50 million investment in Industry 4.0 factory

Lenze Group

Günter Herkommer, 08.10.2018, 13:58

50 million investment in Industry 4.0 factory

At the end of September, Lenze laid the foundation stone for the 'Mechatronic Competence Campus' (MCC) in Extertal. The ultra-modern development and production site in North Rhine-Westphalia is the company's largest single investment to date, costing around 50 million euros.

Mechatronic Competence Campus from Lenze

Laying the foundation stone for the MCC together (from left): Armin Laschet (Minister President of North Rhine-Westphalia), Monika Rehmert (Mayor of Extertal), Babette Herbert with grandchildren and Nikolaus Belling (shareholder of the company and member of the founding family) and Christian Wendler (CEO Lenze).

The new building, which is due to go into operation in 2020, will cover 7,500 square meters. A total of 30,000^m2 will be available on the campus for development, production, service and storage. When completed, the MCC will employ around 800 people, who are currently spread across three separate locations in Extertal. "With the MCC, we are not only creating one of the most future-oriented mechatronics production facilities in Germany, but above all an important reference project for the future of collaboration. In agile, interdisciplinary teams, our employees in Extertal will work together in numerous open spaces and develop the best mechatronic solutions and services for our global customers," emphasizes Christian Wendler, CEO of Lenze.

Decisive improvements will also be made in production. "The latest automation technologies will be used here," says Dr. Hans-Peter Mertens, Managing Director of Lenze Operations GmbH. Industry 4.0 will find its practical expression at the MCC. Networking and control are being redesigned from scratch, based on an SAP environment. Driverless transport systems are used in production itself, and a modern high-bay warehouse with space for more than 16,000 pallets is directly connected.

According to Mertens, the changes compared to the previous production processes will be dramatic. The make-2-order process, in which customer-specific finished products are created from prefabricated elements, is set to become between 50 and 85 percent faster - in extreme cases, the throughput time will fall from 32 days to just 5, as unnecessary material movements and idle times will be eliminated. 300 pallet kilometers per year will be saved in the future, 10% less energy and 48% less space will be required.

What has to prove itself in Extertal from 2020 will then be rolled out to other Lenze locations worldwide.

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