Weidmüller expands Detmold manufacturing operations

In total, 25,000 square meters of space consisting of new buildings and extensions will be added at five sites in Detmold. More than EUR 70 million will be spent, with project completion scheduled for 2010. Dr. Joachim Belz (Weidmüller CEO), Werner Dilly (Weidmüller CFO), Ralf Hoppe (Managing Director) and Jürgen Tlatlik (Manager of Building Services) performed the ceremonial groundbreaking. The first priority is to expand the capacity of the highly automated assembly line and standard products manufacturing operations, as well as the entire metalworking area. A further important strategic step will be to consolidate the product development process areas. The construction plan at the Detmold site focuses on four initiatives: - Centralization of the entire surfacing and metalworking processes, including machine tool construction at the Klingenbergstraße location. - Merge the assembly line and standard products manufacturing, complete with plastics processing and assembly functions at the Niemeierstraße/Kreuzstraße site. A completely new 10,000 square-meter building complex will be built there. - Consolidate the entire product development process at an engineering center situated at the Stoppelkamp site. This will be the home of the Electrical Connectivity and Functional Electronics business units, as well as the Engineering, R&D, Laboratory and New Product Manufacturing divisions. The Stoppelkamp space will also be expanded by more than 10,000 square meters. - Integrate the components warehouse into the existing logistics center, to enable the existing technical infrastructure to be used for both operations. Weidmüller will spend about EUR 5 million on an expanded energy efficiency program. Building services manager Jürgen Tlatlik calculates that the company will reduce CO2 emissions by 18,000 tonnes per year just from electricity savings and better utilization of heating and cooling systems. For example, during the heating months, excess process heat generated in the manufacturing bays will be used to heat the office buildings. Automatic hall lighting will be used to adjust the light level to the ambient daylight, and also save energy.