PI invests $60 million to increase productivity & capacities

As the whole industry experiences a tight global supply situation, PI is taking steps to get ahead of the curve. The initiative includes investments of nearly USD 60 million, in several locations around the world, all geared to increase productivity, expand production capacities, and optimize the whole supply chain. Together with customers, PI is also developing long-term plans regarding specific delivery quantities and schedules. The company is focusing on global growth markets such as Semiconductors, Photonics, Industrial Automation, and Life Sciences.

Additionally, PI says in a press release that it keeps on hiring more specialists – by the end of 2022 PI will have grown its employee count by more than 30% compared to the beginning of 2021.

"The pandemic has rapidly accelerated growth in our innovation-driven markets", says Markus Spanner, CEO of the PI Group in the press release. "Developments that usually could have taken ten or more years, were now achieved in just two years." 

The result is unexpectedly strong growth, throughout all the market segments covered by PI. 

"We are doing everything we can to fulfill our customers’ wishes regarding planning security and on-time delivery, even in the short term", emphasized the CEO. "For this reason, last year PI already increased production of its high precision automation and nanopositioning systems as well as piezoceramic components by 30 percent compared with the previous year. However, this is still not enough considering that incoming orders are growing even faster. With our different measures, we are trying everything to alleviate shortages in the short term, and, in the mid-term, provide considerably higher capacities."

With their investments, PI is targeting two goals; Optimizing existing capacities and creating new ones. For this, a combined budget of close to USD 60 million was assigned for 2021 and 2022. Following the production growth of over 30% in 2021, PI is looking to increase capacity by another 30% in 2022. The company says that this will mainly be possible through digitalisation, for example, by rolling out Industry 4.0 principles. From 2023, additional production lines will be added.

To take the pressure off the delivery situation in the short term, PI says it is developing long-term plans together with numerous customers, where the actual demand determines the delivery dates and quantities. This enables a more forward-thinking planning of manufacturing schedules and capacity. 

”With this, our customers benefit from both just-in-time advantages and long-term security of supply of PI’s high quality components and systems." explains Markus Spanner. ”Thanks to our customers, suppliers, dedicated employees, and our investments in developing our capacities, we have come up with a comprehensive range of measures to improve on-time delivery."