In the production contest organized by Fraunhofer Austria and the Industriemagazin, our large-tonnage machine plant in St. Valentin won the title of "Factory of the Year 2023" and was thus named the best production company in Austria. Together with the other Engel production sites, the plant forms a global and high-performance network for manufacturing at the cutting edge of technology.
As part of the factory conference held in Bludenz (Vorarlberg) in autumn, Engel St. Valentin was awarded both the overall prize and the "Efficient Factory" category. "The winning work by Engel is characterised by very good or excellent results across all competition categories," said the jury. Key success factors were the consistent sustainability strategy and the pioneering role in the field of digitalization.
Martin Weger (background, in the middle) with his management team in the production plant St. Valentin
Outstanding assembly principle
In addition, the well-thought-out manufacturing process contributed to the award. "The right layouts and the right transport routes are of particular importance for our part weights of up to 150 tons. The implementation of this must be clean and coordinated," explains plant manager Martin Weger. One project that takes this approach into account was the expansion and redesign of the flow assembly. The assembly principle, in which the closing and clamping unites of the machine are initially manufactured and assembled separately from each other, is outstanding in the field of special machine construction. With the recently implemented optimizations, the plant's performance limit has been increased by 15 percent and throughput times have been reduced by 65 percent.
Efficiency thanks to Automation
The jury saw the intelligent C-parts management as another highlight. This is the automated reordering of consumables, such as screws. The use of the automated guided vehicles for tool dispensing and the highly automated milling centers were also convincing. "Thanks to these measures, our specialists can take on more demanding and complex tasks," reports Martin Weger. In 2024, the competition will host its final in St. Valentin.
