Hawe Hydraulics is opening a new plant in Germany It is the largest investment project in the history of the family-owned medium enterprise, Hawe Hydraulics: building a new plant in Kaufbeuren (Allgäu). The gala opening of the plant took place on 19th September 2014. The investment in property and buildings amounts to approx. 100 million Euros. Lack of space at the existing locations was a main reason for the new construction. But not just that: production and assembly of profitable products, proportional directional spool value of PSL type, were so far carried out in multiple locations and will now be concentrated at a single plant. 01 Four halls with a gross floor area of 50,000 m 2 and a production area of over 30,000 m 2 were developed one after another from 2012 to 2014. Now Kaufbeuren has the largest plant of the Munich developer and manufacturer of hydraulic components and systems. The first machines were moved in as soon as the first hall was ready. These machines came from the Munich location and also from the leased halls in Kirchheim and Kaufbeurer Momm area. It was thus possible to start production gradually even during the construction phase till its completion in the summer of 2014. 360 employees and 45 apprentices are currently employed at the new location. An increase in capacity is feasible if there is an increase in demand, because the halls are built for a maximum of 750 employees under a shift system. 02 44 MDA Technologies 1/2015
MEASUREMENT AND CONTROL 03 01 + 02 The plant now houses production and assembly of proportional directional spool valves type PSL (01) and load holding valves (02) 03 Wolfgang Sochor, Director of Production (right) and Karl Haeusgen, Chairman of the Executive Board, answered questions of the journalists on the opening day Detailed location analysis The decision for the location was taken based on an analysis of the as-is state in the company and the target state of a new plant. Accordingly Asia (without Japan and South Korea), Central Europe, Germany and Bavaria regions were evaluated in detail. Interfaces to Hawe plants and suppliers, qualification of the employees, customisation of the property based on criteria for production, transport connection, residential quality of the region – these were only some of the criteria that played a role. Qualified employees and more than 90 % availability of the machines are of paramount importance for a production process with many value creation stages and a highly automated production as in Kaufbeuren. Only well trained employees can cope up with the complex systems. It is equally important to have reliable availability of spare parts, a good and fast service in case of machine failures. Therefore, the price of a component depends mainly on the production costs. Lower wages as they are paid in some countries of Asia and East Europe play a less important role. The result of the location analysis highlighted Germany, and especially the larger Munich area, as the favourite. There were five cities in the reckoning. Kaufbeuren was the most advantageous. Above all the potential of the new employees and vocational schools for industrial and machining mechanics was the most important advantage. Hawe Hydraulics gains many specialists from its training program and training rate stands at 8 %. A good local vocational school is especially important. Last but not the least, soil conditions and layout of the property offered best conditions for building a production workshop. Production from start to shipment The plant excels with its latest production and assembly technology in mechanical engineering. All the production steps are carried out here: from the processing of the raw materials to all the processing steps till surface finishing. The products are then packaged well and shipped to the customers. Lean production processes based on lean philosophy allow to react flexibly to fluctuating loads, to increase output as needed or to manufacture other product groups than currently planned. The processes are designed such that products are manufactured and assembled in large numbers in lot size 1 and many product variants. There is more than sufficient space for product tests. Thus, there is the option of accommodating two mobile machines of the customers in one hall section and to test the solutions of Hawe Hydraulics extensively in these machines. The developers of Hawe Hydraulics test the noise emissions of hydraulic pumps – an important product group of the company – in an acoustic measurement area. Customers are increasingly demanding less noisy pumps. Measurements in accordance with national and international standards (DIN and ISO) and fundamental tests support future product development. Total energy efficiency The reduction of energy requirements in the halls and products reflects in the production technologies and in the build- MDA Technologies 1/2015 45
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