At an Investment Efficiency Meeting held at Cologne's FORD Werke GmbH towards the end of October 2014, GROB was selected from over 30 suppliers and awarded the FORD Motor Company's "Certificate of Achievement". Running in parallel to this event, at the FORD plant in Livonia, Michigan, USA, a further 40 participants were able to view the award ceremony via satellite. Apart from GROB, FORD gave the certificate to only two other suppliers, both of whom won awards for special services in another category. GROB was one of only three suppliers worldwide honored by FORD in this way and so the company can be justifiably proud of winning this award.
Speaking at the award ceremony, German Wankmiller, chairman of GROB's Management Board commented: "On several occasions we have won the FORD Motor Company's Q1 Award for our plants in Mindelheim and Bluffton, and just last year the FSAO Supplier Award for our factory in Brazil. So we are particularly pleased to win this award, which we have received for our outstanding performance in developing pro-active ways of improving machine serviceability."
New milestone in our partnership with FORD
A decisive factor in winning this accolade was a two-day workshop in Dagenham/UK, which was held as part of the Panther Project. It was a constructive workshop at which the GROB team openly discussed with our partner all the maintenance tasks that need to be carried out and this information was gathered together for FORD to a very high level of detail. What emerged is a standardized summary of all the maintenance jobs that have to be performed, not just at FORD Dagenham going forward, but in all FORD plants where GROB machinery is used. This summary helps to improve efficiency in production and also advances the entire production process and, going forward, forms the basis for all maintenance work on metal-cutting machines in this field.
It's a win-win for both partners. We are very proud of this award," said Jochen Nahl, GROB's Sales and Marketing Director. "This award is another milestone in strengthening our partnership with Ford, as it fully reflects the outstanding co-operation between FORD and GROB in the Panther Project." Ray Holden, FORD's Production Engineering Manager, who presented the award, spoke about the award and specifically praised "GROB's pro-active approach". GROB and FORD can boast a long-term partnership, which dates back to the 1960s.
The Panther Project is a European scheme, in which GROB collaborates with FORD plants at Dagenham/UK and at Cologne. In the Dagenham plant it involves a cylinder head and a cylinder block and in the German plant in Cologne a cubing line (foundry machining).
