Freie Presse on Sep 02,2004: Frankenberg and Lichtenau are Building a Cleaning Machine

Lichtenau/Frankenberg. When two neighbouring companies are working in the same sector in this country, that doesn’t necessarily mean they are familiar with one another's work, let alone having business relations. Wolfgang Jeschke from Bundesverband mittelständische Wirtschaft (Professional Association of Medium-Sized Companies) has even noticed that „companies producing next door to one another in a business park often don't even know one another's CEO's“. But since spring, the association has been working at getting local companies in Mittweida County to come together. And their commitment has been begun to bear fruit.

Steffen Müller is the CEO of the Frankenberg-based Technic Center Engineering (TEC) GmbH set up in December of 1994. With 23 employees located in Lerchenstraße, it develops and produces electronic components including accumulator battery chargers and engine control systems. Now, TEC GmbH is developing the control system for a new floor cleaning machine on behalf of Kärcher, the foremost manufacturer of cleaning systems. That's why „we needed a component supplier for preassembling the cable harnesses“.

And, at the last meeting of the members of the Professional Association, he found one. That's where he met Marion Becher, the CEO of the Lichtenau-based Arnold Elektronik GmbH that has been located in the Ottendorf Business Park for four years and employs 35 persons, mostly women. They hand-produce cable harnesses, coils and printed circuit boards in spite of dumping wages in the Far East. Ms. Becher explained „we manufacture small quantities where it doesn’t make business sense to use expensive robots“. Arnold's high-grade coils can be found in Siemens' switching cabinet.

Arnold Elektronik produced the first five sample cable harnesses for TEC in Frankenberg and another 50 will follow in the next few weeks. TEC's CEO Müller says „we might need as many as 1,000 pieces in the coming year”. Beyond this, Müller and Becher know and appreciate the short distances between their two companies. „If we have problems to solve, we just hop in the car. That's often more effective than wearisome negotiations on the phone“.