December 26, 2008 Built to Last Quality

Volume 11 | Issue 6

One of the world’s leading foundries and automotive suppliers, Brazil’s Teksid took South American industry by storm over 30 years ago and i

Teksid Brasil is part of Teksid SpA, a division of the Fiat Group, and has been an active player in the field of metal refinement since 1917. With a productive capacity of 720 tons per year, Teksid is one of the world’s principal iron foundries. Teksid’s Brazilian outpost was opened in 1976, and today works with a capacity of 300,000 tons per year. “At first, we maintained aluminum, forging, and iron foundries,” explains Rogerio Silva, the company’s commercial director. “Then we sold the aluminum foundry to an American group in 2001, sold the steel foundry in the 1990s, but we kept our iron foundries. We are currently making a return to the aluminum business in Italy, and are building a new aluminum foundry here in Brazil. Teksid SPA has foundries and offices all over the world, in Italy, Brazil, Mexico, France, Portugal, Poland, Germany, USA and China.”

Teksid is thriving and expanding, with a 387,287-square-meter plant in Betim, with an extended area of 113,098 square meters. The company generates more than 4,000 direct jobs, and is world renowned in the field for its astonishing capacity and commitment to quality.

Teksid’s vision is to perpetuate its success, guarantee satisfaction to its customers, and add value, through the continuous improvement of its human resources and technology. The company instills solid values in its employees at every level, and distinguishes itself by practicing business with integrity and seriousness. Teksid’s basic management principals and goals include attending to the requirements of its diverse customers, grounding management of human resources in a theme of mutual respect between all parties, establishing solid partnerships with its suppliers, always contributing to technical development of the field, committing itself to the security of its many employees and to the preservation of the environment, and fostering quality systems management with an eye to evolution of processes.

PRODUCTS
In an effort to guarantee the quality of its products, Teksid Brazil continually invests in development, fabrication, and distribution processes. The company also undertakes measures to evaluate the conditions of its pieces after they reach the final client, whether that is in a different city, state or country. This elevated standard of quality is but one element that makes Teksid a renowned pioneer worldwide.

Teksid utilizes four lines of molding in the manufacture of gray and nodular iron castings, with flexible means of chemical composition to supply automotive and engine manufacturers in a range of applications. The company’s main products produced through these processes include blocks for diesel and gasoline engines and cylinder heads for diesel engines, suspension and break parts.

The company has circulated its products throughout five continents for more than 30 years. It remains the focal point for the Brazilian market, where it is the leading supplier of automotive casting components. In the foreign market, Teksid takes much pride in seeing its products more widely recognized each day. “Our clients represent all of the major players in the automotive market, from Fiat, to GM, Ford, Chrysler, Toyota, Scania, Cummins and Volvo, FPT Technologies, Deutz, International, Renault, Bosch, Dana, to name a few,” says Silva.

In addition to consistently investing in the latest technology, quality in productive processes and expansion of its industrial park, the company makes its relationship with its clients and partners a priority.

In addition, Teksid is a company proud to boast use of the Six Sigma system to advance and maintain a constant focus on the client, on management, and on the refinement of its processes, through the use of hard facts and data. Through its many years of operation, Teksid has been able to reach excellence in the quality of its products, in addition to streamlining its operations.

LIQUID PIG IRON
In 1988, Teksid Brazil became the first and only foundry in the world to receive pig iron in a liquid state from an external source directly in its molding lines. This technology enabled great gains in the quality of Teksid’s castings, increasing productivity and economy by 32 percent in the consumption of electric energy without needing any expansion of installed melting capacity.

The process encompasses many distinct operational characteristics: the distance between the supplier and Teksid is 20 kilometers. Close to 25-30 trips are made daily by specially adapted trucks, transporting 22 tons of liquid pig iron on each trip. As compared to the traditional system, this boasts a reduction of four for 2.30 hours in fusion, equivalent to 54 tons of pig iron. Considerable gains have been obtained in the final quality of products in the function of the metal being derived from the first fusing.

THE TEKSID SCHOOL
Teksid is always looking to strengthen and enlarge its team. Initiated in September of 2007, the Teksid Foundry School aims to educate professionals in the area of foundry work in partnership with Senai-MG. The school was opened to young people 18 to 22 years of age, offering a complete education taught by Teksid employees. The students take classes inside the factory or in the Senai laboratory in Itauna and/or Betim. There is a general model for all students, including an introduction to the foundry, design and foundry instruments. Upon advancing, three groups are formed, with disciplines specific to maintenance, foundry processes, and projects.

Implemented in 1995, a monthly meeting with the CEO (Vilmar Fistarol) occurs to open channels of communication among the company’s management, board and many employees. It includes more than 100 workers per meeting. The meetings follow a general schedule – after a long debate during which any worker may offer suggestions and remarks, and offer constructive criticism, the questions are then immediately discussed and brought to the company’s senior management.

SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSIBILITY
Teksid Brazil takes pride in being a Brazilian company, and is always responsive to the social needs of its country. The company aims to act as a responsible citizen through the creation and implementation of social programs and actions that will stimulate and enrich its employees, suppliers and clients.

With a focus on quality and personnel development, Teksid, whose motto is “Metallurgy That Knows No Boundaries,” has experienced significant growth in the past years. “We have grown steadily since 2002, and have ambitious plans on the horizon,” says Silva. A well-developed productive capacity, a commitment to the corporate team, and an unending sense of pride in country will carry Teksid far into the future alongside the automotive industry.

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