Dream of the impossible - achieve more
20 February this year a significant event took place: Concern VKO "Almaz - Antey" opened a new plant in Kirov - JSC "Kirov Machine-Building Enterprise". Dmitry Rogozin, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, Nikita Belykh, Governor of the Kirov Region, General Director of Concern EKO Almaz-Antey, Jan Novikov, and General Director of Kirov Machine-Building Enterprise, Eduard Noskov, took part in the ceremony. Freelance correspondent "NVO" Lyudmila GINZBURG asked Edward NOSKOV to answer questions about the current situation at the enterprise and plans for the future.
- Eduard Alekseevich, I sincerely congratulate you on this unprecedented event in the life of not only our region, but also Russia. Let's remember how it all began. Why was the territory of “AVITEK” machine-building enterprise JSC chosen as the site for the construction of the new plant?
- 4 a year ago, 4 on April 2012 of the year, here in Kirov, a solemn ceremony was held to lay the foundation stone for the construction of a new enterprise.
Why was this site chosen? For many decades in our city, it has been working - and it works very stably - an enterprise that was one of the first in 2002 that year joined the structure of the Almaz-Antey Concern. It is JSC VMP "AVITEK". The profile of the products produced there is similar to ours. Therefore, AVITEK can be considered to some extent a “parent” enterprise of our plant. The site “AVITEK” was once formed with a decent margin. Therefore, for the construction of a new enterprise, the engineering infrastructure was, in fact, already ready: during the construction period, we did not have to spend money to connect electricity, supply gas, etc. A large area - more than 23 hectares. The project managed to be organized with a very dense layout of production areas - more than 83 thousand square meters of production premises, the total area of 110 thousand. We have few production buildings, but they are large. This allows you to organize the work of the plant almost under the same roof and create a good production logistics, that is, a minimum of the costs of internal cargo movements, warehousing, transportation, interoperational preservation and packaging. The climate in the Kirov region is quite aggressive, with large temperature differences. When building a new enterprise, this natural factor was taken into account.
Speaking about the choice of the site for the ILC, we must certainly understand that the plant was initially designed with the support of the technological capabilities of AVITEK. A close technological and industrial cooperation was established between specialized industries, primarily the metallurgical cycle.
At the same time, within the framework of the project, a number of technological conversions with high automation were created at the new enterprise, which enhance the capabilities of the entire site. Made modern production of materials from non-metals, the so-called composite materials. Today they are widely used in our products.
- What is the total investment in the construction of a new plant, what priorities need to be addressed?
General Director of JSC "Kirov Machine-Building Enterprise" Edward Noskov talks about the plans for the development of the plant.
- The volume of investments is about 20 billion rubles. Basically it is the means of concern. And all of them were invested in the construction of a new plant by decision of the government of the Russian Federation. Yes, and the construction of the plant itself was organized by the decision of the president to perform tasks to improve the defense capability of the Russian Federation and ensure the release of modern weapons. Concern VKO "Almaz - Antey" implements today three such projects. They are complementary.
Our factory is engaged in the production of weapons of anti-aircraft missile systems. The plant in Nizhny Novgorod named after the 70 anniversary of the Victory (it was solemnly opened on 29 in March of this year with the participation of Russian President Vladimir Putin) - the production of the ground-based part of rocket complexes. In St. Petersburg, construction is completed (this is the third project of the concern) of a production site for several enterprises, mainly in the scientific and industrial sphere. They will develop and produce prototypes of equipment there.
As a result of the introduction of all the new enterprises, the concern will have the opportunity for a certain maneuver of production capacities, opportunities for the development and modernization of other enterprises. In recent years, a lot has been done at the enterprises of the concern to replace outdated technological equipment and introduce new ones. These are very substantial amounts of investment. This process continues.
- What are the features of the production of your enterprise today?
- I have already said that we have a high level of internal production logistics. First of all, due to the fact that the substantively oriented principle of the production layout is laid: each production building is focused on the production of a narrow group of products. Inside the case there are almost all the necessary types of technological conversions: blank, electroplating, machining, welding, painting, a certain set of test equipment, large assembly capacity.
And this is all collected in each building under the same roof. You bring materials there, and export ready-made components that are already able to go to the consumer. This is one of the important principles that rarely used to be realized. It is not only about enterprises of the military-industrial complex, but also machine-building. Traditionally, the technological principle always prevailed in our country, when each factory building was devoted to a particular type of technological operations. What is implemented in our Kirov machine-building enterprise is world practice. It allows you to get rid of a large number of unproductive costs, strive for high efficiency of use of fixed assets of the enterprise and resources and increase overall productivity.
It is difficult to imagine, but in individual technological operations through the use of modern equipment, we are increasing productivity by ten times compared with existing production facilities.
- And can you learn more about how the equipment went?
- The company is equipped with the most modern samples of technological equipment. At each technology site, equipment options were requested from a number of different companies. A special commission of the concern evaluated the submitted proposals, on the basis of this assessment contracts were concluded. As a result, each technological site is equipped, launched, commissioned by the company, which passed the commission selection. The companies-suppliers themselves selected manufacturers, assembled the equipment, as a result we have the equipment that corresponds in its level to the most modern world standards.
The trend of the last time - only the latest equipment.
- Today, great attention is given to import substitution. At your enterprise, there are examples of the use of equipment by Russian manufacturers, and to what extent do the capabilities of this equipment meet the needs of the time, in particular, the idea of “flexible” production?
- We have successful examples of the use of equipment by Russian manufacturers, in particular, equipment for painting sites. Equipment suppliers are only Russian companies, the equipment has wide technological capabilities. Our task is to master the methods of its quick changeover. We mastered it using modern software systems on a single machine. For example, we have the opportunity to produce on one machine for a week or even a shift that is most important at the moment. And to produce almost simultaneously different parts.
Such is the degree of flexibility of today's production. And the second possibility of flexibility lies in the fact that we have a number of technological areas duplicated between different buildings. The equipment rulers are very much repeated. And it allows, if necessary, by pressing the computer key, to redistribute the task. Thus, without conducting any technical activities, we can expand certain technological capabilities.
Due to the subject-oriented principle and unification of equipment, duplicated technological cycles of production buildings create additional opportunities for flexible production capacity management.
- And again, cadres decide everything? What frames do you need today? What will be the total number of KMP employees after it reaches its production capacity?
- Of course, new modern technologies impose certain requirements on personnel. The main thing that we want from the employees who come to us for employment is the desire to work, the desire to learn, to treat the duties performed responsibly. The concern at the start of our project has approved a training program, advanced training for tens of millions of rubles. We equipped our equipment with training laboratories of Vyatka State University. We are actively using the opportunities of the concern's training centers and internships for future employees of the ILC at operating enterprises. Conducted and conducted staff training during the commissioning of equipment. The main requirement for future plant personnel is the ability to master knowledge, preserve, accumulate and put it into practice. And every employee must have a well-developed responsibility and desire to do their job properly.
Today, automation and digital automation tools take over all the routine and complex production processes. Therefore, it is necessary to interact with this equipment correctly, to use those interfaces, work with which is characteristic of modern youth. New equipment eliminates the possibility of fatal errors, deviations, but it does not tolerate a careless attitude.
It is easier to acquire knowledge than to change your mentality. We really had a fairly young team, the average age is 35 years. Since we are investing a lot of money and effort in training, we expect that these investments will bring returns for a long time. There are also very experienced workers, whose key role is to transfer knowledge.
I am pleased to note that today many people who, once in their youth, began to work in mechanical engineering, but after going through all sorts of peripetia of market relations, were forced to go into commerce, now they are back in the profession.
The KMP today is a rapidly developing enterprise, we almost double our number every year. This is a very high growth rate of the team. Each of our employees has the opportunity to express themselves, there is the possibility of career growth, there is an opportunity to receive new modern knowledge, to expand the horizons, skills.
- What are the corporate social guarantees for employees?
- Since the task was to establish the company from scratch, in 2012, as I have already said, the board of the group approved the program for personnel training and social support for personnel. Within the framework of this program, of course, there are a lot of important events, such as the compensation of a part of the rent for housing non-resident highly qualified specialists who came to work at our enterprise. It also provides for the construction of a hotel for temporary residence of employees. To date, this construction is underway and will be completed in 2017 year. There will be able to live young professionals, including families. Its capacity is approximately 200 enterprise employees. As part of the personnel training program, activities for graduates of schools were implemented: we sent dozens of graduates to target places to study at the best technical universities of the country, including our basic university of Vyatka State University. Already this year, our first "target" come to us to work in the specialty.
- Probably, it was not easy to develop new production facilities simultaneously with the construction of the enterprise? What are your tasks for today?
- For the last three and a half years, we have actually lived in the mode of construction, that is, moving, temporary premises, boots with us to work as a replacement shoe. It was a daily occurrence. But this period is over. Now begins another, but no less complex and interesting, associated with the formulation of products for production, confirmation of product quality, a set of capacities. These are complex and large-scale tasks that the concern sets for us and which we must complete as soon as possible.
Working at the new plant of the Concern VKO "Almaz - Antey" among the residents of Kirov is considered an honor. Photos are provided by Concern VKO "Almaz - Antey"
The task to reach production capacity is with us by 2018 year. I think it is a very real task. It requires effort. When reaching full capacity, we are able to employ more than a thousand people.
- Does the commissioning of the new plant imply close production cooperation of VMP AVITEK JSC with the Nizhny Novgorod plant named after the 70 anniversary of Victory?
- We really have very close cooperation with the company “AVITEK”. It performs a number of technological operations for us - it supplies blanks, individual parts. We are already performing for them a series of machining operations, galvanic. We are in very close cooperation, there are existing contractual relations. With the Nizhny Novgorod plant at one time, we were building, evolving and now we are going parallel courses in terms of the implementation of the investment project. We are mostly engaged in intellectual exchange with this plant. For example, we compare our staff development programs. We are adopting the experience of introducing certain modern technical systems and tools. A lot of work was done in collaboration, distributing roles and then borrowing the results in terms of developing and implementing an automated enterprise management system. Relationships are also developing with a number of other enterprises of the EKR Almaz-Antey concern, mass-producing products.
- The automated enterprise management system that is being implemented at your plant today is another unique project ... The level of informatization of your enterprise has no analogues in Russia. Digital enterprise - what is it?
- Yes this is true. In this area, we are interacting very closely with the Nizhny Novgorod plant. In general, the project for the creation of an automated enterprise management system is carried out by the concern through the subsidiary company Almaz-Antey Management Consulting. The construction of a digital project was put by the concern as a model for the dissemination of this experience in their enterprises.
Information about products, available resources, equipment, buildings, structures, staff qualifications - all this is consolidated into a single system of production planning and management. The results of the execution of these plans are reflected in the controlling system, that is, internal accounting, are transformed into accounting and tax reporting. All this is done in an integrated software package. The staff actually works with the system online, that is, each storekeeper, master, controller and worker are actually the generators of the primary information, which is then integrated and processed. The results of the execution of the production plan can be seen every day with the periodicity of updating once a shift and comparing the actual costs with the planned ones. And with such a necessary degree of detailing, which allows you to have a powerful tool for making management decisions of various levels. We are able to learn about the results of work in continuous online mode. For a modern enterprise, to increase the efficiency of resources, this is very important. We have an absolutely accessible and understandable information about the state and location of all production resources.
In width, the scope of automated application tasks that are implemented in our country and at the Nizhny Novgorod plant, I do not know analogues in Russia. And this is the use of local automation. This management and delivery orders, and sales, preventive repairs, production planning, tax reporting. At the start of the project there were a lot of doubts - will it work out? But today we can confidently say that there is a result, and now we just need to “polish it”.
- What are the prospects of the enterprise and the products it creates?
- Today, our products are in demand, and there is global demand. But this demand is controlled by the state. There are tasks of a certain diversification so that the product portfolio is more diverse. The next stage after the development and implementation is the release of promising new and well-proven samples, which today form the backbone of the defense capability of the aerospace defense forces.
The main thing that we want to solve is high efficiency both within the production and in the application of the products that we will manufacture. Today, we have not resource-intensive, but intellectual-intensive production, which by smaller means allows us to solve large problems.
The Almaz-Antey concern has a motto: “The peaceful sky is our profession”. Peaceful sky - this is what allows you to engage in agriculture, construction, production, culture, raising children. Our concern deals exclusively with defensive means. I believe that the strong shield of the state is calm and peaceful coexistence.
Dream of the impossible - achieve more. Once I heard a phrase from my colleague. And I agree with him. Dreams should always accompany us. Russia's mission is always to extend a helping hand. And in order for this hand to be reliable, you must be strong, independent, competent and honest. This is the path to success.
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