10,000 tractors per year for farmers all over the world

Low fuel consumption, great efficiency and a high degree of automation make Steyr and Case IH machines top sellers.

When the American brand Case IH, whose beginnings date back to 1842, took over the Austrian tractor legend Steyr in 1996, a true powerhouse was created in Lower Austria: Today, more than 10,000 Steyr and Case IH agricultural machines come off the production line in St. Valentin. Christian Huber, Managing Director CNH Industrial Österreich GmbH and Vice President Global Product Management for Case IH & Steyr Tractors, gives an insight into the philosophy of the group.

You manufacture both Case IH and Steyr tractors. How do the two brands differ?
Christian Huber: One difference is certainly the dealer network. With Steyr, we are increasingly represented in the Central European market, whereas with Case IH we have a worldwide dealer network. Case IH also offers a portfolio of harvesting machines compared to Steyr. There are some differences in the details of vehicle operation or equipment. While Case IH focuses on automation, a Steyr tractor offers more adjustment options, such as allwheel drive, differential locks, CVT functions (NB: automatic transmission without gearshifts) or cab suspension. Case IH can look back on 180 years of tradition and experience, while Steyr has stood for cutting-edge technology and high-quality machines for over 75 years. Both brands are united by first-class service, and proven technical innovations are also used to ensure maximum productivity for customers in the agricultural, forestry and municipal sectors

How do you manage to have the astonishing number of more than 10,000 tractors coming off the production line?
Huber: First and foremost, this success is due to the dedication and commitment of our employees. Our lean management system helps us to make our processes efficient and optimise our working methods. This enables us to keep production as smooth and effective as possible. With just-in-time delivery of materials to the assembly line, we also ensure that the materials we need are delivered exactly when they are needed. This keeps our stock levels to a minimum and increases the production flow considerably. In recent years, we have also invested in low-cost automation, advanced bolting technology and a new state-of-the-art paint shop.

What are your core or largest sales markets, and are there any countries you are currently focusing on in particular?
Huber: For CNH Industrial Austria, Europe, with a focus on Germany, France and Austria, is the most important market. Internationally, Australia, New Zealand and the USA are very important.

What makes Austria an attractive location for you? Couldn’t you produce much more cheaply abroad?
Huber: Austria is an attractive location for us for various reasons, although we are aware that it is a high-cost country. The decisive advantage here is certainly that we get very well-trained employees in Austria. Many of them have a connection to agriculture or are part-time farmers themselves. This means that they are not only very familiar with the realities of our customers’ lives, but also know exactly what their wishes and needs are. It is precisely this knowledge that is crucial and flows into their daily work when they manufacture products for our customers.
We attach great importance to providing machines of the highest quality with the Made in Austria label. To ensure this quality, we rely on careful process assurance and optimisation. The process steps are so precisely defined and our employees so well trained that the error rate is almost zero. Although we could possibly produce abroad at lower costs, we are convinced that the advantages of a high-quality product manufactured in Austria outweigh the additional costs. Our customers appreciate the quality and reliability of our tractors, and we are proud to be able to maintain this standard.
We attach great importance to providing machines of the highest quality with the Made in Austria label. To ensure this quality, we rely on careful process assurance and optimisation. The process steps are so precisely defined and our employees so well trained that the error rate is almost zero. Although we could possibly produce abroad at lower costs, we are convinced that the advantages of a high-quality product manufactured in Austria outweigh the additional costs. Our customers appreciate the quality and reliability of our tractors, and we are proud to be able to maintain this standard.

To what extent have digitisation and AI already made inroads in the world of tractors? Are self-driving machines an issue?
Huber: In general, due to automation and built-in technology, our machines enable efficient operation with lower fuel consumption and optimised use of seed and fertiliser. The precision technology enables exact track planning with 2.5 cm track accuracy as well as an automatic turning and steering system to prevent overlaps during work and to be as economical as possible in the field. All operational and fleet data can be accessed by customers via mobile phone, tablet or computer, coordinated and shared with dealers, who can thus service our customers even faster and more efficiently via remote diagnostics and software updates, without the machine having to go to the workshop. We presented a concept of autonomous driving last year at SIMA (NB: the leading international trade fair for agriculture and livestock) in Paris.

What measures did you have to take or have you taken in terms of sustainability in production?
Huber: We attach great importance to the optimised use of energy in order to minimise consumption and use resources more efficiently. We therefore use energy-efficient machines and an energy-saving production process. We are currently actively working on the integration of a photovoltaic system in our factory. By using solar energy, we want to generate our own sustainable electricity and thus keep CO2 emissions as low as possible.

Does the trend in tractors go towards electrification as in cars?
Huber: Whether an alternative concept would be suitable for customers in the future also depends on the agricultural application. We see this trend in tractors in the smaller power segment of up to 100 hp and with lower utilisation of four to five hours per day, for example. Here, the use of a battery-electric model makes absolute sense in the next few years. For high-performance tractors, on the other hand, a combustion engine will continue to be necessary. The reason for this is the low autonomy, i.e. the rather short time a battery- electric tractor can be operated without charging or refuelling.
Of course, all this may change in the future. In addition, a hybrid solution could also be interesting in the future – i.e. a combustion engine in combination with an electric transmission; we are working on various solutions here.

How concerned are you about the rise in energy prices on the one hand, and high inflation in general on the other? Do you pass on increased costs to customers in full?
Huber: In production, we are not so strongly affected by the increased energy costs because we are an assembly company. Of course, we clearly feel the price increases of our suppliers and their components. In order to be able to continue to work economically, we have to include them proportionately in our price calculations, for example in the area of steel, cast iron and housings.

Especially during the years of the pandemic, the reliability of supply chains was a problem. Has that subsided now, or how do you secure your supply chains?
Huber: Maintaining supply chains was a challenge, especially during the years of the pandemic.. Although the supply chains have improved in the meantime, the situation is still tense. The industry is working at such a high level that suppliers are currently reaching their capacity limits. We continue to take measures here to secure our supply chains and are therefore working closely with our suppliers to ensure that everything runs as smoothly as possible.

With the shortage of skilled workers, the next crisis has arrived in the Austrian economy. Do you feel the shortage of labour?
Huber: Yes, we feel the shortage of workers, but we have taken active measures to counteract it. For example, in the last two and a half years we have been able to create more than 250 new jobs in the company to meet our staffing needs and ensure that we have enough skilled employees. However, the focus is of course also on our existing workforce; here, far-reaching measures to promote health such as a subsidy for bicycles and e-bikes, sports offers, physiotherapy, a company kitchen, to name but a few, are particularly important to us in order to ensure good conditions in the long term.