1977 as a salesman in his native Scotland, Johnstone quickly discovered that SKF was a name that opened doors and created high expectations among customers.

Johnstone says that his experience has taught him that SKF`s value to customers is about much more than rolling bearings. It`s about bringing the kind of solutions to customers that only SKF as a knowledge engineering company can provide.

"At SKF we define knowledge in three ways," he says. "Knowledge of the cultures and regions in which we operate, the knowledge that comes from working in so many different industry segments, and our technical knowledge that comprises five platforms of breakings and units, seals, mechatronics, lubrication systems, and services. No other engineering company provides that breadth of knowledge."



In 2006, Johnstone was recognized with the ISSP (the International Society of Six Sigma Professionals) Six Sigma premier leader award for his dedication to continually improve the company. Johnstone is the first European corporate leader to receive the award and shares the honor with well-known CEOs such as Jack Welch of General Electric and Chad Holliday of DuPont.

Six Sigma is a systematic way of achieving and sustaining radical improvement. It is based on data-driven analysis of the various factors determining how different processes perform. The concept originated from Motorola`s decision in the late 1970s to start a process to improve product quality and reduce associated costs.

Johnstone says its solutions for the wind energy, railway, machine tool, automotive, marine, aerospace and other industries are based on the engineering knowledge contained with the five-platform concept together with 100 years of accumulated experience in development and applications.

More Than A Bearings Manufacturer

Today, SKF is the largest manufacturer of not only bearings in the world, but also seals, linear motion products, maintenance products, condition monitoring systems as well as industrial decision support systems. With representation through authorized distributors and dealers at 15,000 locations in 130 countries, subsidiaries in 70 and manufacturing in 100 countries around the world, SKF today is as global as ever.

SKF has established a business concept of providing not only products, service and training, but also products specifically developed for comprehensive service purposes. Two such products are SKF Multilog system and @ptitude Industrial Decision Support System. Incidentally, both are utilized by the replica of an East Indiaman, the Swedish Ship Goteborg, now on its way back to Gothenburg on its two-year expedition to mainland China. On board there are 28 Multilog sensors mounted on engines, drive shafts and other critical parts of machinery and technical systems. The sensor signals are continuously fed via satellite to a computer at the SKF headquarters in Goteborg and analyzed by @ptitude. Plain text information is then sent the same way back to the chief engineer on board, in case @ptitude finds problems that could cause a failure. A similar system is used on one of the world`s biggest and most modem cruising ship, the Queen Mary 2.

One of the technical services that the company is promoting strongly right now is its online condition monitoring systems, for which SKF Taiwan says it has taken big-ticket orders from traditional as well as high-tech firms in Taiwan.

SKF condition monitoring systems are widely used in the wind-generation industry worldwide for the remote monitoring of wind-turbine operations. Built-in software enables these systems to automatically diagnose and analyze the root cause of problems in wind turbines; this helps customers to avoid power outages as well as repair and maintenance costs caused by unexpected breakdowns. At the same time, of course, this elevates operating efficiency and reliability.

SKF online monitoring systems (which can be used with ship propulsion and railway systems as well as wind generators) have been adopted by such large wind-generation systems as GEO and Enertrag of Germany, and Hydron Tasmania and ENH of Australia.

The Reliability Systems Unit of SKF Taiwan says it has accumulated a wealth of experience as well the capability of developing wind-generating technology, and is one of the world`s leading manufacturers of wind turbines, gear boxes, and generators. Expertise like this has allowed the SKF Group to help Denmark, Germany, and Taiwan with the installation of five-megawatt wind generators, the largest of their kind.

Over the past few years, SKF Taiwan has served such industrial heavyweights as the Formosa Plastics Corp., China Steel Corp., and Taiwan Semiconductor Mfg. Co. with reliable online condition reliability.

Acquisition and Merger

To extend its global presence, over the past several years SKF Group has continuously acquired and merged some outstanding firms of a wide range of industries which are complementary with SKF technologies.

For instance, at the end of last year SKF acquired a 90% stake in the Taiwan-based ABBA Linear Tech Co. through a domestic investment company at a cost of US$60 million, or approximately NT$2 billion.

SKF bid NT$49.57 (US$1.5) per share for acquiring ABBA shares. As the private equity fund, integral investment holdings Group, acquired a 10% stake in BBA in August 2005, the SKF`s acquisition of ABBA will be another successful sales of domestic firm by foreign private equity fund, following the sales of Taiwan Broadband Communications Co. by Carlyle Group to Australia-based Macquaire Group.

With capitalization of NT$405.6 million (US$12.29 million), ABBA is one of Taiwan`s leading manufacturers of precision mechanical components and parts and specializes in the development and production of linear guides.

In the past, SKF had only sales footholds in Taiwan. After acquiring ABBA, SKF will own production base in Taiwan. The acquisition of ABBA shows SKF has strong confidence in Taiwan`s strong ability to develop and produce precision mechanical components.

(by Ben Shen)