Fabryka Równości began as a single CNC cell in a converted steelworks. A decade later, it is a working manifesto: world-class manufacturing, deliberately shared with the apprentices, migrants, and returners who were once told the floor was not for them.
It started in 2014 with a question that would not leave our founder alone: why were the most advanced machines in Polish manufacturing tended almost exclusively by people who looked, spoke, and lived the same way? Aleksandra Werner — a third-generation toolmaker who had spent fifteen years on the floors of German and Czech plants — came home to Katowice, bought two used Mori Seiki lathes at auction, and signed a lease on a 480 m² bay in a decommissioned rolling mill.
What she built there was not, at first, a company. It was an apprenticeship. The first six hires were a refugee welder from Chechnya, a single mother returning from a five-year career gap, a Roma machinist no other shop would interview, and a graduate of a technical school that had just been closed for "low outcomes." Within eighteen months, that initial crew was holding tolerances of ±0.005 mm on aerospace fittings for a Tier 1 supplier near Hamburg. The tolerances were not the point. The point was who was holding them.
Our mission is not a slogan on a wall. It is a production standard. Every shift begins with a five-minute briefing where the foreman reads the day against these three principles — and is challenged by any operator if the work does not match the words.
A part does not know who cut it, and it should not have to. We hold the same micron-grade tolerances whether the operator holds a PhD in mechanical engineering or learned the trade on a decommissioned lathe in a vocational centre that has since been demolished. Standards are universal; biographies are not.
Every machine on our floor is a teaching machine. We run a paid two-year apprenticeship that combines German-style dual education with Polish technical college credits. Sixty-eight percent of our current senior operators entered through that programme, including our head of quality assurance.
Salary bands are posted on the wall by the time clock. Every operator at a given grade earns within a 4% band of every other operator at that grade, with full visibility. Our last three collective-bargaining rounds closed without a single hour of industrial action — because trust is cheaper than conflict.
We publish our numbers every January in a publicly audited impact report — not because we have to, but because the entire premise of this company is that the work should be inspectable.
Graduates of our two-year paid apprenticeship since 2015.
Held on aerospace and medical components across all shifts.
Industry average for European precision shops is 61%.
Maximum pay gap between operators at the same grade, fully transparent.
A working timeline of the moments that shaped Fabryka Równości — from a leased bay and two lathes to a 4,200 m² campus exporting to eleven countries.
September 2014
Aleksandra Werner signs a five-year lease on bay 4 of the former Huta Baildon steelworks in Katowice. The first hire, Imran Aliyev, sets up the second Mori Seiki before the heating is even working.
March 2016
A Hamburg-based Tier 1 supplier audits the floor and awards a 24-month contract for hydraulic manifolds. The audit team specifically commends the diversity of the operator pool in their final report.
January 2018
Every salary band from apprentice to director is printed, framed, and mounted in the corridor by the time clock. The move is covered by Politika and the Financial Times.
June 2020
The floor is retooled in 11 days to produce aluminium ventilator housings for Polish hospitals. Operators work a voluntary 6-day week. The foreman rota is published by name, and three mothers of young children are given first refusal on every shift.
September 2022
We move into a purpose-built 4,200 m² campus in Strefa Ekonomiczna Katowice. The break room is the same size as the boardroom — a small architectural choice with a long echo.
Today
We export to Germany, the Czech Republic, Sweden, the Netherlands, France, Italy, Spain, the UK, the US, Canada, and South Korea — with a single, published tolerance standard, and a single, published pay band.
Our leadership is deliberately drawn from the shop. Three of the four people below joined Fabryka Równości as apprentices — a fact we are prouder of than any contract we have ever won.
Third-generation toolmaker. Spent fifteen years on the floors of German and Czech plants before coming home to ask an unfashionable question.
Employee number one. Set up the second lathe in 2014 with a borrowed wrench. Now leads a 38-person production floor across two shifts.
Returned to manufacturing after a six-year career break to raise her children. Apprentice cohort of 2016. Holds our internal record for the fewest rejected parts in a calendar year.
Roma machinist, refused fourteen interviews before joining us as a trainee. Now designs and runs the two-year programme that has trained 147 operators.
If our story is convincing on paper, the floor is more convincing still. Visitors are welcome every Thursday — hard hats, safety glasses, and honest questions provided. We would rather show you the work than describe it.
Book a Thursday Visit