Fabrik2020 com­pe­ti­tion – the prize for the best pro­duc­tion

RIKA was one of many companies to participate in the well-known FABRIK2020 competition. Together with INDUSTRIEMAGAZIN, Fraunhofer Austria rewards the most innovative production in Austria through the FABRIK2020 competition. Fraunhofer Austria is part of the largest European organisation for applied research and development services. The competition took place for the 10th time this year.

First of all, the RIKA production facility in Adlwang had to face the Fraunhofer team of experts. After many subsequent rounds of evaluation it was established by the start of August that RIKA was among the top 5 best productions in Austria. Even if it wasn’t quite enough for first place, RIKA’s head of production Tomislav Dramac is rightly proud: “We’re competing here with top companies from the industry. That shows the high level at which stove production is running at RIKA.”

Production of the future

As early as the start of 2018, the production factory in Adlwang started an excellent digitalisation project with investments in the latest industry 4.0 technologies. As a result, driverless transport systems completely autonomously take stove components – or even fully assembled stoves at later stages – from one production station to the next. Additionally, employees also benefit from a digital assistance system that helps them with assembly right at their workstation via tablets. A central benefit is that this prevents potential assembly errors and means that the outstanding product quality of RIKA stoves can be guaranteed. All the production data for a stove is also recorded in real time, which ensures complete data quality and enables a variety of big data analyses.

Efficient production thanks to motivated employees

RIKA convinces thanks to its smart automation processes and the digitalisation of work processes, as well as its consistent waste-free production approach. The basis for this success is an innovative management approach which involves the entire RIKA team. Tomislav Dramac knows “that a motivated and efficient team is a requirement for efficient and high-quality production.” RIKA offers employees attractive work hours and social benefits such as subsidised meals and company parties.

RIKA’s drive for success

“We want to remain one of the best and most innovative heating appliance manufacturers in terms of added value,” says RIKA’s managing director Karl Riener, explaining the company’s guiding theme for 2021.
In order to get closer to our visionary, self-defined goal, numerous innovations have already been implemented into our production processes, including the organisation of workstations or the setting up of ergonomic workstations.

Zero emission factory

The RIKA factory in Adlwang excels not only thanks to modern and efficient production processes, but also thanks to a particularly environmentally-friendly stove production process. The objective is for RIKA stoves to be produced without any CO2 emissions at all if possible. “We’re advancing our vision of the “zero-emission factory” and are making a sustainable commitment to reducing the environmental impact of our production,” says RIKA site manager Peter Schwarzenbrunner.