Press releases

Knorr-Bremse Value Day: Passion drives employees’ outstanding technological and social achievements

July 14, 2017

The Knorr-Bremse Value Day is an institution that unites the Company. All Knorr-Bremse employees around the world devote this day to one of the Group’s corporate values. In 2017, the corporate value of passion found expression in the sharing of groundbreaking knowledge and a range of community activities.

  • Autonomous Yard Maneuvering: At its Local Value Day in Munich, Knorr-Bremse demonstrated a semitrailer rig that can perform autonomous maneuvers in depots off the public roads. | © Knorr-Bremse

  • Demonstrating true passion for the site, staff of Knorr-Bremse Asia Pacific clean up the beach in Hong Kong. | © Knorr-Bremse Asia Pacific

“The Knorr-Bremse Value Day makes Knorr-Bremse strong – it helps all our employees to learn more about Knorr-Bremse and themselves. Their activities in connection with the corporate value of passion demonstrate not only their outstanding technological strengths but also their great humanity and social responsibility,” says Knorr-Bremse CEO Klaus Deller. “This shows how, through passion, good things can become truly exceptional.” At Knorr-Bremse, passion means that every single employee fulfils their personal potential in their own specialist field in order to achieve excellent results. In Munich and elsewhere, Knorr- Bremse presented some of the innovations that have resulted from this commitment, together with a number of community initiatives from around the world.

A taste of the digital future

The impact of digitalization across all transportation sectors and corporate divisions was one of the key themes of the Knorr-Bremse Local Value Day staged in Munich. Nineteen information booths and numerous presentations helped familiarize employees with the various activities in the context of digitalization. The highlight was the demonstration of Autonomous Yard Maneuvering – the driver assistance system that allows trucks to maneuver around the depot with no driver. A digital marketplace at the new Development Center helped show employees how well-prepared Knorr-Bremse is for the Internet of Things (IoT). Here, experts provided explanations of a variety of aspects on topics such as digital manufacturing and smart robots, the use of augmented reality glasses and 3D printing. Overall, Knorr-Bremse demonstrated how digitalization can facilitate highly efficient company-wide applications along the supply chain by means of integrated production planning. The opportunities that digitalization offers extend all the way to the development of new products and business models, as implemented by TruckServices in the telematics solution ProFleet Connect. Moreover, the Intellectual Property department addressed product piracy – an issue that is extremely important to Knorr-Bremse – explaining how to identify fake original parts and why they pose such a high risk for customers.

Global sites celebrate passion

Three Knorr-Bremse subsidiaries – Knorr-Bremse Asia Pacific in Hong Kong, New York Air Brake Corporation and Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems (Bendix), both in the USA – exemplified the creativity of Knorr-Bremse’s different sites around the world. Every facility participated in the passion-themed Local Value Day with workshops, Local Value Award ceremonies and a range of informative and entertaining activities, many of them designed to promote social awareness. After all, if people are passionate in other areas of their lives, they will bring this mindset to their daily work.

“For Knorr-Bremse Local Value Day we selected an activity that all our employees could work on together and with some challenges to show our passion,” explains Sadia Liu, Head of Human Resources, Hong Kong. To mark Knorr-Bremse’s Local Value Day, staff from the Asia Pacific Hong Kong office recorded a video in which they talk about the importance of passion and what passion means to them. Staff in Korea visited a museum specializing in digitalization and then went on a mountain hike. Meanwhile, the events organized by New York Air Brake sites across the USA featured various team building activities including an employee band that took to the stage at the company’s Watertown headquarters in New York. At a total of eight locations of Bendix, the North America commercial vehicle brake technology leader, the day was celebrated with a mix of activities that ranged from an allemployee scavenger hunt to a speech by COO Carlos Hungria. Among the activities in Mexico City, employees were invited to visit a truck manufacturer. “The tour gave the team a chance to see for themselves exactly who it is that they go the extra mile for every day and how their hard work contributes to the combined success of Bendix and our customers,” says Maria Gutierrez, Director Corporate Responsibility & Sustainability at Bendix.

Local Value Awards

One of the highlights of the day in Munich and at several other sites around the world was the presentation of the Knorr-Bremse Local Value Awards 2017. Employees in locations from China to the USA were celebrated for bringing the value of passion to their everyday work. In Munich the award was presented to Kurt Becker in recognition of the impressive expert factory tours that he conducts, as well as his strong commitment at international trade fairs and his cross-cultural skills. Another award went to the team of volunteers responsible for the “Healthy Breakfast” project. Early in the mornings, team members look after children at the Hanselmann elementary school in Munich-Milbertshofen.

Wide variety of social projects

At this year’s Knorr-Bremse Local Value Day, employees also presented a number of successful social projects that illustrate the corporate value of passion. At Knorr-Bremse, working with passion means adding value – both for the customer and, as in the following example, for society as a whole. In 2017, Knorr-Bremse Asia Pacific employees acted to protect the environment by participating in a Hong Kong beach clean-up in conjunction with Knorr-Bremse Local Care and a number of private organizations. Knorr-Bremse staff had already presented environmental and social projects at various locations in 2016, including a trash clean-up in a park in Sakado, Japan, and tree-planting initiatives to create a greener environment in Pune, India and Budapest, Hungary. While these were some of the most notable activities, Knorr-Bremse’s values are put into practice all year round, both inside and outside the company.

You can read more about the Knorr-Bremse values here:

http://www.knorr-bremse.de/en/group/culture/values/values_1.jsp

 

Alexandra Bufe

Tel: +49 89 3547 1402
E-Mail: alexandra.bufe@knorr-bremse.com

Knorr-Bremse AG
Moosacher Straße 80
80809 Munich
Germany

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Please credit “Knorr-Bremse AG” as the source when you publish our photos, which should be used for editorial purposes only. Please send us a specimen copy or a link to the relevant publication.



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