Progress requires space
Progress requires space: Hello Leonberg!
As an experienced partner in the field of conveyor technology, we have always seen our mission in the development of sustainable technologies which help to make transfer and production processes of various industries more efficient and flexible.
In order to be able to give our expertise the appropriate space in the future and to meet the requirements of the various industries, we have decided to build a new plant with an intelligent logistics concept. In January 2021 the time had finally come: The new plant could be put into operation, replacing the previous headquarters of Altratec in Schwieberdingen.
The choice of location fell on an industrial area in Leonberg near Stuttgart with good connection to the highways A8 and A81.
With the new plant, we have increased our production area by factor 6. The high land prices in the greater Stuttgart area were the perfect incentive to make our new location as space-efficient as possible. The result of these efforts is a 4,700 sqm plant with flexible production and storage areas as well as an administration area. The investment amounts to around five million euros.
If you take a look into the warehouse and production area, you will quickly notice that there is no crossing traffic here. When planning the logistics concept, we made the decision to use a U-shaped material flow. In this way, routine processes can be done efficiently.
Despite the spatial proximity of the individual areas, incoming goods, warehouse, processing, final assembly and outgoing goods are separated and shielded from one another to avoid cross-area noise and dirt pollution.
New material is received by the incoming goods department. Here it is decided whether it is a catalog item or a project-specific item. If the latter is the case, a responsible person picks up the goods and transports them to their destination using a picking trolley. Standard articles are transported directly to the warehouse. In the high-bay warehouse of the new plant, we use special loading and unloading technology that allows storage up to the hall ceiling. In this way, capacities of up to 200 tons of aluminum are created. This corresponds to a volume of approx. 200 small cars.
The workplaces for mechanical processing of the goods (sawing, milling, drilling) are linearly connected to the warehouse. The high-speed doors effectively shield this area and, thus, avoid noise or dirt pollution in the warehouse and assembly area.
In the assembly area of our new plant, all work stations are rollable and mobile – from the workshop trolleys to the workbenches. The advantage of this concept: The assembly process can always be precisely adapted to the task at hand and, thus, becomes considerably more efficient. In contrast to the plant in Neukirchen, the media connections required for assembly are embedded in the ground at the new location. This ergonomically clever solution ensures that assembly work is not obstructed by cables.
In order to ensure the success of our projects, our designers must be able to keep an eye on ongoing projects at any time if necessary. However, this is not possible with a strict visual separation of the design and assembly areas. That is why design and production area are seperated with a glazing in Leonberg.
Clever design of the working environment is visible throughout the plant. Only energy-efficient LED lighting is used. The workplaces in the office rooms have height-adjustable desks and can, thus, be used flexibly as sitting or standing work station. Thanks to the integrated elevator, access to the plant is also possible for people with disabilities.
With the commissioning of the production facility in Leonberg, we have opened a new chapter in our company history. The new plant gives us the opportunity to further grow and to successfully implement projects that require a lot of of space. Accordingly, we are currently looking for employees who support our team in Leonberg. As competent training company we also offer the opportunity to start an apprenticeship as mechatronics engineer or industrial management assistant. Thanks to the full order books, we are also looking for committed employees and apprentices for our Neukirchen plant.