Sven Wolf has been with the company for 19 years and is extremely versatile. He started at Texparts as a design engineer. With his technical background from the development department, he moved to the technical purchasing department in 2011 and became production manager of assembly in Fellbach in 2016 and later took over the entire management of the factory.
| Question: | What is the focus of your work? | ||
| Wolf: | It's a big advantage that I'm familiar with the entire product creation process - from development and production through to delivery. Considering the extremely high quantities we produce, the smallest detail matters. The requirements for the components differ at every stage of the production process and must be met precisely to ensure that our Texparts components work reliably in the spinning mill. From my point of view, the biggest challenge is to ensure the quality of our products in a fully automated way at all our production sites in Germany, Singapore, China and India. This is a major part of my job. | ||
| Question: | So which product is particularly important to you and why? | ||
| Wolf: | The answer is easy for me: Spinnfinity. It was a long and challenging journey from the start of development all the way to the completion of the assembly and testing system. The minimalist design with full functionality symbolises a successful innovation for me - something that the name Texparts stands for. We have now sold over 8 million units of Spinnfinity. And of the previous versions, over 15 million have been installed on our customers' machines in recent years. | ||
| Question: | Could you describe the market for ring spinning components? | ||
| Wolf: | There are approximately 200 million ring spindles in operation worldwide, of which an estimated 5 to 9 million are newly installed. Since its foundation in 1999, Textparts has supplied millions of pendulum supports and spindles - both for retrofits and new installations. A large proportion has been supplied directly from Fellbach, but our international locations are also contributing an increasing share. Particularly noteworthy is the idler roller production in Singapore, with a production capacity of over 100 million units per year. |
| Question: | How has the production landscape changed over the last 25 years? | ||
| Wolf: | The development from manual to fully automated production has brought many changes. In 1999, we produced only a small amount ourselves and focussed on internal assembly. With our production team together with automation technology suppliers, we were able to highly automate the assembly of some of our products in Fellbach, Germany. The employees first had to get familiar with these sophisticated systems, but thanks to detailed training, they did this within a short space of time. The biggest advantage of automation is that we can react flexibly to workload fluctuations with a small number of employees. | ||
| Question: | How do you achieve that high product quality? | ||
| Wolf: | We minimise manual activities as much as possible in manufacturing and strict quality controls are very important. The continuous review of processes for quality optimisation, simplification and cost savings has resulted in many ideas and follow-up projects. Highly motivated employees are also a key factor in ensuring good quality - a big thank you to my entire team for working in such a quality-conscious manner. | ||
| Question: | Which were key milestones in the optimisation of the production process? | ||
| Wolf: | Our first milestone was the additional production line for foot and neck bearings to increase our capacity. The next step was an investment in the assembly of the new pendulum roller bearing generation PK SE, including a 100% inspection, which replaced the labour-intensive manual assembly of the PK 2025. Another milestone was the first automatic assembly of a double-row bearing in Fellbach. Our system to put on sleeves as surface protection is currently the latest milestone. However, we are constantly working on further optimisations in production and have further projects in the pipeline. |
