Slide Bearing Corporation (SBC): Use of robotics in SMEs
Slide Bearing Corporation (SBC), owned and managed by Wolf Corner, is a "small and medium enterprise" (SME) with sales of €50 million and 80 employees (including 5 office staff) at its factory in Belgium. It is a typical SME in that it serves a limited number of B2B customers, is highly specialized (e.g., slide bearings), is very flexible (i.e., produces highly customized bearings in small quantities), has a relatively flat hierarchy, and its employees are highly skilled, flexible in their activities, and accustomed to making decisions on the shop floor. This structure means that in some cases only one worker is the "expert" in a given task.
SMC produces and sells bearings to B2B customers in Europe, mainly in the machine tool, renewable energy (wind turbines) and automotive sectors. It has two divisions: the "high-tech solutions" division works closely with B2B customers to develop highly customized products with single-digit lot sizes but high margins. The "self-lubricating products" division offers 48 "high volume" products with volumes of around 2,000 units per year (each) but low unit margins. All products were machined on machine tools (mostly lathes) arranged in a typical job shop layout (i.e., similar machines were clustered together). The larger the diameter, the more difficult it is to maintain tight tolerances. This is the domain of highly skilled and experienced workers. Machine operators are very experienced and are paid above market rates. The factory operates three shifts, Monday 06:00h to Sunday 06:00h, 300 days a year. The workers work 8 hours a day (7 hours net, after lunch & breaks), 220 days a year. Some employees have been with the company for more than 25 years, with an average of 15 years.
SBC has at least two key strategic challenges: a talent shortage - an issue that affects the engineering industry in Europe in general - and changing market needs, driven by supply chain disruptions, rising energy costs and the shift to greener technologies.
SMC produces and sells bearings to B2B customers in Europe, mainly in the machine tool, renewable energy (wind turbines) and automotive sectors. It has two divisions: the "high-tech solutions" division works closely with B2B customers to develop highly customized products with single-digit lot sizes but high margins. The "self-lubricating products" division offers 48 "high volume" products with volumes of around 2,000 units per year (each) but low unit margins. All products were machined on machine tools (mostly lathes) arranged in a typical job shop layout (i.e., similar machines were clustered together). The larger the diameter, the more difficult it is to maintain tight tolerances. This is the domain of highly skilled and experienced workers. Machine operators are very experienced and are paid above market rates. The factory operates three shifts, Monday 06:00h to Sunday 06:00h, 300 days a year. The workers work 8 hours a day (7 hours net, after lunch & breaks), 220 days a year. Some employees have been with the company for more than 25 years, with an average of 15 years.
SBC has at least two key strategic challenges: a talent shortage - an issue that affects the engineering industry in Europe in general - and changing market needs, driven by supply chain disruptions, rising energy costs and the shift to greener technologies.
Collection: IESE (España)
Ref: OIT-41-E
Format: PDF
Number of pages: 12
Publication Date: Jan 9, 2025
Language: English, Spanish
Description
Slide Bearing Corporation (SBC), owned and managed by Wolf Corner, is a "small and medium enterprise" (SME) with sales of €50 million and 80 employees (including 5 office staff) at its factory in Belgium. It is a typical SME in that it serves a limited number of B2B customers, is highly specialized (e.g., slide bearings), is very flexible (i.e., produces highly customized bearings in small quantities), has a relatively flat hierarchy, and its employees are highly skilled, flexible in their activities, and accustomed to making decisions on the shop floor. This structure means that in some cases only one worker is the "expert" in a given task.
SMC produces and sells bearings to B2B customers in Europe, mainly in the machine tool, renewable energy (wind turbines) and automotive sectors. It has two divisions: the "high-tech solutions" division works closely with B2B customers to develop highly customized products with single-digit lot sizes but high margins. The "self-lubricating products" division offers 48 "high volume" products with volumes of around 2,000 units per year (each) but low unit margins. All products were machined on machine tools (mostly lathes) arranged in a typical job shop layout (i.e., similar machines were clustered together). The larger the diameter, the more difficult it is to maintain tight tolerances. This is the domain of highly skilled and experienced workers. Machine operators are very experienced and are paid above market rates. The factory operates three shifts, Monday 06:00h to Sunday 06:00h, 300 days a year. The workers work 8 hours a day (7 hours net, after lunch & breaks), 220 days a year. Some employees have been with the company for more than 25 years, with an average of 15 years.
SBC has at least two key strategic challenges: a talent shortage - an issue that affects the engineering industry in Europe in general - and changing market needs, driven by supply chain disruptions, rising energy costs and the shift to greener technologies.
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SMC produces and sells bearings to B2B customers in Europe, mainly in the machine tool, renewable energy (wind turbines) and automotive sectors. It has two divisions: the "high-tech solutions" division works closely with B2B customers to develop highly customized products with single-digit lot sizes but high margins. The "self-lubricating products" division offers 48 "high volume" products with volumes of around 2,000 units per year (each) but low unit margins. All products were machined on machine tools (mostly lathes) arranged in a typical job shop layout (i.e., similar machines were clustered together). The larger the diameter, the more difficult it is to maintain tight tolerances. This is the domain of highly skilled and experienced workers. Machine operators are very experienced and are paid above market rates. The factory operates three shifts, Monday 06:00h to Sunday 06:00h, 300 days a year. The workers work 8 hours a day (7 hours net, after lunch & breaks), 220 days a year. Some employees have been with the company for more than 25 years, with an average of 15 years.
SBC has at least two key strategic challenges: a talent shortage - an issue that affects the engineering industry in Europe in general - and changing market needs, driven by supply chain disruptions, rising energy costs and the shift to greener technologies.
Year: 2024
Geographic Setting: Belgium
Industry Setting: Industry and mining
Learning Objective
The case provides participants with insights into intelligent robotics (i.e., robots that use sensors to augment their capabilities) in the context of cyber-physical systems (i.e., the ongoing merging of the physical and digital worlds). It can be used in both MBA and executive programs, with different emphases:
MBA students: the case can be used to teach about job shop facilities in the product-process matrix, their advantages (flexibility) and challenges (idle machines), and have students explore the difficulties of doing production scheduling in such settings (i.e., no optimal solutions exist and heuristics are widely used) and how to approach the business case analysis.
Executives: The instructor can quickly cover the topics that are the focus of the MBA session and then move on to a discussion with a general management focus, namely: can robots (and other forms of automation) help industrial SMEs address key challenges such as talent shortages, an aging workforce, rising factor costs, flexibility, small lot sizes, etc.? The strategic discussion also allows executives to gain insights into how to approach the issue of installing a robotic cell, particularly from the HR perspective (which often turns out to be the most critical).
MBA students: the case can be used to teach about job shop facilities in the product-process matrix, their advantages (flexibility) and challenges (idle machines), and have students explore the difficulties of doing production scheduling in such settings (i.e., no optimal solutions exist and heuristics are widely used) and how to approach the business case analysis.
Executives: The instructor can quickly cover the topics that are the focus of the MBA session and then move on to a discussion with a general management focus, namely: can robots (and other forms of automation) help industrial SMEs address key challenges such as talent shortages, an aging workforce, rising factor costs, flexibility, small lot sizes, etc.? The strategic discussion also allows executives to gain insights into how to approach the issue of installing a robotic cell, particularly from the HR perspective (which often turns out to be the most critical).
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"Slide Bearing Corporation (SBC): Use of robotics in SMEs"
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