lenze1018The Lenze Mechatronic Competence Campus, for which the foundation stone was laid at the end of September, is scheduled to go into operation at the beginning of 2020. It stands for a new world of work that transcends departmental boundaries and fast, flexible production. Industry 4.0 should not be part of a showroom here but implemented in practice.

The automation specialist has already laid the foundation for the new "Mechatronic Competence Campus" (MCC) in Extertal. The state-of-the-art development and production site in North Rhine-Westphalia is the largest single investment in the 50-year-old company with around 70 million euros. 7500 m² comprises the new building, with a total of 30.000 m² being available on campus for development, production, service and storage. In the final phase, some 800 employees will be employed here, who have so far been spread over three separate locations in Extertal.

The company pays special attention to the better cooperation. "This is where product managers with close contact to sales and their knowledge of customer requirements come together with the development team, the service staff and the operations department", emphasizes Dr. med. Hans-Peter Mertens, Managing Director of Lenze Operations GmbH. Customers can also be involved.

Decisive improvements should also be made in production. "The latest automation technologies are used here," says Dr. Mertens continues. Industry 4.0 finds its practical expression at the MCC. Networking and control are designed from scratch, based on an SAP environment. In the production itself driverless transport systems are used, directly connected is a modern high-bay warehouse with space for more than 16.000 pallets and 15.000 containers. Around 300 Lenze drives are installed in logistics.

The changes compared to the previous production processes will be dramatic. The Make-2 order process, which uses pre-made elements to create customized finished products, is expected to become faster between 50 and 85% - in extreme cases, the throughput time from 32 days to 5 drops because unnecessary material movements and laytime are eliminated. 300 pallet kilometers per year will be saved in the future, 10% less energy and 48% less area needed.