The main the city’s primary taxpayers of the Pavlovo city are JSC "Pavlovsky Bus" and LLC "PAZ", which produce buses, automotive components and replacement parts, which provided 60 percent of the city's industrial production by the end of 2009.
For the plant, 2009 was the longest and hardest year in history. In a down economy, it was necessary to act quickly and decisively. The main activities of Pavlovsky bus builders were the liquidation of inputs, reduction in requirement of operating assets of company and administration of all expenditure items. Since the end of 2008, the company's motto has become " Customized production of buses" in order to prevent overstocking of warehouses with end items.
All business units were involved in the work in order to achieve these goals, were created an anti-recessionary committee and cross-functional working groups, which included specialists of the plant. A " Manufacturing costs Room" was created at the operating area, where operational brainstorming sessions were held on a daily basis for best practices and monitoring the project advance, as well as their visualization.
Specialists worked on eliminating unnecessary stages of processing parts, simplifying the design of components, reducing prices for purchased materials, searching for alternatives and assimilation purchased components in their own production.
The working groups carried out a step-by-step activity-based costing of the entire composition of the product, reviewed 3,186 technological processes, negotiated with 236 suppliers, implemented 1,615 cost-reducing measures.
All this made it possible to save 665 million rubles in 2009, 254 of them for variable expenses and 411 for fixed expenses.
As it always, the locomotive was the tools of the Production System, which have been espouse since 2003. From the creation of baseline sections in the beginning, now bus builders have reached process changes. And in the past year, 2009, only with its help, bus builders managed to combine two production units with larger ones, and with the physical movement of equipment and tooling, and as a result, they additionally freed up 9300 m2 of space, eliminated 2 fixed expense centers.
The energy saving program continued to be implemented, the key place in which was given to radiant heat technology.
The decisive factor in the financial recovery of the enterprise was the State Support Program based on targeted financing of the purchase and replacement of bus equipment in the regions of the Russian Federation.
As a result, 7 259 buses were produced in just one year – this is 52% of the 2008 level. Marketable outputs were produced for 4.7 billion rubles – this is 57% of the 2008 level. But the main result is that the Pavlovians survived. They survived due to the fact that no one whined or moaned, but everyone worked hard and considered the crisis not only as losses, but also as new opportunities.
As part of the implementation of a comprehensive modernization plan for the single-industry town of Pavlovo on the a set of measures has been developed on the PAZ, among which the main place is occupied by projects for the production development of the new model rage for buses.
The state support program stimulated consumers to purchase modern PAZ-3204 buses, which differ favorably from competitors in terms of cost of passenger transportation and reliability. And against the background of a general drop in volumes, the production of these machines has tripled. The next step is the development and supplying to the conveyor line of a whole family on the PAZ-3204 platform, including medium-sized ones.
Since last year, the company has been carrying out development engineering for the adaptation of Euro-4 engines, primarily of the new “YAMZ” development.
Based on economic analysis, its own insourcing program is being developed, and the reanimation of its own forge has already been completed.
In order to increase competitiveness, PAZ plan to develop cooperation with foreign companies producing automotive components. It is planned to continue the supply of products to Vietnam, Algeria, Venezuela, Ecuador.
The Governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region V.P. Shantsev, who visited the plant in the spring of 2009, gave a high assessment of the work of the PAZ, emphasizing that "this modern enterprise will overcome all difficulties and reach a higher level."
