How to survive with high costs

Located in central Germany between the urban hotspots of Frankfurt, Cologne and Diisseldorf, Ratingen is a modest town of under 100,000 inhabitants with little in the way of history, and few famous sons outside Germany, at least. Yet there will be E&T readers around the world whose mains electricity supply is dependent on Ratingen and its industrial products, as nestling in the shadows of the ISS Dome conference centre is a factory belonging to power systems manufacturer ABB. Built in the late 1990s, this modern, sprawling 76,000m2 complex houses 1,300 employees, and is one of the company's manufacturing bases for medium-voltage (40kV) products. ABB's Ratingen plant has to compete with the company's plants in low-cost countries, and Anne Harris discovers how a process overhaul and a culture of good communication may just deliver those crucial efficiencies.