Schindler Group
The Schindler Group is a Swiss multinational company which manufactures escalators, moving walkways, and elevators worldwide, founded in Switzerland in 1874. Schindler produces, installs, maintains and modernizes lifts and escalators in many types of buildings including residential, commercial and high-rise buildings. The company is present in more than 140 countries and employs more than 66,000 persons worldwide. The production facilities are located in Brazil, China, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, India and the United States. All operations and subsidiaries of Schindler Group are organised into Schindler Holding Ltd. (, ), which is publicly traded on SIX Swiss Exchange. History. The company  was founded in Switzerland in 1874, by Robert Schindler and Eduard Villiger who established the collective joint partnership Schindler & Villiger. Shortly thereafter, a mechanical engineering workshop was built on an island in the river Reuss in Lucerne, Switzerland, for the production of lifting equipment and machines of all types. Schindler founded the first foreign subsidiary in Berlin (Germany) in 1906. Thereafter, the company expanded continuously and mainly throughout Europe. In 1980 Schindler founded the first Western industrial joint venture in the People's Republic of China. With the takeover of Atlas in Brazil in 1999 Schindler became a major market  player in South America. Schindler entered the North American elevator market with the purchase of Toledo-based Haughton Elevator Company in 1979 - briefly branding their products as Schindler-Haughton. In 1989, the company dramatically increased its presence in the United States after acquiring the Elevator/Escalator division of Westinghouse, one of the largest producers of elevators and escalators at the time. Currently, Schindler Elevator Corporation, the United States operations of Schindler Group, is based in Morristown, New Jersey. In February 2007, Schindler, along with competitors Otis Elevator Co., ThyssenKrupp, Kone, and Mitsubishi Elevator Europe were fined by the European Union  for a price-fixing cartel. Schindler was fined 144 million euros, or about $189.3 million US dollars. Since 2011, Schindler have sponsored Solar Impulse, a solar-powered aircraft. Schindler have also developed the technology solution Schindler Ahead, which uses big data analysis to predict maintenance needs. In 2019, Schindler was awarded a multi-year contract to replace and install escalators in four downtown stations, for the Market Street Escalators Renovation Project of the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District. Destination control systems. Schindler's Miconic 10. The company's name for their proprietary control system, was introduced in  1995. It was the industry's first example of control system now known as "hall call" destination system. The system features keypads and LED screens instead of hall button stations whereby riders enter their desired floor "before" entering an elevator car. The system then directs the rider to a specific elevator car, while grouping riders traveling to nearby floors together. Schindler claims this minimizes the number of stops, and decreases congestion and travel time—especially during peak traffic periods. The system was continuously further developed and new functions were amended, eventually evolving in systems which guarantee highly efficient and energy -saving traffic management. Especially in high rise buildings, traffic-management systems like Miconic 10 allow building designers to maximize rentable space and transportation efficiency. Moreover, access control becomes feasible.