Corporate Principles

CUSTOMERS & MARKET

In our industry, we want to be the company that the customer prefers to work with. This high standard requires a special attitude on our part towards our customers. In essence, every employee in our company is, directly or indirectly, a sales representative – and important Kübler ambassador. Our customers are at the center of everything we do. We clarify and understand their current and future requirements in order to match them with our capabilities, technologies and strategies. This is how we translate them into new business for mutual benefit. We have the entire life cycle of our products in mind – and we also recognize many opportunities in after-sales service to differentiate ourselves through special performance. Our international approach means that we place particular emphasis on the world's most important industrialized economic regions. In America, Europe, Asia and Australia we want to be successful with individually adapted sales structures and product portfolios. This includes the ongoing establishment and expansion of our own national companies and strong sales partnerships. The sales share of the main global regions is expected to be balanced.

Our core industry approach requires us to:

• To become one of the top 3 players in our defined core industries or segments.
• Assess trends on a regular basis. If new opportunities arise from this, we will expand or change core markets and segments and adjust the product portfolio.
• A top player and solution provider for Motion & Drive applications

Core industries and selected markets can vary in strength depending on the country. The important thing is that there is a concentration in the first place.

PRODUCTS, TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION

We increasingly want our technology to be an effective foundation for customer value and drive profitable growth. This calls for our group of companies to be oriented towards technology and innovation as a basic goal – starting with recruiting and extending across all areas. We invest above average in relevant key technologies. We also develop new technological approaches with strategic technology and market partners. In the case of innovations or new business areas, we deliberately allow experiments and creative management approaches. To this end, we create scope and organizational forms. We allow possible failures. In-depth knowledge of the applications and areas of use of the customers are vitally important – both for innovations, product optimizations and outstanding services. Unsolved customer problems give rise to opportunities for new products, system solutions and even new business models. We therefore want to understand better and better what our customers and our core markets need today and tomorrow. New products and solutions require robust business cases and market concepts – and ideally differentiate themselves from previous competitive offerings. We bring innovations to the market with a “property - benefit communication” passionately and with innovative approaches. We pay attention to achieving ROI (Return of Investment) in the planning period

PRODUCT PLANNING

In addition to products for our area sales and for regions, we plan for core industries or their segments. Where necessary and strategically appropriate, we adapt our industrial and segment-based product planning to regional needs. Our road map for future product developments covers a strategic period of three to five years and is the responsibility of product management, which obtains input from the business units and defines the road map in a coordinated manner. Short-term market trends or competitive developments influence our road map when they have been reflected and our own market concept is available.

DEVELOPMENT & PRODUCT CREATION

Our development teams are responsible for the entire product development process. We work with agile methods. We meet deadlines and consciously counteract deviations. We provide creative freedom in R&D. It is part of our self-image to deal with tight scheduling requirements and still remain sufficiently flexible.

PRODUCTION & ORDER DELIVERY PROCESS

The principle of “quality before costs and delivery time” guides us in production, whereby no one-dimensional view applies here. Specifically: Unfordable quality is just as worthless as delivery times that are completely decoupled from the market. We rely on streamlined processes in our factories – where it makes sense, we are guided by the “one piece flow” principle and low inventories. The task of production is to constantly search for better processes and manufacturing systems and to introduce them where it makes sense to do so. Digitalization in production must always serve our customers and/or add value.

Made by Kübler
We manufacture at several locations worldwide and aim to achieve comparable production quality in each case. In this way, we succeed in ensuring the same quality standards internationally – and to be present as “Made by Kübler”. The internationally split production strategy aims to be able to reliably serve different regions from a portfolio, supply chain or sourcing perspective. It is designed to enable an optimal cost position, reduce transportation effort and supply chain risks. We attach great importance to automating and digitalizing our production and logistics with state-of-the-art technologies. We always keep an eye on the entire process from ordering to delivery to our customers – and work towards improving, shortening and digitalizing this. We always strive for high delivery reliability and delivery capability that satisfy customer needs. In the event of deviations, we are proactive in informing our customers. The main criteria for evaluating our production are productivity, delivery times, adherence to schedules, competitiveness and quality

ORGANIZATION

Our organization comprises all companies and locations worldwide. We take into account the different cultures and particularities of the respective countries. Ever shorter change cycles and the rapid fulfillment of customer expectations characterize today’s business world. We maintain a simple, unbureaucratic and effective organization. It is process-oriented and aims to minimize or simplify interfaces in the company. We are constantly looking at optimized, more stable and more efficient processes in order to then digitalize them. We strive for only a minimum of formalism. We are convinced that this makes us faster, more efficient and more flexible. This does not conflict with stable processes and the schools and reliable adherence to our standards. The organization serves the employees and should be limited to as few, easily explainable basic rules, processes and responsibilities as possible. We train these precisely and maintain them at all times. Management can allow areas or teams to temporarily or permanently reduce or suspend certain formalities or standardizations – provided that goals of particular importance are better achieved in this way. This also does not contradict stable processes, since everything is planned and deliberately determined. Speed is an important success factor. Especially if our company is to grow, we must pay special attention to this. Every employee contributes to constantly improving the throughput time for a process step by step and, if necessary, to making it a new and better standard. Thus, the North Star “Zero Lead Time” in our core processes is to be understood as an orientation.

The decisive factor here is the overall throughput time. If the company as a whole –including the customer – benefits from effective processes, then the additional effort required by individual employees or departments must be accepted. So we always design improvements in terms of a process or the customer – not a department. We want to be a very agile company that acts more flexibly and faster than our competitors. Inquiries and customer requests must be recorded quickly accordingly. We optimize innovative processes using agile methods, where appropriate, so that we can bring them to market at the right time. But being fast does not mean not taking your time. There are many developments and projects that need to be prepared on a sustainable and thorough basis at the beginning in order to gain time at the end. We want to provide the organization with sufficient time to live a culture of innovation through offerings such as MyDay currently. We promote innovation in order to develop further. Innovation takes precedence over structural preservation. Often, structures even have to be deliberately broken in order to make room for innovation.

QUALITY

Our commitment to quality encompasses all our products and services. The North Star “Zero Defect” and the authenticity of our product features and services are not debatable. We communicate a high premium level of our products and services on the market. Mistakes sometimes happen. We do not hide these and do not look for culprits, but learn from them. Quality cannot be prescribed. It can only be achieved if every employee accepts it as a matter of the heart, lives it every day and puts it into practice. The Executive Board and Management support the realization of this high quality with suitable framework conditions. Hedging existing business with stable earnings takes precedence over new business. Planning quality comes before “healing”. This means that effort and time for planning are important and must be demanded, but always with a sense of proportion. Product quality is planned as part of product development (PDP) and implemented together with suppliers involved at an early stage as well as production preparation, equipment development and logistics. The goal is to achieve fast process-stable production and deliver consistent premium quality. We never take a one-dimensional view of quality. For us, quality and cost discipline are not in conflict, but complement and promote each other. Quality results in less waste, increased efficiency and reduced costs.

DIGITALIZATION

Digitalization ensures innovation and change. It is one of the key drivers and success factors in competition – both internally within the company, in relation to our products and (manufacturing) processes, customer acquisition, and in collaboration with our customers. With new digital added values, we can make products less replaceable. Digitalization plays a central role at all levels. It is an integral part of our strategy. On the surface, digitalization helps us to make the organization and/or processes faster and of better quality. In the long term, digitalization ensures the continued existence of our company. Everyone benefits from this: Customers, employees, suppliers and shareholders. Digitalization is never a means to an end – but must always bring economic benefits or added value.

KÜBLER KAIZEN CULTURE (KAIZEN / KATA /LEAN)

The Kübler Kaizen culture is the core of our production and management system and describes our aspired corporate culture with the goal of permanently improving throughput times and productivity. Continuous improvement promotes quality and efficiency. To this end, we use appropriate lean and CIP (Continuous Improvement Process) tools. The basis for this is a high level of order and cleanliness as well as a culture of learning from mistakes, to which we attach great importance.

SUPPLIERS

We regard our suppliers as long-term partners whom we involve at an early stage. Here, too, we do not take a one-dimensional view, but require a balance of quality, costs, delivery time and know-how. We prefer suppliers who show initiative and actively help us move forward. We procure worldwide. We consider risks from supply chains and mitigate them wherever possible.

CAPITAL & INDEPENDENCE

We live the values of our family business. The basis for this is long-term corporate planning and the convictions of the entrepreneurial families. We want to operate financially independently and secure our operating business with the income generated. Strong financial cushions are elementary for prudent but courageous investment planning.

EMPLOYEE

The greatest value of our company is formed by our employees, the management and the shareholders. They are the initiators of new and successful ideas and changes. Our employees contribute to the positive and clear image of the company with their behavior – worldwide. And thus also to a strong employer brand Kübler. Employees and supervisors alike are aware of their responsibilities.

HEALTH & SAFETY

Health and safety are prerequisites for free and creative work. As a family-owned company, we want to ensure this not only in Germany, but at our locations worldwide. We also transfer these requirements to our suppliers in the international environment. We always keep local regulations and laws in mind. Health promotion offers are available to our employees at all locations. These include sports activities, nutrition training, healthy behavior training in the workplace and more.

TRAINING & FURTHER DEVELOPMENT

We invest in the training of young people and promote the ongoing development of our employees. This applies to the individual departments, but also to career paths with new challenges and tasks in other departments. In this way, we also encourage cross-divisional thinking and action. Lifelong learning is our conviction. We draw from this the potential for tomorrow and arm ourselves for the future.

WORK-LIFE-BALANCE

With a wide range of offers for our employees and junior staff, we promote the compatibility of work and family life at all our sites.

DEFENSE TECHNOLOGY

We also supply our products to defense-related companies for customers within the NATO alliance and their alliances. Yet defense technology is not one of our core industries. We do not supply countries that are subject to export restrictions or bans. The applicable lists and regulations of the Federal Office of Economics and Export Control are decisive for this. From today’s perspective, our products do not fall into the dual-use area. Further up-to-date information on compliance with legal regulations is shown in our Code of Conduct, which is published on our website.

CODE OF CONDUCT

We adhere to our Code of Conduct.