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02. July 2020“FACTORY OF THE FUTURE” COMPLETED

DESMA Schuhmaschinen GmbH has built its new production and office complex in just one year – Production and commercial business units will move in before the end of July – The building is designed to reflect the latest workflow and logistics principles and has sufficient reserves for future growth

Roughly one year after the groundbreaking ceremony, the “Factory of the Future” - the new production and office building of DESMA Schuhmaschinen GmbH - has now been officially completed.

DESMA Managing Directors Klaus Freese and Christian Decker presented the new industrial and office complex on the company premises in Achim to the public in the presence of Rainer Ditzfeld (left), Mayor of Achim, and Peter Bohlmann (right), Head of Verden District Authority.

Over the preceding twelve months, up to 700 construction workers from highly diverse trades had done an excellent job. Located at the entrance to the town of Achim and close to a trunk road, the company has erected a 12,000-square-metre production complex with three bays as well as a three-storey office building with a total floor area of 4,500 square metres. “We are optimising our production and logistics processes and thus strengthening our position in the global market,” says Klaus Freese. His fellow manager, Christian Decker, adds: “From intake of the individual parts, storage, surface treatment, processing and final assembly right through to delivery of the finished machines, we have now gathered our core processes under one roof.”

As the world’s leading manufacturer of plant and machinery for industrial footwear production, DESMA does business in a fiercely competitive international market. Before the construction of the new factory, the company developed and produced its highly complex special machines in various buildings spread throughout the approx. 93,000-square-metre site. To enable it to produce more efficiently in future, the old premises would have required time-consuming and expensive conversion work and the addition of new annexes. In 2017, the management and Salzgitter AG as DESMA’s parent company therefore decided to build a completely new complex, as that was the only way to design production processes more effectively, promote digitisation and safeguard the roughly 240 jobs over the long term.

The groundbreaking ceremony and official start of construction was on 6 June 2019. Each milestone throughout the entire project, up to handover of the keys, was completed absolutely on schedule and in line with budget. The DESMA management is proud and grateful that the real estate investment was supported by the board of Salzgitter AG and believes this can be regarded as recognition of DESMA’s work in recent years. “The production and commercial departments will move into the new building over the course of the next few weeks and operations will continue throughout that time,” states Klaus Freese. The “Factory of the Future” is scheduled to go into operation by the end of July.

The building ensemble, which has a dark brick façade, not only means short distances between the production and office units, but will first and foremost enable production to be organised on the basis of modern workflow processes. The production area, for instance, is U-shaped and combines modern warehousing logistics with spacious, ergonomically designed industrial workplaces. LEDs will create pleasant lighting in the factory buildings and acoustic baffles will significantly reduce the noise level.

The new office building has barrier-free workplaces, spacious washroom facilities, storage rooms and a cafeteria. Another positive effect of the new office area is that most of the workplaces are directly beside a window. Both the production and the office sections have been designed with growth in mind. “The new premises will also be able to cope with future growth,” says Decker.

The company address will also change when it moves into the new building, as the “Factory of the Future” is located at Desmastrasse 1. The emergent technology park will then be found at the former address, Desmastrasse 3/5, which is also home to a branch of Leibniz University Hannover. The previous DESMA buildings will be available for rental to interested business enterprises.

In view of the Coronavirus pandemic, the company has had to forego its plans for a major event to celebrate the inauguration. The house fair scheduled for this year has also had to be cancelled owing to the Covid 19 crisis. Nevertheless, the DESMA Managing Directors are confident that both these events will take place in the course of 2021, when DESMA celebrates 75 years in business.