Today we visited Sandvik, a Swedish company that manufactures mining equipment and industrial tools. Sandvik’s objective is zero harm to their employees, the environment they work in, and their customers. Sandvik is a world-leading engineering group with a big push towards using advanced technology to build their products.
Who is the customer?
The customer is generally big companies that need the equipment that Sandvik produces. For example, all major car companies in the United States are customers of Sandvik because they purchase the metal tools needed to assemble their vehicles. The facility in Mebane that our class visited today sends all of the products they make to another Sandvik location to be distributed. Sandvik has a distribution centers in Singapore, Holland, and Kentucky.
What does the customer value?
The biggest thing that customer’s value is the quality. Sandvik is known for producing the highest quality products in this particular field. Many products that Sandvik produces are expensive but they claim that they are better than competitors because they produce the highest quality products in the most efficient way.
What are the results?
The results are very impressive. Sandvik has over 49,000 employees across the world and they’re continuing to expand. The most impressive result that stood out to me was the profit Sandvik makes year after year. For the 162 years Sandvik has been around, only two times has the company failed to make a profit. It is clear that this company is well run and a smart investment.
What is the plan?
The plan for the future is to continue being a world leader in manufacturing mining equipment and industrial tools. Sandvik uses many robots and other advanced technology to make their products because this is more efficient than paying employees to do the same job. Because of the, Sandvik is looking to continue making robot technology in hopes to become extremely efficient. Also, Sandvik is represented in over 130 countries and they are looking to keep expanding.
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