This news article was originally written in Spanish. It has been automatically translated for your convenience. Reasonable efforts have been made to provide an accurate translation, however, no automated translation is perfect nor is it intended to replace a human translator. The original article in Spanish can be viewed at Soraluce llega a su 40 cumpleaños

Soraluce reaches his 40 birthday

15/05/2002

Workshops SORALUCE, currently Soraluce s.coop., was formed on April 27, 1962 in Placencia de las Armas (Guipúzcoa) with 51 founding members provided a capital of 9 million pesetas.

Placencia de las Armas, mostly industrial town, was already in 1960 companies engaged in the manufacture of machine tools. This tradition was to influence the fate of the current Soraluce, that since its inception it was conceived as a manufacturer of machinery, "of which develop and sell their own products to the market, either as manufactured articles or with foreign licenses", as defined in those days.

The origin of the founding team, consisting of drill, fresistas, mandrinadores, taladristas, adjusters, rasqueteadores and rectifiers, together with the extended family of products that are made during these 40 years (drill, boring machines, machining centers, transfer machines and milling machines) currently make Soraluce a company with a strong industrial heritage and acknowledged internationally.

Since its creation as a industrial cooperative, three major milestones that have marked his career can be highlighted:

Short Association to Caja Laboral Popular (in 1963).
Secondment to the Maherko Industrial complex, current Danobat Group (year 1980).
Constitution of MCC, Mondragón Corporación Cooperativa (in 1992), first business group of the Basque country, which is associated the Danobat group as one of the clusters of the Division of machine tools of the Industrial Group.

1962 Birth of Soraluce

It was in 1988 when it was decided to address the design and manufacture of gear cutting machines, machine of universal character, as a unique and distinctive product. In September of that same year was presented at the fair in Stuttgart (Germany) the first milling machine brand Soraluce, marking the beginning of an exciting stage.

At the beginning of the 1970s the export had been imposed in this company with corpse results. Some exports from 34 per cent in 1988 moved to 90 per cent in 1992 and has remained at this level over the past ten years.

It should be noted in this international expansion, the primary role played by the Danobat-Bimatec society founded in January 1992 at Germany and currently serves more than 600 customers in the German market. This society, along with offices in Italy, France, USA.UU., Canada, China and Brazil and agents and distributors in other countries on five continents, are the commercial network of Soraluce.

Soraluce overview

The main segments of market of the company are goods of team and machinery, moulds and coin, outsourcing, aerospace and automotive sector.

The company, more than close

Soraluce offers its customers solutions across a wide range of models of centres of milling. Basically, their products are divided into four great families: milling machines with table fixed (family T), mobile column milling machines with fixed table (family S), (F family) mobile column milling machines and finally, new models of high speed milling machines.

Have been numerous the technological projects llevar by Soraluce from his starts, only or in collaboration with diverse technology centres. In 1986, conscious of the need to give greater impulse to the development and innovation of his products, the Group Danobat decides to create a technological centre specialised in machine-tool, Ideko, dumped at present in the realisation of projects of optimisation of product and improvement of processes of production.

Machining of die for car chassis. Working on vertical get big savings on the machining.

Currently Soraluce consists of 215 people (195 are partners), 185 of them to work in the line of milling and the 30 remaining part of the central services of the Danobat group, D+S systems (composed of Danobat and Soraluce for the design and manufacture of special machines and transfer lines) and Ideko.

The company has structured in seven organisational areas coordinated by the Director Manager, Rafael Barrenechea, and in three productive plants. The ones of the Neighbourhood of Osintxu of Bergara, house all the offices, the section of mechanised and the setting of the machines of mobile column.

Table fixed milling machine, model TR

The plant of Bergara is focused on the family's milling machines with fixed bench mounting.

The implementation of Total quality management process began in Soraluce in 1990, and two are the major consecutive stages which can be distinguished in this process: a first stage, oriented towards the guarantee of product and otherthe current, in which the principles of Total quality oriented the company performance through the management according to the EFQM Excellence model.

The attainments obtained in matter of Aseguramiento of the Quality culminated in 1994 with the obtaining of the Certificate of Register of Company Aenor, that certified that the system implanted for the activities of design, development, production, installation and service postventa, was satisfied with the exigencias of the norm ISO 9001. This company converted like this in the first national manufacturer of milling machines in obtaining the Certificate of Register of Company ISO 9001.

BIMATEC showroom

Fully assumed that the Total quality management is the strategy necessary to compete, it was in 1995 when elected the EFQM model as a model in management strategy, making that year the first self-assessment based on the model.

The introduction of the EFQM model has allowed that through the annual self-assessments, surveys of satisfaction of customers and staff, the work of improvement groups, training and the implementation and monitoring of indicators, SORALUCE today is an organization in unstoppable progress towards excellence.