On September 28, Lenze laid the foundation stone for the new "Mechatronic Competence Campus" (MCC) in Extertal in the presence of the Minister President of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, Armin Laschet, the Mayor of Extertal, Monika Rehmert, as well as the company's shareholders and members of the founding family.

At around 50 million euros, the modern development and production site in North Rhine-Westphalia is the largest single investment in the company's 70-year history. The new building covers 7,500 square meters, with a total of 30,000 square meters available on the campus for development, production, service and storage. The final expansion will employ around 800 people, who are currently spread across three separate sites in Extertal.

Lenze places particular emphasis on improved cooperation - from brainstorming to product development, prototype construction and pilot series through to series production, the various disciplines are to be brought closer together. A central element of the development site is therefore the technical center. "This is where product managers with close contact to sales and their knowledge of customer requirements come together with the development team, service employees and the operations department. All these disciplines are equally important. We ensure that communication barriers are broken down and that the various disciplines can work together easily," emphasizes Dr. Hans-Peter Mertens, Managing Director of Lenze Operations. Customers can also be involved here, accompanying specific developments and experiencing them live.

The Mechatronics Campus is a decisive step for Lenze in promoting more innovation, improving the results of the innovation process and significantly shortening the time-to-market. It is an important reference project for the future of collaboration. "In agile, interdisciplinary teams, our employees in Extertal will work together in numerous open spaces in future and develop the best mechatronic solutions and services for our global customers," said Christian Wendler, CEO of Lenze.

But there will also be improvements in production. "The latest automation technologies will be used here," continues Dr. Mertens. 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 and over 15,000 containers is directly connected. Around 300 Lenze drives are installed in the logistics system.

The changes compared to 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 future, 10 percent less energy and 48 percent less space will be required. as