Made with FlowPaper - Flipbook Maker
Christmas Letter 2021 Continuing the tradition to shape the future – The LESER year in retrospect2 | leser.com 2021 was an unusual year. Following a downturn of the global economy, we are now experiencing a marked upturn which has a clear impact on our Day-to-Day Sales business. But even in our Project business, incoming orders are on the rise again. This is in essence good news. On the down- side, rising material costs and extended supplier delivery times, along with availability issues for some materials, a tripling of freight rates and a fourfold rise in energy prices have unfortunately forced LESER to increase its prices in the middle of a fiscal year for the first time in its history. This situation coincides with an above-average orderbook at LESER. One cannot help feeling that the world has some- what fallen out of step. It is owing to our well-stocked warehouses and our highly committed team that we have been able to handle the situation well despite the pandemic. Our company-wide vaccination campaign during the summer for all those will- ing to be vaccinated has definitely helped our efforts. This offer included the option to have family members vaccinat- ed, as well. Business trips had to be reduced to a minimum this year as a consequence of the pandemic. Visits to cus- tomers, subsidiaries and suppliers were all affected. To ensure a continuous communication flow across the en- terprise, and accessibility of all staff members, we imple- EDITORIAL Dear business partners and friends, Dear LESER employees, Photos: LESER CHRISTMAS LETTER 2021leser.com | 3 Alexander Vocke Thomas Gellweiler The Board of Management. Thomas Gellweiler, Joachim Klaus, Alexander Vocke mented MS Teams, a system that not only supports video conferencing but also team collaboration in a digi- tal environment. Participation in trade shows and exhibitions was mostly accomplished virtually. For example, ACHEMA, the most important trade fair for LESER, was held digitally under the name of ACHEMA Pulse. LESER took part, of course. LESER’s subsidiaries have contributed substantially to the success of the company. The newest member, and the seventh wholly-owned subsidiary to join, is LESER Polska. Furthermore, LESER US has acquired a 40,000 m²/ 430,556 sft plot of land in Charlotte, North Carolina, where it plans to build a new head office. China recovered from the pandemic at an early time in 2020 and continued to stabilize in 2021. Markets in the United States and Canada have recovered, as well. Busi- ness in the DACH region and Europe in general has re- mained stable. LESER plans to match or even exceed the 2019 result by the end of this fiscal year. This year again, we at LESER have done our “home- work”, completing many of our projects, some of which are described in this Christmas Newsletter. We hope you will enjoy reading these stories! We are not only sending this Christmas Letter to our business partners and employees but also to all the people outside of LESER who help our brand be suc- cessful. But what exactly is it that defines LESER? Is it its family tradition that goes back more than two hundred years? Is it our highly motivated team? Or is it the way we approach and handle our business? Or the willingness of our owners to make major investments? We have investigated this question. The result is our new corporate brochure called “The Company”, and the answer to the question is printed on the rear cover of the company self-portrait: “Stability for sustainable development. LESER is a fifth-generation family-owned business, a fact that lends the company financial stability and ensures its indepen- dence. The willingness to invest in our employees and in know-how, products, warehouse stock, production and quality is what LESER stands for. By driving the devel- opment of all of its divisions, LESER has become a leading manufacturer of safety valves.” Our brochure “The Company” is intended to help make the LESER brand shine the way it deserves to. We would like to express our appreciation to our cus- tomers, sales partners and suppliers for their trust and co- operation. We also want to extend our heartfelt gratitude to our employees for their commitment and contribution to the success of our company. We wish everybody a peaceful holiday season and a healthy and successful 2022! Joachim Klaus CHRISTMAS LETTER 20214 | leser.com LESER USA LESER India LESER Singapore LESER Polska LESER Hohenwestedt (Germany) LESER Hamburg (Germany) LESER Brazil LESER Bahrain LESER France LESER China Sales by division 2020/21 fiscal year Americas 13.7% DACHEurope & Africa Asia & Australia FACTS AND FIGURES: LESER Overview With more than 140,000 safety valves manufactured worldwide, nearly 140 million euros in predicted consolidated annual sales, and more than 1,100 employees (+5.8%) working at ten global LESER sites, LESER has done well during the year 2021 despite the coronavirus situation. LESER employees, globally as of: September 2021 Employees by country as of: September Sales in million euro, consolidated 150 120 90 60 30 0 0 200 400 600 800 1,000 1,200 20212020201920182017 2021202020192018201720162015 2021202020192018201720162022* 1,114|1,053 employees globally Total: 128.9 million euros 29.6% 22.7% 34.0% 272 |253 2021 |2020 454 |438 34 |35 13 |15 151 151 100 |92 45 39 16 16 14 |14 38.1m euros29.2m euros *Plan 17.8m euros (USA share: 10.2%/ 13.2m euros) 43.8m euros 15 |– CHRISTMAS LETTER 2021leser.com | 5 Number of proposals & orders 2020/21 fiscal year, by sites Sales by customer group 2020/21 fiscal year, consolidated, all sites, euros Safety valves manufactured by product line Germany High Performance OEMs* Sales partners globally S&R Other Compact Performance Tianjin (China) Paithan (India) Clean Service End Users Best Availability Modulate Action Resellers High Efficiency Critical Service 0 5,000 10,000 15,000 20,000 25,000 30,000 Orders Proposals BRUSCNINSGFRDE Safety valves manufactured by site October 2020 to September 2021 Hohenwestedt (Germany) Day by Day Other EPCs** 103,400 Units 140,900 Units API Series 44,377 20,637 7,087 10,398 1,941 447 972375 1,401 6,500 103,400 31,000 20.3m 18.0m 13.9m5.0m 13.5m 18.7m 39.5m 15,765 Total: 128.9 million euros More on the topic * OEM: Original Equipment Manufacturer **EPC: Engineering, Procurement and Construction6 | leser.com Flexibility. Custom-tailored solutions for plants in Australia and Brazil. PRODUCT INNOVATIONS New developments to meet new challenges LESER often updates proven product families to meet current customer specifications and emerging technical requirements. Here are two examples, one from Australia and one from Brazil. COMPACT PERFORMANCE: IDEAL REPLACEMENTS FOR VALVES FROM OTHER MANUFACTURERS FOR AUSTRALIA One typical technical challenge when inspecting a plant is to find suitable replacements for safety valves that need to be scrapped. While the replacement valves don’t have to be made by the same manufacturer, they should fit into the plant without requiring modifications. This is why API 526 aims to standardize safety valve geometries and perfor- mance. Here is an example from Australia: An Esso plant need- ed to replace several legacy threaded safety valves from another manufacturer. LESER customer Measurement+ in- quired about a suitable solution that would allow them to compete for the maintenance contract. The Result: Mea- surement+ was awarded the contract. So what kind of a solution did LESER develop? LESER designed and procured modified outlet body castings for Compact Performance Type 459 valves. Within six months, LESER developed two investment casting models for the DN 15 and DN 20 outlet bodies and qualified them for the materials WCB and CF8M. Since the flow geometry re- mained unchanged, LESER was able to submit a proposal for the safety valves including all existing approvals. The inlet center to face dimensions were adjusted by modifying the inlet bodies. The customer fully accepted the custom- developed products. These tailored solutions not only resolved the engineer- ing challenges associated with this project. All product modifications that were made were standardized in SAP to meet the required delivery times. Since then LESER has re- ceived the first orders enabling Measurement+ to replace some of the safety valves in the Esso plant with LESER solutions. Apart from the valve variants described above, these orders also include safety valves from the API prod- uct line. The “LESER for Competitor” (L4C) concept, based on the Type 459 valve, makes it easier for plant operators around the world to switch safety valve manufacturers with- out having to make plant modifications. A similar project with a major German chemical company is already in the making. POSV: HIGH-PRESSURE, PILOT-OPERATED VALVE AND BLOCK BODY DESIGN FOR FPSOS IN BRAZIL The challenges in offshore oil and gas production are get- ting tougher all the time as oil deposits in ever greater CHRISTMAS LETTER 2021leser.com | 7 depths are developed. To be able to produce and process crude oil efficiently under these conditions, operators increasingly deploy FPSO (Floating Production, Storage and Offloading) units. These are ships and floating factories at the same time – they not only produce oil but also pre- process it and store it for shipping. When LESER analyzed the Brazilian market, where the majority of the world’s FPSOs operate, three key barriers for market entry were identified: ■ The greater well depths are associated with higher pressures, requiring new overpressure protection solutions. ■ The market not only requires engineering consultancy but also local value-adding services and production. ■ LESER did not have any local maintenance partners who would be capable of repairing safety valves for these deepwater projects. To overcome these challenges, LESER launched a new project. 20 employees from six different departments at four LESER sites have been working on creating a new, pilot- operated safety valve (POSV). The team jointly devel- oped a new high-pressure pilot valve as well as a new block body main valve. The pilot valves extend the available pres- sure range from previously 426 to 605 bar. In the meantime, LESER Brazil has acquired new test benches for safety valves. They cover pressures up to 1,000 bar. This was the key factor enabling LESER Brazil to sign maintenance contracts with one of the leading FPSO operators. What is more, LESER’s new testing capability meets the customers’ demand for local value-add. As the project took shape, our sales department was busy establishing and deepening relationships with cus- tomers in this market. In October 2021, LESER received an order for six high-pressure POSV’s for an FPSO. This will be an important reference for LESER to qualify for future addi- tional FPSO projects. ■ Oil production. Greater drilling depths come with higher pressures, requiring appropriate overpressure protection. Photo: ©Oleksi; sadagus - stock.adobe.com; LESER Photo: LESER Roadmap to LESER’s first high-pressure POSV 1 The decision In early 2020, the decision was made to develop a pilot- operated safety valve for high pressures. At LESER, ‘high-pressure’ denotes a set pressure range above 426 bar, the maximum set pres- sure currently available. LESER participated in calls for bids the same year but was unsuc- cessful because of a lack of relevant field experience. 2 The development The core chal- lenge is to achieve tightness of the mov- able piston components and valve seats in the pilot valve at pressures up to 605 bar over a temperature range from 0 °C up to +100 °C. It was only by running the development, manu- facturing and testing activities in parallel that LESER was able to acquire the necessary product know-how in this extreme application range in such a short time. More than 300 component tests were conducted over the course of the de- velopment process while prototypes were made and tested simultane- ously under real- istic conditions. 3 The practical tests The prototype of the high-pressure POSV underwent functional testing at up to 610 bar. The tests were carried out by URACA, a company specializing on high-pressure industrial pumps. An additional functional test conduct- ed at the high-pressure air testing facility of the Fraunhofer CSE Center of Safety Excellence, Karlsruhe confirmed the fitness of the LESER high-pressure POSV for air at 280 bar. This value marks the maximum pressure that can cur- rently be generated with compressible media by safety valve test facilities. 4 The optimization The tests revealed that some modifica- tions were still necessary in product develop- ment and manufacture. LESER Brazil installed an adjustment bench of its own which is capable of generating these high set pressures. LESER Hohenwestedt modified the valve installation and inspection procedure. The result: Now all required tests can be performed on a POSV even at these high set pressures ensuring the same high quality as all other LESER pressure tests. 5 The current status LESER is cur- rently building its first high-pressure POSV for a customer in Brazil. It is slated for delivery in March 2022. Milestone. The first LESER high-pressure POSV. Typical features include the block body design and the strong compressive spring which gener- ates the required high closing pressures. More on the topic8 | leser.com HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT Investing in the future Developing young talents and future leaders has a high priority at LESER. FIVE-AXIS HIGH-SPEED CUTTING IN THE TRAINEE WORKSHOP The trainees at the Hohenwestedt site have had every rea- son to get excited about a new piece of equipment in their training workshop: LESER has purchased a five-axis, high- speed spindle machining center by Grob exclusively for training purposes. The machine had previously been used by the Institute for Material Sciences at Darmstadt Technical University be- fore undergoing a full overhaul and finding its way to Ho- henwestedt. This is the second major technology invest- ment that attests to LESER’s commitment to this site and to training young talents. It is LESER’s express goal to cover its need for well-trained specialists from its own re- sources. At a special event in Hamburg last year, our trainees were given the opportunity to submit improvement sugges- tions to the heads of the Human Resources and Training departments. Everybody agreed that a new milling machine would provide a maximum of added development potential at the training shop. LESER was glad to oblige: “This ma- chine enables us to experience state-of-the-art milling technology and let our trainees acquire expertise in work- ing with such a machine. It is yet another way for us to demonstrate that we take training and talent development very seriously,” said Imke Gustavsson, Head of Human Re- sources, after the new machine had been delivered and set up. The machining center was commissioned just in time to support Production by helping to rework valve bodies for a large order. Working together with the tool supplier, the team cut the processing time down to twelve minutes per unit. What is more, the machining center eliminates the need to switch work stations between processing steps, something both the trainers and the trainees appreciate. INTERDISCIPLINARY PROJECT WORK HELPS DEVELOP YOUNG TALENT Going beyond the standard training curricula established at our company, LESER gave a group of young employees an opportunity to participate in an interdisciplinary project, in- cluding coaching from a consulting firm, in 2021. The pro- gram focused on working with Microsoft Office 365 / Teams in four selected pilot projects. The activities revolved around the question of how the use of Teams could en- hance virtual collaboration at LESER. Machining progress. Trainers and trainees (from left: Arne Wittmaack, Mohammad Al Hari, Ole Hansen, Tjark Witthinrich, Jan Makarow, Matthias Hoffmann) in front of the new pride of the training workshop, the five-axis machining center by Grob (use the QR code to read the full story on Instagram). CHRISTMAS LETTER 2021leser.com | 9 From the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, interna- tional collaboration was limited to virtual interaction, which would have been close to impossible without Teams meet- ings. In the M365 project, participants were able to try out Teams in the context of a project. They discovered that Teams provides new collaboration opportunities: While in the past, conversations basically happened between two individuals, working with the app allows the entire project team to participate. This creates extra transparency for the benefit of all. Using Teams is therefore much more than just imple- menting yet another software application. The platform pro- vides a new opportunity to further develop the way we co- operate, building a foundation for tomorrow’s workplace reality – a great challenge for LESER’s young talents who were able to discover how they can actively shape this transformation. The project team filed regular milestone reports for the Board of Management and the Steering Committee, and in- corporated the responses into their project work. Following final approval, the participants independently rolled out the platform to their respective departments where they ex- plained the many potential uses of Teams to their col- leagues and disseminated communication skills across all levels. Working together with the consultants, along with the successful ‘Learning by Doing’ approach, provided the project participants with a great opportunity to continue their development while doing some valuable work for the company. CURRICULUM FOR EXECUTIVES Despite the coronavirus pandemic, the leadership develop- ment program at LESER has entered the next round: The entire second leadership tier participated in a three-part training curriculum on “Leadership in Transition”, self- management and change management in 2021. In addition, participants learned about and discussed leadership princi- ples at LESER. They were able to directly apply these learn- ings in interactive sessions. As a welcome secondary effect, the mixed composition of the subgroups enhanced person- al relationships between the two leadership teams from Hamburg and Hohenwestedt. The concept works well, an attendee reported: “The agenda is a good fit for my daily professional routine. I was able to try out things, see the outcome, and get some pos- itive feedback.” Another participant said he took it as “a valuable signal that LESER provides room for development and growth even in challenging times.” Being able to take a step back from day-to-day routines, self-reflect and devel- op in a leadership role was an experience all participants were thankful for. The fact that the program applied the same approach as the first-level training curriculum was lauded, as well, be- cause the participants were able to relate well to the leader- ship principles they experienced in real life. All this positive feedback once again shows how impor- tant it is to invest in the development of employees, and especially, in the fascinating field of leadership. These suc- cesses have confirmed LESER’s philosophy to continue its talent and leadership training programs even in difficult times. ■ “Teams” work. A group of young employees (from left, including the screen: Sarah Deppe, Hannes La- dendorf, Sascha Kosczowsky and Kai Oliver Lohse) explored various ways to further develop workflows at LESER using the tools of Microsoft Teams. More on the topic Photos: LESERNext >