During 2004 SKF has made several major investments in Russia to keep pace with the rapid economic development in the country and to stay ahead of the increasing competition. SKF is opening an Industrial Service Center (ISC) and a Reliability Maintenance Institute (RMI) in Moscow. On top of this, a totally new logistics structure is being established with a local warehouse in Moscow that will cover the majority of the product range sold in Russia and decrease lead times from approximately 10–20 days down to only 1–2 days. This also enables SKF sales in local currency.

SKF has industrial service centres and reliability maintenance institutes on all its main markets: North America, Europe, Southeast Asia, South America and now Russia. In Moscow the ISC will occupy 1,500 square metres and offer reconditioning of roller and ball bearings and spindle machinery, as well as modernization of industrial machinery.

The RMI is run together with Bauman Moscow State Technical University (MGTU) and will offer training courses designed to help plants eliminate machinery problems and achieve maximum reliability and productivity by utilizing the very latest in precision maintenance techniques. Each course is designed to address a specific machine installation or maintenance problem and help the customer correct it. Some courses involve the use of highly sophisticated diagnostic equipment, while others are more basic in nature and cover such topics as bearing fundamentals and proper lubrication.

“The aim of these investments is to strengthen SKF’s profile as a solution provider, and not only to increase our turnover in Russia,” says Anatolij Oussov, CIS regional director. “We want to redefine the market, change the way bearing business is made in Russia and become a company that is easy to do business with for the Russian customers, big and small. We also want to support the rapid economic development of Russia, particulary the industrial growth.”