PAS Polska Sp. z o.o. is part of the PAS Group – a leading developer and manufacturer of cable and panel systems for household appliances. The company is a modern technology provider which stands out as a reliable business partner, who effectively cooperates with its customers.
With the extensive know-how, competence, innovative products of high quality and focus on tailored solutions, PAS is ready to meet every challenge of the market. Written by Anna Chudzik
PAS in Poland and worldwide
The PAS Group companies are active worldwide, providing technologically advanced system solutions for household appliance manufacturers. PAS, with its corporate headquarters in Neuruppin, Germany, has at its disposal 7 production plants in 5 countries – Germany, Poland, Turkey, the US and Mexico. The history of PAS goes back to 1992, when a mid-sized private company was formed out of a former state enterprise. At the beginning its profile revolved only around cable manufacturing, but thanks to the firm’s customer-oriented approach and high quality of products, its activities expanded to include plastic injection moulding and engineering. By the year 1999 the company’s workforce already amounted to 200 staff members. The first Polish plant was opened in 1998 in Opalenica, which currently specializes in the production of wire harnesses using IDC and Crimp technology as well as complete system panels for household appliances. The other Polish location of PAS is Łódź, which consists of two plants. In the first one, the company manufactures approximately one million system panels annually for the home appliance industry and supplies customers located in the area, which is based on a modern ‘shop-in-shop’ concept. In the other plant of Łódź PAS possesses plastic injection molding equipment, where the company employs screen processes, padprinting, thermo processes, IMD (in-mold decoration) and IML (in-mold labeling) technologies to precisely decorate system panels. In 2008 the PAS Group became a market leader for panel systems, producing 2.5 million systems and 5 million wire harness system per year. Currently the PAS Group provides employment for some 1900 people, out of which more than a half consists of the employees working in Poland.
How to be better?
The company endeavors to act in accordance with one of its mottos, which states: “When you stop improving you stop being good.” According to Wojciech Jankiewicz, Financial Director at PAS Polska, strategic potential of the company mainly consists in the ability to adjust to the changing macroeconomic conditions and the capability to constantly optimize processes in the company. In Jankiewcz’s opinion, the key to success is to establish internal communication between individual employees as well as individual departments of the company. Undoubtedly, PAS is the company with the potential to improve. According to Dariusz Szymański, Quality Director at PAS Polska, the strategic potential of the company can be divided into material elements, comprising technologies, machines and the firm’s infrastructure and non-material ones, such as the employees’ level of education, the managements of the company, the number of ideas, inventions, patents, etc. Piotr Krygowski, Production Director in Opalenica at PAS Polska, broadens the list to include the extensive know-how in the field of production of wire harness systems and panels for washing machines by the greatest household appliance manufacturers in Europe. In Mr Krygowski’s opinion, it is wire harness systems that are the most essential products in the wide offer range, which is connected with the development of the company’s machines. There are numerous goals PAS would like to achieve, but one of the main aspirations is to be ahead of the field all the time, which poses a challenge. Europe, with its dynamic market of home appliances, plays a central role for the PAS Group. On the other hand, Europe is demanding in terms of innovativeness, quickness and reliability. Today new generations of appliances are created faster than before, while new versions of appliances are introduced to the market at shorter intervals of time. In order to keep the dominance on the market, PAS carefully monitors all the market trends. One of the latest tendencies is to introduce environmentally-friendly technologies. Moreover, a changing global market requires developing a new type of partnership between customers and suppliers. PAS is willing and ready to meet all those challenges.
Building customer confidence
The success of each and every company depends on various factors, but what seems indispensable here is gaining the customers trust. Joachim Schrader, the Director of Sales and Marketing at PAS Group and Ulrich Worbs, the member of the Sales and Marketing Department at PAS Group encapsulate the idea of gaining customer confidence in the following way: “We know from experience that reliability, proper price to quality ratio, open communication and the attitude towards solving problems, combined with a wide scope of competence, have an important influence on building the trust.” Mr Schrader and Mr Worbs admit that the PAS Group lays particular emphasis on the partnership with its customers. As a systems partner and also the supplier of components, PAS can offer a wide range of services, starting with the designing and construction, ending with the serial delivery, which works in accordance with one of the company’s mottos: “Your ideas – our solutions.” What is more, the success of PAS is intertwined with the success of the customers, which is why the company actively supports them in many fields. PAS has always focused on fulfilling the wishes of its clients to keep them satisfied. As already pointed out, the popularity of the PAS products is determined by their high quality and reliability. Apart from the complex service package, the PAS Group offers its clients the professional consultancy, innovativeness and on-time delivery. All of that made it possible to build and solidify the customer confidence, which is the cornerstone of the business.
Human potential
The success would not have been possible without the highly-qualified employees, who actively contribute to the development of the company and constitute one of its strongest pillars. In 2009 the average number of staff members in Pas Poland
amounted to 800 permanent employees and 250 temporary ones. PAS makes an effort to be perceived as a reliable and stable employer: “Reliability manifests itself in complying with the rules and regulations stated in the Polish labour legislation, clarity of the internal personnel procedures (e.g. recruitment procedures) and the concern for the employees’ development (e.g. subsidizing their education). As for the stability of jobs, we try to ensure it using the available tools such as temporary job or flexible working hours,” says Jarosław Szaga, Director of Human Resources at PAS Polska. Elaborating on the personnel policy, Mr Szaga enumerates some of the company’s actions, aimed at motivating as well as supporting the employees. Apart from ensuring safe working conditions or organizing and paying for the group transport of the employees to work, PAS fosters showing one’s initiative and creativity through the implementation of employee suggestion program. The financial help takes the form of giving the presents for the employees’ children, Christmas vouchers, loans, etc. The good atmosphere at work is strengthened during the social events, such as trips and family picnics, but also the regular staff meetings with the Board. PAS does not forget about the development of young people, thus, together with other companies, organizing apprenticeship for mechatronic engineers or internships for the school students so as to help them choose their future career path. Moreover, as part of the non-business activity, PAS sponsors local cultural events and cooperates with a chosen school and children’s home. Since people are of paramount importance to creating the success story of PAS, one of the company’s goals is to create new jobs, as pointed out by Mr Krygowski.
Resisting the crisis
Owing to the crisis, the sales of home appliances dropped all over the world. However, according to Jakub Bok, Sales Manager at PAS Polska, Poland is the sole country in Europe which did not feel the crisis in the home appliances sector. Within the last year, the sales grew by 2% in Poland, which is a good result, when compared to other European markets, which suffered a drop by 25%. As Mr Bok continues, Poles tend to buy more and more, and the Polish market has a great potential to develop. Although the dynamics of growth has lessened because of the crisis, PAS was able to make the most of its opportunity and strengthen the market position: “This year we have bought a new production hall, which enabled us to perfect processes occurring in the company. The clients appreciate the constant development of the enterprise and they unanimously agree that PAS is a stable and innovative company.”
