Start
The start of Hüttenwerke Krupp Mannesmann was not smooth. In the first year - 1990 - only 3.6 million tons was produced with 4,600 employees, 1,000 of them from Rheinhausen.
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Employee potential
It was clear from the outset that the potential lay with the people working here. Intensive and advanced training as well as qualifications and flexibility were a successful method for the development and promotion of an HKM Model of our business culture.
Cost leadership
With many other improvements everywhere on the ironworks as well as after the final decommissioning of the Rheinhausen works, the year 1994 brrought a convincing success: Production rose to 4.5 million tons.
The operational sequences had stabilized, the production of the different products of the partners became controlled, the employees had found a way to work together. And: HKM had the lowest costs in Germany and received a great deal of attention in the national and international scene.
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5 million and half a billion
But things continued to progress. Again large projects were tackled and realized with the entire staff, such as "cost leadership" Beside this, manufacturing methods were continuing to improve consistently, so that in 1997 a further record was reached: 5.1 million tons of crude steel. 5.1 million tons of crude steel.
In the meantime the entire investments with HKM amounted to over 400 million Euros, with the recently granted approximately 175 million adding up the whole to over half a billion Euros. 
© HKM Hüttenwerke Krupp Mannesmann 
