SKF opens Solution Factory in Toronto

SKF has opened the latest addition to its global network of SKF Solution Factory facilities in Toronto. The new facility will provide Canada’s industries access to SKF services and solutions by bringing the company’s five technology platforms — bearings, seals, services, lubrication systems and mechatronics — together with a wealth of extensive industry knowledge and application experience.

“Our Canadian customers across almost every industry ask us for solutions to improve their productivity and reduce costs in a sustainable way,” said Vartan Vartanian, SKF president, industrial market, regional sales and service. “We are very excited to announce the opening of our Solution Factory in Toronto. Its close proximity to the Canadian mining, pulp and paper, metals, and food and beverage industries makes it the perfect location for this facility.”

The SKF Solution Factory is designed to create customized solutions for customer problems or challenges. Whatever the challenge, the SKF Solution Factory will work to find the answer by assembling a dedicated project team using experts from the company’s five platforms. The application challenge and knowledge applied to create the solution is then shared globally across the network of facilities. The expanding database of solutions helps customers achieve greater asset performance and reduced total cost of ownership throughout the life cycle of their operational assets.

“It’s called the SKF Solution Factory, but to be quite honest, it’s your solution factory,” Tom Johnstone, president and CEO of SKF Group, told customers, distributors, SKF employees and media representatives at the official launch ceremony of the new facility in Toronto on November 7. “This is a knowledge centre for all of our customers, for all of distributors to use and utilize, to help improve your competitive advantage in the marketplace, and help make a stronger industry here in Canada.”

The facility has 100 employees, and hosts competencies like machined seals, engineered plastics, remote diagnostic services, training solutions and applications.

This is the company’s second Solution Factory in Canada — the other one is in Edmonton — and the 24th location worldwide. Two more locations are scheduled to open in Abu Dhabi and India by the end of the year, joining existing facilities in China, Taiwan, India, South Africa, Sweden, Germany, Brazil, the U.S. and France.