Kitron Kaunas - Juki's first<br>Lithuanian installation

Since April 2006, Kitron has been running its first Juki line at their plant in Kaunas, Lithuania. The Norwegian subcontractor specialises in medical, telecom and defense business. Therefore the quality and reliability of their production equipment is crucial. Kitron have plants in Norway, Sweden and Lithuania and employs a total of 1,350 persons. The Lithuanian plant was established in 2001 and the production was originally run on equipment that was moved from their Norwegian factory. Today, Kitron Kaunas has approximately 280 employees. Early in 2006, the production volume was exceeding the capacity of their current SMT equipment and, due to expected future growth, investment in a new line became very urgent. After a thorough evaluation and comparison the decision was taken to purchase two FX1R machines. The main factors influencing this decision were the lowest cost of ownership, reliability and flexibility of the equipment as well as the availability of machines with a short lead-time. Sincotron AS, the official Distributor of Juki in Norway, supplied the machines. Only three weeks after having placed the order the two high-speed machines were in full production. "After five months of full production we are pleased to see that all promises about reliability and lowest cost of ownership were confirmed. Juki's future product development strategy also shows us that we have chosen the right partner!" says Kjell Gundersen, who was leading this investment project. Kitron is experiencing a significant period of growth and expects to considerably expand its production capacity over the next few years. The future investments will also include the replacement of older equipment, which are not able to match today's technology.