Concern Kalashnikov, part of the state corporation Rostec, has successfully put into operation new buildings and renovated workshops for the production of small arms, tools and special equipment, as well as a new administrative complex and logistics center. The grand opening of 5 new facilities located in Izhevsk took place on April 27, 2016 with the direct participation of Rostec Director Sergei Chemezov, General Director of Kalashnikov Concern Alexander Krivoruchko and Head of the Udmurt Republic Alexander Solovyov.
The total cost of construction work and technical re-equipment of the industrial base of the concern amounted to 2.3 billion rubles. At the same time, the investments made it possible to increase the efficiency and flexibility of the enterprise, which should twice speed up the process of mastering serial production and the commercialization of new products and technologies. New production buildings and high-tech equipment will allow the concern to increase energy efficiency by 20%, reducing costs by reducing electricity consumption. The area of the new facilities of the Kalashnikov concern was about 49 thousand square meters, the press service of the enterprise reports.
“The course we have taken to accelerate the modernization of production facilities is due to the need to optimize the operating production costs of the enterprise and increase the volume of new products. In 2016, the concern expects to double the volume of production - up to 18 billion rubles, - said the general director of Kalashnikov Aleksey Krivoruchko. “In addition to mastering the production of new types of products by 2017, the concern expects to double the volume of small arms sales - up to 5.8 billion rubles (165 thousand items), simultaneously launching at least 10 new items into serial production”.
Photo: rostec.ru
Today Kalashnikov is a vivid example of successful development and modernization of an enterprise in the format of public-private partnership. State Corporation Rostec, as a controlling shareholder and within the framework of its own development strategy, supports projects aimed at increasing the capitalization and production efficiency of the concern. Especially taking into account the fact that today the management of the Kalashnikov concern is focusing on the introduction of innovative technologies and the launch of new types of products: only in the area of small arms, the Izhevsk enterprise is working on 50 projects. Over the past two years, the concern has invested more than 3 billion rubles in the development and modernization of production. In 2015, the growth in production at the enterprise reached 158%, 5 new samples of civil and military weapons were delivered to the conveyor, the plan for 2016 is to launch at least 10 new products. “Today we are confident that an increase in overall production efficiency and an increase in the share of civilian products will guarantee the preservation of the export potential and competitiveness of the flagship of the Russian arms business,” emphasized Sergei Chemezov, Rostec CEO.
The concern is pinning some hopes on the AK-12. The machine for the Russian outfit of the future soldier "Ratnik" is going to be chosen in the fall of 2016. Currently, both the Izhevsk AK-12 manufactured by the Kalashnikov concern and the AEK-971 assault rifle manufactured by the Plant named after V. I. Degtyareva. According to Aleksey Krivoruchko, the military stage of operation of these two assault rifles will begin in the near future. He stressed that Izhevsk takes the tests very seriously and hopes to win the competition. In the event that the AK-12 passes tests and becomes part of the Ratnik, the concern will be provided with a permanent state defense order. Earlier, the Deputy Minister of Defense of Russia Yuri Borisov said that the machine gun for the "Warrior" will be selected during trial operation, which will take place in all 4 military districts of Russia during 2016.
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To increase the volume of small arms production and expand the existing product line, the enterprise carried out a comprehensive reconstruction of the weapons production assembly shop. The outdated conveyor control system was completely replaced here. Due to this and the construction of new assembly flows in accordance with the lean production standard, as well as increasing the productivity of conveyor lines, the time to master new products at the enterprise should be reduced from 6 to 3 months, which will positively affect the cost of shooting products, it will decrease.
To reduce the cost of in-plant logistics, a new logistics center was opened, which will replace 33 outdated warehouses, which until recently were located throughout the enterprise. The capabilities of the new logistics center will allow organizing a system of automated storage and movement of products and materials, marking them with bar codes, and also completely eliminate the likelihood of finished products and workpieces becoming unusable. The new complex has a total area of 11 thousand square meters and consists of 34 administrative and warehouse premises, which are equipped with modern automated systems for sorting and storing products.
To increase the level of efficiency in the production of high-precision guided weapons and reduce the volume of purchases of expensive tools from third-party manufacturing companies, the concern has completed a comprehensive overhaul of production workshops with a total area of 20 thousand square meters. It was here that the production of tools and special equipment was transferred. In addition, a new building of a modern administrative complex was put into operation, which was connected to the production areas of the enterprise by pedestrian galleries, which makes it possible to reduce time costs due to the close location of production and administrative areas.
Photo: rostec.ru
The Kalashnikov Concern's modernization program was launched back in 2014, simultaneously with the arrival of private investors at the enterprise. The reason for the technical re-equipment of the enterprise at an accelerated pace over the course of just 3 years was the very difficult state of the industrial facility at the beginning of 2014: worn-out production equipment, inefficiently used areas, uncompetitive technologies. In this regard, a new strategy was developed in Izhevsk aimed at reforming the territorial plan of the plant, the entire production process and building new ones that meet the requirements of the time and technological spaces. An important component of the strategy adopted by Kalashnikov was the gradual transition to the use of advanced technologies in production.
To solve the indicated tasks, in 2014-2015 alone, more than 3 billion rubles were invested in the enterprise. In general, it is planned to spend more than 6 billion rubles on a comprehensive program for the global reconstruction of the enterprise until 2017. Such investments will allow reducing the amount of required equipment by more than 2 times and reducing the production area of the enterprise by more than 40%, which will lead to a significant increase in the efficiency of production processes. In the direction of manufacturing special equipment, it is planned to reduce costs by 20%, while the production capacity as part of the modernization work was increased to expand the volume and range of products. In 2015, the economic effect due to the modernization of the production of the Kalashnikov concern amounted to 311 million rubles, in the future it will only grow.
Photo: rostec.ru
Directions of the investment program of the Kalashnikov concern until 2017
The main directions of the Kalashnikov Concern's investment program until 2017 are increasing the flexibility of production processes, comprehensive modernization of the production base and optimization of the Concern's production areas from 135 hectares to 35 hectares currently occupied, as well as increasing the efficiency of production control and planning processes. Thanks to the implementation of this program, the company expects to maintain its position as a key Russian supplier of high-quality weapons for the RF Ministry of Defense and other power structures of the RF. At the same time, the concern expects to strengthen its position as one of the world leaders in the production of rifle complexes for both military and civil purposes.
At the end of 2014, the enterprise completed a project to modernize a unique shooting section of its own KIS - a control and test station, which allows testing all types of small arms before they are put into mass production. Another equally important area of modernization of Kalashnikov was the transition to the widespread introduction of MIM technologies (since 2014). These technologies make it possible to produce parts of complex shapes without additional mechanical processing by pressing a special mixture, which consists of metal powder and filler. The technology helps to reduce the cost of manufactured products.
Since 2014, that is, since the start of work on the implementation of an investment project aimed at modernizing the main production assets of the Kalashnikov concern, more than 130 modern CNC machines have been supplied to production, including more than 60 units of high-tech equipment., which the concern received in 2015. The introduction of modern equipment and methods of lean production into the production process made it possible only in two years (2014-2015) to triple labor productivity to 1.8 million rubles per employee per year, as well as double the processing speed of serial parts intended for small arms, while reducing the risks of defective products. Currently, the concern is implementing global projects for the reconstruction of the forge production and the design and technological center (CTC) of the enterprise. The total area of these two objects after reconstruction should be 3, 5 thousand square meters and 17 thousand square meters, respectively.
How does the concern live today?
Although the Kalashnikov concern is today the backbone structure of the small arms sector of the Russian defense-industrial complex, the share of small arms in the concern's supplies under the state defense order does not exceed 5% today. The general director of the concern, Alexey Krivoruchko, told Forbes journalists about this. “In 2015, 75% of the company's revenue was planned for the share of the state defense order, in 2016 the volume decreased to 60%, if we evaluate it in cash. At the same time, the share of small arms produced in Izhevsk in deliveries under the state defense order does not exceed 5%,”Krivoruchko said in an interview with the newspaper.
At present, according to him, one of the main tasks of Kalashnikov is to increase the share of civilian products in the total volume of production.“Now we are seriously dealing with this issue, and today we have more than 50 percent of the production of small arms - these are civilian products,” said the general director of the concern. The enterprise plans to significantly expand the range of civilian products, one of the main samples of which should be the Saiga-MK-107 carbine with a balanced automation system.
At the same time, today the concern produces not only a wide range of small arms, the enterprise also develops guided missiles. Thus, as part of the implementation of the state defense order, the Kalashnikov Concern supplied the Russian Defense Ministry with Vikhr-1 guided missiles. “Since the renewal of the state contract in the spring of 2014, the company has managed to quickly resolve the issue of replacing imported components with Russian ones,” said the general director of the concern Alexey Krivoruchko. "To date, this contract for the supply of guided munitions has been successfully implemented and closed." Concern "Kalashnikov" became the winner of the announced competition of the Ministry of Defense of Russia in July 2013, the first batch of missiles was delivered to the military in October 2015. The total cost of this state contract was approximately 13 billion rubles. The Vikhr-1 guided missile is designed to destroy various armored vehicles, as well as low-speed air targets. This anti-tank missile system is used on Su-25 attack aircraft and Ka-50 and Ka-52 helicopters. The maximum firing range of these missiles is up to 10 kilometers, while the missiles can be launched from a height of up to 4 thousand meters.
Today Kalashnikov products are supplied to dozens of countries around the world. At the same time, the state corporation "Rostec" owns 51% of the concern's shares, the remaining 49% are owned by private investors. The projected revenue of the enterprise by the end of 2016 should double, increasing to 18 billion rubles, said Krivoruchko. In 2015, the revenue of the concern amounted to 8, 2 billion rubles, showing an increase of 5, 3 billion rubles (2, 8 times at once). According to Aleksey Krivoruchko, unmanned aerial vehicles and boats are not taken into account, which are also produced by the concern today, but in the future they will have to account for 15-20% of the Kalashnikov concern.
The concern is also going to start producing short-range guided missiles. This will happen after the share in the company NPO High-Precision Systems and Technologies (VST) is purchased, this company specializes in the development and production of such types of weapons and military equipment as guided missiles and ground and airborne units of air defense systems. “The decision to buy a stake in this company is aimed at further expanding the product line of the Kalashnikov concern within the framework of the company's development strategy until 2020, as well as the formation of a multidisciplinary defense holding that would specialize in the development and production of integrated weapon systems,” the press reports. service "Kalashnikov". At the same time, the size of the acquired share of VTT is not disclosed until the purchase transaction has been approved by the Russian regulatory authorities.
Airborne assault boat BK-16 with a drone
It is worth noting that the Kalashnikov concern has long gone beyond the scope of an enterprise specializing in the production of small arms only, heading for the production of complex systems. To do this, Kalashnikov acquires manufacturers of a wide variety of equipment, which, within the framework of a single concept of production development, seems to the concern's managers to be the most promising. It was within the framework of this strategy that the concern acquired Rybinsk Shipyard, which already produces a whole line of boats - from pleasure boats to assault and search and rescue boats, equipped with a combat module of its own production. In addition, the Kalashnikov concern acquired a controlling stake in Zala Aero, which specializes in the production of UAVs. All these systems, according to the ideology of the Izhevsk concern, can and should work in conjunction, forming a multidisciplinary combat system.
“Today we are aware of the fact that in modern realities, it is difficult to solve a task on the battlefield with one machine gun. Therefore, at the expositions of the concern, you can see not only samples of small arms, but also combat modules, equipment, unmanned aerial vehicles and even landing boats. All this is being done today at the Kalashnikov enterprises. Accordingly, we are able to fully equip a soldier from gloves to a helmet, give him a modern new machine gun, put him on our own boat, on which our combat module (turret) will be installed with a new Balkan grenade launcher of our production, target designation to which will be transmitted by our the same UAV. Thus, the combat capabilities of the unit are only increasing,”said Andrei Kirisenko, advisor to the general director of the Kalashnikov concern, in an interview with Vesti. Ru earlier.
