A plant tour at Chinese Saurer Jiangsu Textile Machinery Company
TextileFuture continues its series on China, this time with a plant tour at Chinese Saurer Jiangsu Textile Machinery Company Ltd. When arriving at the plant, the first visible sign of the past is impressive, because the company is located on the premises of Oerlikon in Suzhou, China, its former owner. But of course by the second look, there are quite some distinctions, as well as distance. It is like an independent enclave. In addition, TextileFuture had the opportunity to visit a Saurer customer, Suzhou Zhenlun Group.
The plant visit showed that Saurer and its personnel is really living textiles and this philosophy reigns also Saurer Jiangsu.
Saurer Jiangsu employs around 700 persons and generates sales in the order of EUR 195 million, with textile machinery and components for yarn processing of the brands Schlafhorst and Zinser and in twisting of Allma and Volkmann. The components division with the brands Accotex, Daytex, Fibrevision, Heberlein and Texparts. It is an important player in the Chinese market. Saurer stand also for leadership in shuttle embroidery.
The plant in Suzhou reflects the Saurer values: customer first, execution, passion, entrepreuneurship, and by setting new standards. The Chinese plants development can be had from Table 1 (9)
The organisational scheme can be had from Table 2 (10)
It is the aim of the management to serve the Chinese market and its customers – such as the entire Sauer Group worldwide – according to the motto “We strive for excellence with the needs of our customers in the focus, thus all actions are centred on customers, with the aim to provide customers with innovative products making a difference in their production and profitability. The passion for the Saurer products drives the innovation process. Together with its employees it develops a corporate culture driven by passion to become the best in what they do.
The plant’s layout is versatile as is its production and focused on the needs of Chinese customers. In 2005 there was an important development when Zinser established a Chinese joint venture with Jingsheng and started local Chinese production. Barmag enjoys a market share in China of around 35 %. Over time the production palette was growing in Suzhou.
At TextileFuture’s visit in Suzhou, we witnessed a very dedicated work force and after the ownership change when Jinsheng Group took over the Natural Fibre and Components business from Oerlikon Group the personnel demanded a distinctive sign to differentiate from Oerlikon in their work clothing. We were impressed of the intelligent flow of production arrangements and by the motivated management team and plant managers in the different segments of production. The plant’s layout reflects the different stages of production in an ideal flow and is geared to top efficiency at every stage. The plant is a very modern and state-of-the art production facility of the Saurer Group in China and serving best its diversified customers of the different sectors of activity.
The plant’s environment is very lovely with an artificial lake and Chinese recreation area where plant workers can have peaceful recreational moments during their off time.
Visit at Suzhou Zhenlun Spinning Co. Ltd. "Some of the raw material to feed the spinning machines at Zhenlun")
Besides the plant visit, TextileFuture has voiced interest to visit a customer. In fact, we visited Suzhou Zhenlun, employing more than 1200 people. The plant has installed 400000 spindles and 100 knitting machines and produces various regenerated cellulose yarn and fabric. The company has subsidiaries, such as Suzhou Zhenlun Spinning Co. Ltd. With 30000 Siro spinning units, 90000 compact siro spinning units and 15 vortex machines. Its annual production of viscose, bamboo, Tencel, Modal yarn amounts to over 254000 t. Another unit represents Suzhou Nanguang ecological textile Co. Ltd. Producing viscose yarn on 60000 ring-spindles and 25 rotor spinning machines of Oerlikon Schlafhorst. The third subsidiary, Sulunte Spinning Co.,, Ltd. Produces OE yarn and the Oerlikon Schlafhorst rotor spinning machines are producing 100 % viscose, 100 % polyester And TR blended open-end yarns. The production of the group and the count range can be had from Table 3
In recent years, Zhenlun tightly grasped the opportunities of the market and devoted to producing various regenerated cellulose yarn year by year. It has won a good reputation not only in China, but also in foreign countries, such as Brazil, USA, Europe, and so on. Zhenlun will keep on innovating, and supply our customers with best products and services.
In addition the company has a another company, Suzhou Zhenlun Import & Export Co. Ltd., it is a professional manufacturer of various kinds of high-quality recycled fibre yarns and fabrics, covering a total area of 200,000 square meters and with a construction area of 150,000 square meters and employing over 1,000 people. It sells its products also online.
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Jiankun Wu, Manager of Suzhou Zhenlun Spinning Company presented its company and explained that the installed machinery from Saurer Group are meeting the most excessive requirements of the group in view to yarn production efficiency, quality, reproducibility and profitability and thus also fulfilling the needs of the most demanding customers. He declared himself also very satisfied with the services rendered by Saurer and is considering future investment in Saurer machinery.