FORUM 38 EN - Wirtgen Group

ROAD AND MINERAL TECHNOLOGIES
FORUM
T H E N E W S PA P E R F O R C U S T O M E R S , S TA F F A N D F R I E N D S O F T H E W I R T G E N G R O U P | N o . 3 8 / D e c e m b e r 2 0 0 9
IN THIS ISSUE
02 In motion: Wirtgen special
machines and GTA
03 Right on schedule: creating the Vögele paver world
04 Hamm spare parts centre
soon proves its worth
05 All systems go! Kleemann
plant enters operation
06 Wirtgen America
„Learning Center“:
one year on
07 Gaining ground Down
Under: Wirtgen Australia
08 Wirtgen India set
to launch own local
production
09 Interpreter for Wirtgen
Group machines:
WIDIAG
10 Vögele and Hamm: new
circuit for Formula 1
11 4200 SM in Australia:
top performer through
and through
DEAR CUSTOMERS, DEAR STAFF AND FRIENDS,
The worldwide demand for construction machinery has efficiency of our factories and the performance of our
declined drastically over the past 24 months. In some
sales organization. What‘s more, our consistent strategy
segments, demand has even dropped to around half of innovation safeguards our position as leader in the
of the usual levels. In light of this, many manufacturers
specialized technologies.
have been forced to implement dramatic layoffs, project suspensions and budget cuts in order to limit their The Wirtgen Group has outstanding opportunities. In the
losses.
„Road Technologies“ business segment, we have created a solid foundation with Wirtgen, Vögele and Hamm
And nor has the Wirtgen Group emerged entirely un- and developed long-term growth potential. Through the
scathed, registering the first decline in its business vol- integration of Kleemann, we have created additional
ume after 12 years of continuous growth. With total sales growth possibilities for the future in the „Mineral Techin 2009 of EUR 1.180 billion, we are roughly 21% below nologies“ business segment. This outlook is a trementhe previous year’s level. Nevertheless, we can be thor- dous driving force that motivates all of us to join forces
oughly satisfied with this result considering the limited
in overcoming this crisis.
options available to us on the markets.
Our gratitude goes out to customers and staff
Our way out of the crisis
The confidence that our customers place in us, especialAs a sound and financially strong family enterprise, we
ly now in this economically tense climate, is overwhelmshall not waver from our path as we make our way ing. We wish to thank our customers and truly apprecithrough this crisis. Our focus is clearly set on longer term
ate their decision. They will profit from our innovative
concerns, and not on short-term quarterly results. This products and receive outstanding support from our team.
is why we are channelling all our strength and creativity
into pushing ahead with the development of our corpo- We also wish to thank the staff in our companies, who
rate group – now of all times. We intend to grasp every accompany us on our journey with unwavering loyalty
opportunity to emerge from this crisis a stronger company. and unflagging efforts. Dear staff, we will all share in a
successful future thanks to your commitment.
The strategies and their implementation are clear. And
our countercyclical approach is geared towards a long- Our warmest wishes,
term personnel policy, for instance, featuring comprehensive training options and a variety of apprenticeship
and advanced training measures in our headquarters
and subsidiaries. Our sizeable investments are just another such example, going well beyond the mere preserStefan Wirtgen
Jürgen Wirtgen
vation of material assets and increasing both the cost-
12 Children in Need: focus
on Mahayahay Project
HIGHLIGHTS
05
Kick off in Göppingen: brand new
Kleemann headquarters gears up
for demand from new markets
10
New boon to racing season: new
Formula 1 circuit in Abu Dhabi goes
live thanks to Vögele and Hamm
11
News from the Cloudbreak mine in
Western Australia: 4200 SM‘s debut
an all-round success
BEHIND THE SCENES
FIT FOR THE FUTURE: PLANT FOR SPECIAL-PURPOSE WIRTGEN MACHINES WITH PAINTING FACILITY
MARKET CONFIRMS FLEXIBILITY OF NEW CONCEPT
The plant for Wirtgen GmbH‘s special-purpose machines has now been
in operation for just under a year, with
the plant‘s painting facility being put
into operation in the middle of the year.
So now it‘s time to take stock. The upswing in new orders for large machines provided the impetus in 2007
for the construction of a dedicated
production facility for customized
special-purpose machines. The goal
was to unite all processing stages under one roof, in order to achieve a
streamlined manufacturing concept
with greater productivity and efficiency.
Final assembly is not the only extremely efficient feature of the production plant for special-purpose
machines: there‘s also the central warehouse for order picking parts, a dedicated electrical installation facility for all special-purpose machines under the same roof and a capacious finishing area. All
specialist departments are connected and integrated via short routes.
According to Plant Manager Norbert
Dinspel, this is exactly what has been
achieved: „The envisaged concept has
proven to be a resounding success.
We can build every type of special-purpose machine in virtually all areas of
the plant. The market dynamics in 2009
have already shown that the production focus in the first half of the year
was clearly on slipform pavers, before
shifting to surface miners in the second
half of the year. Another successful
process is the rotation of personnel
through all of the work stations. It‘s like
working in a big family and it also maximizes our flexibility and minimizes response times. This year, full use was
made both of our space and manpower capacities!“
Johann Kroheck describes the challenges: „We‘re very proud of the fact
that we have one of the world‘s most
efficient systems for heavy loads in our
industry, capable of transporting and
coating suspended weights of up to 30 t.
During regular operation, the large part
painting facility with dual-track suspension system handles parts weighing up
to 20 t with maximum dimensions of
3 m in width, 3 m in height and 9 m in
length. However, we can also manage
Painting facility
for special-purpose machines
The new painting facility for specialpurpose machines at the Windhagen
headquarters marks the second major
project of this kind realized by Waldemar Bukal and Johann Kroheck, Project
Managers for the Plant Management of
Wirtgen. In 2006, they realized the continuous painting facility for the final assembly plant at the Hambitz site, in
which more than 38,000 parts are now
powder-coated for the standard series
machines. However, quantity alone is
not enough: while the first continuous
painting facility can transport a maximum of 800 kg on its conveyor, the new
Using the lifting and lowering station, the staff can position their work pieces in the painting booth to
ensure maximum ergonomics.
painting facility for large parts at Rederscheider Kreuz can manage suspended weights of up to 20, or even 30 t!
No lightweights
The large part painting facility is particularly eco-friendly, exceeding the pertinent EU directives.
It also provides Wirtgen GmbH with a very high level of surface quality.
special-purpose parts weighing as
much as 30 t. One of the longest parts
that we coat here in addition to the 17 m
conveyor frame of the 4200 SM is the
chassis of the 4200 SM, which is 3 m
high, 4.40 m wide and almost 13 m
long. It‘s also the heaviest part that we
coat, weighing 38 t. Of course, this has
to be coated statically in the painting
booth as it‘s too heavy to suspend.“
Leap in quality,
benefits for the environment
Nine formulas are currently available in
the large part painting facility, e.g. for
chassis in one, two or a maximum of
three colours. Some EUR 5 million
were invested in the impressive facility.
However, the investment pays off in
many respects – an opinion also shared
by Project Manager Kroheck: „The
powder-coating process puts us in a
far better position in terms of surface
quality. Powder-coating is extremely
robust and far harder-wearing on a job
site than a wet paintjob. That‘s particularly important in the case of our special-purpose machines.“ Over 90 percent of the parts that pass through the
large part painting facility are powdercoated. The process itself is highly
eco-friendly, as Waldemar Bukal explains: „We designed the facility in
such a way that we more than fulfil the
EU directives. This makes the facility
highly sustainable. What‘s more, we‘ve
dispensed completely with pre-treating
the large parts with liquid chemicals
and only use a blasting system to clean
the parts. This does away with chemicals, as well as the associated wastewater. The decision to switch to powder-coating is wholly in the interests of
the environment, as it means we can
dispense with solvents entirely.“
Pleasant working environment,
balanced energy consumption
And the environment is not the only
beneficiary - the workforce gains, too.
This is just one of the things that
Foreman Janusz Kahlert appreciates
about the new workplaces: „This is a
completely new working situation for
everyone. Of course, the working conditions mean we now have far cleaner
and brighter workplaces. That increases the quality of the workplaces for
everyone in the large part painting facility.“ As far as the cost-effectiveness of
the facility is concerned, an additional
factor comes into play. Waldemar
Bukal explains: „We save a lot of energy by working with heat recovery in the
blasting facility, the painting booths
and the ovens. This means that we
feed the exhaust air via a secondary filter and a thermal wheel into other areas of the facility, to heat them in winter,
for instance.“
Some ten employees operate the large part painting facility. The 4200 SM chassis was also coated here.
This special work piece can only be transported within the facility on trailers pulled by a tractor.
PUBLISHER‘S DETAILS
FORUM – THE NEWSPAPER FOR CUSTOMERS, STAFF AND FRIENDS OF THE WIRTGEN GROUP
PUBLISHED BY:
Wirtgen Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH · Reinhard-Wirtgen-Straße 2 · D-53578 Windhagen
E-Mail: forum@wirtgen.de · Internet: www.wirtgen-group.com
OFFICIAL REGISTRATION: Commercial Register Montabaur HRB 10492
VAT No.: DE 149 525 751
Board of management: Jürgen Wirtgen, Stefan Wirtgen, Rainer Otto
2
RESPONSIBLE FOR CONTENT:
Claudia Fernus · Tel.: + 49 2645 -131 744 · Fax: + 49 2645 -131 499
E-Mail: presse@wirtgen.de
EDITORIAL STAFF:
Claudia Fernus, Michaela Adams, Annabell Noll
All rights reserved. Reproduction only with written permission by the
editorial staff. This applies especially to duplication via copying or CD-ROM
and storage in electronic databases.
LAYOUT:
Andrea Schiffer
TRANSLATION:
Übersetzungsbüro Ulrike Krämer, Erpel
interteam Übersetzungsbüro, Grünwald
PRINT:
Gebrüder Kopp, Köln
BEHIND THE SCENES
CONSTRUCTION OF NEW HEADQUARTERS IN FULL FLOW
CREATING THE VÖGELE PAVER WORLD
The countdown continues inexorably: since the earth works were
completed, Vögele’s building site has
rapidly grown to new dimensions, day
after day. The headquarters is now
clearly taking shape.
The concrete foundations and the building work – the steel construction for
the production halls and the concreting
work for the central administration and
training centre – are well under way.
And the roof seals will be almost complete by the end of the year, too. The
installation of the building services systems has also commenced simultaneously, including such works as heating,
air-conditioning, ventilation and electrical installation, among others.
Everything under control: the site management
team with H.-Georg Bernard, Site Manager for
Dittrich planning office; Peter Heßler, Senior
Site Manager for the Wirtgen Group; and
Christoph Niehaus, Project Manager for Vögele.
Little wonder that the site management team, headed by P. Heßler, Ch.
Niehaus and H.-G. Bernard, has its
hands full inviting tenders for the various works, coordinating construction
teams and ensuring compliance with
the contractually agreed performances.
As Peter Heßler confirms, “a day on
the site is long, not uncommonly from
7 am to 9 pm I start with a tour of the
new factory, followed by planning talks
with the site management team, architects, building contractors and construction teams. These talks often take
up the whole day. Then we have to review and approve the drawings and
ensure that the contractors’ installation schedules are properly coordinated. And a site of this size is naturally
prone to unforeseeable developments
– just think of the weather, for example.”
FACTS AND FIGURES
•
•
•
•
•
Investment volume: EUR 100 million
Outdoor site area:
370,000 m2
Covered hall area:
66,700 m2
Canopy roofs:
6,800 m2
Total gross floor areas:
– Training:
2,890 m2
– Central administration: 7,890 m2
An exciting job:
Production Manager
Franz Welsch is
responsible for coordinating everything
associated with the
move to the new
plant.
Construction of the new Vögele plant is proceeding in leaps and bounds: latest aerial photograph of the new plant in Ludwigshafen in October 2009.
More competitive
with optimized processes
The world’s most modern paver production plant is being built in Ludwigshafen. A highly flexible layout and optimally coordinated logistics and manufacturing processes are characteristic
of the new factory. They form the basis
for high-quality Vögele pavers, stable
work flows and – last but not least –
further increases in productivity. But
what exactly does that mean?
vanced on rails in future. One technically complex requirement is that the
worktops are to be raised by lifting tables at each workstation, yielding a
time saving of almost two hours per
screed. And that is just one of many
examples! Project Manager Niehaus
summed it up succinctly: “Vögele owes
its decisive step forwards to the countless small improvements made in all areas of the new plant, and not to grand
slogans.”
Building a new factory is an opportunity to scrutinize and improve existing
processes. A large team known as the
steering committee has been giving its
dedicated attention to these topics.
The core team is made up of the Board
of Management and the heads of the
main departments in the operational divisions. Other experts, including master
mechanics and technologists, etc. are
invited to join the group depending on
the topic under consideration. In this
way, logistic processes have been optimized in line with the value-added
and flow of materials. Raw materials,
for example, will be delivered directly in
future, bought-in parts delivered locally
to various areas of the plant near the
point where they are actually needed.
This will eliminate unnecessary transports and reduce the need for interim
storage facilities and repacking.
Planning was essentially based on the
ODD principle – One Drop Delivery –
meaning that things should only be
handled once. Every single production
process was scrutinized, such as the
assembly line for screeds: in the
Mannheim plant, screeds are lifted
from one cycle to the next by a hall
crane in the final assembly hall. This
time-consuming process has a further
disadvantage in that the crane cannot
simultaneously be used for assembly
work. Since the number of cycles in the
new factory has been increased from
5 to 9, a means had to be found of
improving the screeds’ progress. As a
result, the worktops on which the
screeds are assembled will be ad-
Timing the move
Work in Ludwigshafen is progressing in
leaps and bounds, and the time for the
move is rapidly approaching. The team
headed by Production Manager Franz The “Go West project”, as it is known,
Welsch is currently working on the tim- began with a staff celebration in June
ing. An appropriate order must be 2008. Since then, the employees have
found for all departments, for process- regularly been informed of all the most
es must stay together. Every single ma- important events relating to the new
chine is being considered and posi- plant. In addition, they can watch the
tioned at the new site. The move will progress made via webcam on the
start in late July and should be com- Wirtgen Group Intranet.
pleted by early October 2010. “Production will stop for not more than four
weeks, but this downtime will be compensated by working ahead in the first
half of 2010,” says Welsch.
Employees go with the new plant
In our first FORUM report on construction of the new plant, Dr. Pawlik, Vögele
Board Member, said that “one of the
most important factors behind the decision as to where our new plant was to
be built was its proximity to the present
site. We want all our employees to
come with us to the new plant.” Words
that are taken literally at Vögele.
EMPLOYEES LOOK FORWARD
TO THE NEW PLANT
Gaspare Mangiavillano,
mechatronic, repair workshop
“The new factory is growing at incredible
speed. I can follow it directly on my touchscreen. This is where the webcam is most
interesting.”
Philippe Dupré, 2nd year trainee in
industrial mechanics
“Vögele’s trainees fare best. We will have
twice as much space in the new factory as in
Mannheim. The equipment in our training
workshop will be much more modern, with
better welding positions and a new milling
machine, for example.”
Angelika Wolfsberger (left) and
Susanne Bürgy (right), members of
the shipping department
“We are delighted that our department will
have its own area with the latest shipping
technology in future. A mobile ramp, truck
loading station and rail siding directly alongside the office – that will make our work so
very much easier!”
3
BEHIND THE SCENES
SATISFIED CUSTOMERS, HIGH AVAILABILITY, SHORT DELIVERY TIMES
ONE YEAR ON - HAMM SPARE PARTS CENTRE
Around 22,000 deliveries with a
combined weight of some 3,000
tonnes are dispatched from the Hamm
spare parts centre in Tirschenreuth
each year. With intelligent logistics
and smart stock-keeping, the 26-man
team ensures that 95% of all orders are
already handed over to the forwarding
agencies on the date of ordering.
The new spare parts centre was inaugurated in autumn 2008. Today, it stores
a total of 18,000 different parts on a total area of 2,300 m2. The three central
vertical storage aisles represent the
cream of logistics technology, with
combined storage capacity for 7,500
parts. Everything else is stored in the
surrounding high-bay storage racks.
Covering 2,300 m2, the hall provides ample space for handling all processes under one roof. All spare parts activities are concentrated at a central
position, ensuring short routes.
delivery times and average consumption levels are documented for every
part. This information enables the spare
parts requirements planners to detect in
good time when a critical minimum level
has been reached for a certain item,
allowing them to promptly procure new
stock and thus avoid bottlenecks.
an office directly next to the packing
points. This spatial arrangement is no
coincidence: „We‘re very satisfied with
the new working environment and can
deliver even more quickly – it‘s great!“
exclaims Spare Parts Salesman and
Deputy Head of the Warehouse Team,
Oskar Dietz, happily.
Up-to-date inventories
Machine: year of construction
can be accessed worldwide
1965 – Spare part delivery: today
The new system also benefits the sub- The speed with which the logistics
sidiaries and authorized dealerships: team delivers items for machines in the
An intelligent software programme for the vertical aisles ensures that those parts that are ordered
they can access the inventories online current programme is not the only immost frequently are available very quickly. The 9-m high racks provide space-optimized and UVand track every spare part order on its pressive aspect. Thanks to the high
protected storage.
way to a customer via a tracking sys- level of availability, even parts for maDynamic storage
a high supply security for customers, tem. To ensure that questions can be chines built from as far back as 1965
speeds up order picking
this was one of the key goals when plan- clarified internally both quickly and sim- can be delivered to the job site by the
The special highlight is that storage ning the new spare parts centre. „The
ply, the requirements planners, parts very next day, much to the pleasure
here is dynamic. In other words, the old warehouse had become very cram- sellers and in-house office staff work in and amazement of the customer!
parts are not sorted according to ma- ped and we had to share our stocks
chine type or assembly. Instead, their with production. Today, we operate with
storage position changes according to a separate logistics chain and can delitheir turnover rate. This means that fre- ver to the customer at top speed thanks
quently needed items are stored cen- to the high availability and rapid ordertrally, while parts that are ordered less picking,“ explains Bernhard Hoferer,
frequently are stored higher up and fur- Head of Customer Services at Hamm.
ther away from the packing point. In Before the new spare parts centre was
line with this system, items are already built, the team defined its specific requilisted on the packing lists in the order rements and subsequently took an acof the optimum route, which increases tive role in the planning. The result is an
the speed of order-picking immensely. intelligent overall concept perfectly tailored to Hamm‘s needs. Hamm achieves
A fourth, separate vertical lift stores
The glass panels for the cabin are fitted with
Optimum security
such excellent parts availability by em- documentation and operating instructions,
special edge guards before being packed in
among
other
things.
Before
any
machine
is
sturdy, well-padded cardboard shipping boof supply guaranteed
ploying a highly advanced system that
shipped out, Gudrun Schwarz sorts out the
xes. Hamm almost exclusively uses recyclable
A system of this kind is a fundamental automatically updates the stock level requisite documents in one of the 22 available
materials for packaging, dispensing with the
use of Styrofoam, for instance.
prerequisite for rapid delivery. Alongside when a part is removed. Furthermore, languages.
Bernhard Hoferer, Head of the Service
and Spare Parts Department: „It‘s our
goal to ensure that each customer receives its spare parts as quickly as possible.
We therefore consider a high level of
parts availability to be extremely important, instead of focussing on cutting costs
through optimized inventories.
Currently, 95% of all orders received by
4 pm are dispatched on the same day.
These shipments can be delivered via
overnight service by 7 am the next day in
Germany, or by lunchtime in Paris, Rome
or Warsaw – and also directly to the job
site, of course.“
4
Every packet is weighed prior to shipping and
recorded with a scanner. The system automatically produces the shipping label in German or
English, depending on the country of destination.
Warehouseman R. Zimmert with the new forklift
truck with camera on the stacking fork. Via a monitor, he can read the labelling on the lattice box,
which simplifies the locating of specific items.
BEHIND THE SCENES
KLEEMANN STARTS SERIES PRODUCTION FOR MOBILE CRUSHERS AND SCREENS
SUCCESSFUL RELOCATION OF WORKS IN GÖPPINGEN
Upheld by 4,000 tonnes of steel,
20,000 tonnes of concrete and the
energy of 266 motivated Kleemann
employees, an exemplary facility for
the series production of mobile crushers and screens has been erected in
east Göppingen. The Wirtgen Group
is committed to consistently optimizing its headquarters and does not shy
away from investments of this order
of magnitude, even in a difficult economic climate.
Everything under a single roof
Kleemann’s new manufacturing facility
covers 26,000 m2 and has been perfectly designed to cater to the gigantic
dimensions of its crushers and screens.
“Our total site covers 125,000 m2. Because of the size of our plants, we’ve
naturally also planned sufficient outdoor storage areas. The 3,200 m2 administration building has 42 generously
dimensioned offices and eight conference rooms, as well as a training center and a cafeteria each 240 m2 in size,”
says Berthold Grießhaber, Production
Manager at Kleemann GmbH, with a
certain amount of pride. Grießhaber
and his team of eight external architects,
construction engineers and specialist
planners, as well as seven in-house
representatives of the specialist departments, required just one year to consolidate the three production facilities
under a single roof – and they even
pulled off the feat without jeopardizing
ongoing production. “A key priority
was of course to keep to the delivery
deadlines for our customers,” notes
Grießhaber.
Enhanced product quality, higher
annual production volume
“The efforts of the past year have really
paid off in full. By consolidating the entire production operations at one location, we’ve taken a crucial step towards
optimization of the processes and material flows,” explains Assembly Manager Michael German. “The short distances from pre-production to final assembly make the assembly process far
more efficient,” says German, reporting
on his first production experiences in
the new headquarters in Stauferpark
Industrial Area. The mobile crushers
The new works and the administration building: Including the expansive outdoor areas, the entire complex covers 125,000 m2.
and screens are built on four assembly
lines in a flow assembly process. “This
allows us to significantly reduce the
throughput time and thus easily triple
our annual plant production volume,”
states German. The assembly lines are
flexible and can be adapted to the individual product lines depending on the
order situation. “An assembly line that
was producing our Mobiscreen series
screens one week can be used to produce impact crushers from our Mobirex
series the next,” adds German.
Large main warehouse,
efficient spare parts shipping
Materials provisioning for final assembly and customer supply with spare
parts are handled by the large 2,600 m2
central warehouse. There are two storage zones, in which some 10,000 items
are stocked. “On average, 200 items
with a total weight of eight tonnes are
handled here each day,” explains the
central warehouse manager, Martin
Zemmel. “We really benefited from the
know-how of the other Wirtgen Group
headquarters when building our new
facility. We basically picked all of the
best ideas,” adds Grießhaber with a grin.
Energy-saving
powder-coating of large parts
Another example of the successful use
of synergistic effects between the main
Wirtgen Group works is the new painting facility for large parts. This is one of
the largest such facilities in Germany
with a tremendous load-bearing capac-
ity of 30 tonnes and around 2,000 m2 of
floor space. “The system is from the
same company that previously constructed the large part painting facility
for Wirtgen GmbH. For instance, the
transport crossbeams at Wirtgen and
Kleemann are virtually identical,” says
Helge Borsody, Head of the Steel Engineering Department, describing the facility. Switching over from wet spray
painting to powder-coating not only
marks a major step towards boosting
surface quality, but also has far less of
an environmental impact. “Our system far
exceeds the requirements of the EU environmental guidelines,” asserts Borsody.
Sales organization
ensures increasing demand
The development of additional markets
will progress in the coming years
through the ongoing integration of
Kleemann in the sales structures of the
Wirtgen Group. “The four Wirtgen
Group subsidiaries in Germany will also
start selling Kleemann products from
1 January 2010. Wirtgen Augsburg,
Wirtgen Hamburg, Wirtgen Windhagen
and Wirtgen Zwickau will then replace
our German dealers, allowing us to
reach a larger customer base in the
German market,” explains Markus
Wörner, General Sales Manager at
Kleemann GmbH.
At the same time, the sale of Kleemann
products will start in Italy, Turkey and
South America via the Wirtgen Group
sales network. “The new facility provides us with the production capacities
necessary to cater to the additional demand from newly developed markets,”
says Wörner enthusiastically.
The location of facilities in Germany,
coupled with the wealth of know-how
of the Kleemann workforce, is an invariable factor that will continue to ensure
the high quality and fast availability of
Kleemann machines in the future – our
customers can count on that.
THE NEW HEADQUARTERS –
A LONG-TERM INVESTMENT
Dr. Gerhard Schumacher, Managing Director
“The new facility is a long-term investment in Göppingen. Thanks to the close
vicinity to the old production facilities, we’ve been able to retain our entire workforce and the collective know-how we’ve developed over the years. Coupled with
optimized, state-of-the-art production processes, we’re now perfectly positioned
to professionally cater to the growing demand from new markets.”
Berthold Grießhaber, Production Manager
“The successful start of production at the new works was only possible because
everyone involved pulled together. Therefore, I’d like to take this opportunity to
express my sincere gratitude – the teamwork between our personnel and those
of the external service companies was truly exceptional. The result is a highly advanced facility that raises our production to a whole new level in terms of both
quantity and quality.”
Michael German, Assembly Manager
“I think the biggest advantage is the implementation of the flow assembly process
for our mobile crushers and screens. All tools and materials are positioned directly adjacent to the respective work station. This provides perfect conditions for efficient production, as well as the best possible workplace conditions for our staff.
The exhaust gas extraction system more than meets the latest health and safety
directives, and the central circular pipeline for diesel and hydraulic oil means that
the machines can be filled extremely quickly and safely with a pressure of 200
bar. Those are just two examples. It’s wonderful to see the effect the new production process is having on our staff and the resultant dynamism this is producing.
And we’re already fine-tuning the processes.”
Achim Kerler, Fitter in final assembly
“It’s a totally different kind of work. All the tools are new and we all have new
work stations. Compared to before, the work is far more varied and much more
enjoyable. We rotate through each assembly station in the flow assembly process. This gives us the chance to receive far more diversified training, although
we can also specialize in specific production stages.”
Markus Wörner, Sales Manager
“We’re well set up for the future with the new works. We can now cater to the
growing market demand with the increased production capacity and by bringing
our sales and customer service tools up to the Wirtgen Group level. What’s more,
we can raise the bar even higher in product quality through process innovations,
such as the new large parts painting facility.”
The first runs through the flow assembly process already clearly demonstrate that a 40 per cent increase
in productivity is easily achieved.
5
WIRTGEN GROUP CUSTOMER SERVICE
REINHARD WIRTGEN LEARNING CENTER: A ROLE MODEL FOR THE WIRTGEN GROUP
WIRTGEN AMERICA: TRAINING THE DEALER NETWORK
The Wirtgen Group offers marketleading technologies for road construction and the mining and processing of mineral raw materials. And the
highly advanced products „Made in
Germany“ are not only high-performance – they are also extremely costefficient when operated and configured correctly.
„Ensuring that customers can exploit
the full potential of their innovative
machines, especially the operating
cost-cutting aspects, requires qualified training of the operator and the
requisite expertise in servicing and
maintenance,“ explains Jan Schmidt,
Vice President Product Support at
Wirtgen America.
The Reinhard Wirtgen Learning Center is not only unique in the Wirtgen Group on account of its impressive dimensions – the facilities and organization
of the new learning center also set high standards.
struction cycle with machines from the us independent, but also means we can
Wirtgen Group. A Wirtgen KMA 220 pro- plan and implement our courses far
duces cold mix that is then installed with more effectively. This represents a
a Vögele paver and subsequently com- whole new quality of workshop training,“
pacted using Hamm technologies. A Hussey assures.
Wirtgen cold milling machine then mills
away the pavement and the whole road Learning center: world of experience
construction process can start anew. In addition to the outdoor demonstration
„Of course, we also have enough space area and workshop, the learning center
to demonstrate mineral processing or also boasts two multimedia equipped
recycling with mobile crushers from lecture rooms, each with a capacity for
Kleemann,“ adds Paul McLaren, Klee- 50 persons, as well as two laboratory
mann Service Manager at Wirtgen Ame- rooms, likewise each with a capacity for
rica. „We can replicate the challenges 50 persons. Here, a cold recycling procThe Reinhard Wirtgen Learning Center in Nashthat face our customers in the field one- ess with foamed bitumen can be simuville, Tennessee, opened its doors on 12 January
2009. Since then, the new complex has been run
to-one and demonstrate how each ap- lated on a 1:1 laboratory scale with a
by Tony Kennedy, Steve Howard, Jennifer
plication can be solved most effectively,“ WLB 10 S, for example. There is also a
Vaughn and Joe Hussey (from left to right).
says Joe Hussey, Trainer at Wirtgen large showroom in which product highWirtgen America has been offering the- America, describing the benefits of the lights are displayed and explained to the
oretical and practical training pro- Wirtgen Group‘s largest outdoor area for customers, much like in a car showgrammes for more than 17 years now. machine demonstrations.
room. In fact, the huge showroom can
„We didn‘t have the space for live demaccommodate a 10-foot Vision paver
onstrations in the past, which unfortu- Simulating workshop service
from Vögele, the W 2200 - also known
nately limited the advice we were able The service technicians of Wirtgen as the „Big Beast“ – from Wirtgen and a
to give on applications. We were also America‘s dealers learn how to profes- new Hamm HD+ tandem roller all at the
unable to cope with the growing de- sionally repair Wirtgen Group machines same time. Offices for the service staff,
mand,“ says Schmidt. Therefore, the in four fully equipped service bays. They a cafeteria for 80 guests and a merchannew Reinhard Wirtgen Learning Center not only benefit from the vast wealth of dise shop round off the world of experiwas inaugurated on January 12, 2009. experience of the Wirtgen America ser- ence that is the learning center.
„Around 1,200 participants have made vice crew, but also learn through practiuse of our new training offer so far. In- cal experience, for instance finding out Operation product support
deed, some have even attended several why it is so important to use the right „When I joined Wirtgen America back in
courses already,“ says Schmidt happily tool for the job. „We used to try to oper- 1986, our product range only included
on the huge success of the center.
ate next to the normal workshop opera- Wirtgen milling machines and hot recytions, but that was very difficult. It was clers. Now we have soil stabilizers, cold
Demonstrating
often too loud and we couldn‘t always
recyclers and surface miners, as well as
the road construction cycle
be certain which machines were in the Vögele pavers with the matching screeds
The outdoor demonstration area alone workshop at any given time. The physi- and a huge range of Hamm rollers. We
covers 20,000 m2 – ample space to eas- cal separation of the real workshop and also recently added Wirtgen slipform
ily demonstrate the complete road con- the simulation workshop not only makes pavers and the complete range of Klee-
Covering 20,000 m2, the outdoor demonstration area is large enough to demonstrate all facets of
the Wirtgen Group product portfolio at the same time. A key focus is on providing targeted applications advice – the undisputed core competence of the Wirtgen Group.
6
The training courses are geared directly to
customers, service technicians of the Wirtgen
America dealers and Wirtgen America‘s own
service crew. „An excellent facility, perfectly
equipped for training and application consultation,“ and „The best training course I‘ve ever attended. I‘ll definitely register my entire service
crew for training here,“ are just two examples of
the wealth of positive feedback received from
participants.
mann crushers and screens,“ explains
Schmidt. Correspondingly, product support is becoming complex, considering
that the number of Wirtgen Group machines on the market is constantly growing. „Our central warehouse now covers
5,100 m2. We process 250 spare parts
orders there every day, sometimes even
380 on peak days,“ says Schmidt in
summary. Today, the shipping of spare
parts would be inconceivable without
the assistance of computer-based systems. „In addition to implementing SAP,
we‘ve also implemented Parts and More
NET, which gives us an intelligent, online-based spare parts order system.
But it‘s not just our authorized dealers
who can now order parts 24 hours a day.
The real highlight of Parts and More NET
is that registered customers can also
place orders themselves. The requests
are processed by the local authorized
dealer, who decides whether to fill the
order from his own stock, or whether to
have the order dispatched from our central warehouse in Nashville. The system
is currently fully available for Wirtgen,
Vögele and Hamm spare parts. Kleemann products will be integrated shortly,“ explains Schmidt.
Key success factor: dealer network
The dealer network of Wirtgen America
covers the vast continent strategically:
34 dealers with around 200 subsidiaries sell products from Wirtgen, Vögele,
Hamm and Kleemann in 50 US states
and nine Canadian provinces. „Our
dealerships are able to supply customers with spare parts and provide firstclass customer service at such a high
level of quality because we continuously provide them with the latest technical information. We‘re greatly assisted
in this by the excellent product information systems of the Wirtgen Group,
WIDOS and WITRAIN, as well as our
Parts and More NET. Another major
factor is our learning center, where the
dealers‘ service managers fine-tune
their skills,“ says Schmidt.
www
Fully developed training programme: Wirtgen America is
offering 35 courses for 2010.
Applicants can register directly online: www.wirtgenamerica.com
THE WIRTGEN GROUP IN AUSTRALIA
WIRTGEN AUSTRALIA: NEW SUBSIDIARY INAUGURATED NEAR SYDNEY
MARKET LAUNCH OF VÖGELE VISION PAVERS
„Vision“ conquers the market
The market launch of the new Vision
pavers in the 8-foot and 10-foot classes provides a very good opportunity for
Vögele to convince Australian customers of the technical advantages of
these market-leading road pavers.
Vision pavers can install asphalt at
greater speeds. The Australian market
is very similar to that in the USA in this
respect.
It was a full house at Wirtgen Australia on 10 August. Some 150 customers from Australia and New Zealand
attended the official opening ceremony for the new building of the Wirtgen
Group sales and service company in
Penrith on the outskirts of Sydney.
The new subsidiary was completed in
just nine months, ready for the team
to move from its former address in
Blacktown just a few kilometres away.
The new subsidiary of Wirtgen Australia provides 40 percent more capacity and whole new possibilities for sales, after-sales support and professional customer training.
bay, spare parts warehouse and training
facilities. Thought was also given to future growth and an additional 4,000 m2
plot is available for this purpose.
Four strong brands
united under one umbrella
The Wirtgen Group has already been
present on the market for more than
Stefan Wirtgen, President of the Wirtgen
twenty years and thus has a highly exGroup, warmly congratulates Managing
Director John Geary and his team: more than
perienced sales and service team.
150 customers celebrated the event together
Wirtgen
Australia was founded in 1986.
with the mayor and local politicians.
In the early days, the subsidiary acted
as a service provider and even operatOf course, the opening ceremony would ed cold milling machines on job sites
not have been complete without an ex- itself. This continued until the technolohibition of the market-specific products. gies gained market acceptance and the
The focus was on the new CompactLine subsidiary was able to switch to direct
from Hamm, small and large milling
sales and providing customer service
machines from Wirtgen and the innova- for the machines. Today, Wirtgen Austive Vision pavers from Vögele, which tralia offers the entire range of road
are just now being launched onto the construction and rehabilitation prodAustralian market. The exhibition was ucts from Wirtgen, Vögele and Hamm,
rounded off by an MC 120 Z mobile as well as the mining technologies of the
crusher from Kleemann.
Wirtgen surface miner and Kleemann‘s
crushers and screens.
The new sales and service centre fully
caters to the growth experienced by Clear indicator
Wirtgen Australia in recent years. Inte- of long-term commitment
gration of the Kleemann brand in the For Stefan Wirtgen, it was important
product line-up, the increase in surface that the new subsidiary be seen as a
mining activities and new products such strong sign of confidence in difficult
as the Vision pavers meant that Wirtgen economic times – especially in a market
Australia required greater capacities in that is becoming increasingly important
all areas. The management therefore for the Wirtgen Group: „We have high
decided to purchase a 12,500-m2 plot hopes for the new subsidiary. Despite
of land on which the new facility now the current crisis, we intend to look to
stands, providing over 2,000 m2 of floor the future with optimism and confispace for sales, the workshop, washing dence. I consider this investment to be
a milestone, because it expresses our
resolve vis-à-vis customers, business
partners and friends of the company to
make a long-term commitment to this
market.“ John Geary, Managing Director of Wirtgen Australia, presented the
new possibilities for more intensive
customer support with more than just
a touch of pride: „The central location
of the subsidiary and the new facilities
offer a lot of value-added. The focus is
Learning how to operate the machines
is a particularly fast and comprehensible process as the Vision pavers come
with the ergonomic operating concept
ErgoPlus, which is extremely user-friendly and offers the operator the greatest
possible clarity. The current marketing
strategy includes a broadly arrayed advertising campaign in the Australian
and New Zealand trade journals, as
well as a direct marketing campaign.
At the same time, customers are being
sent Vögele‘s application engineering
magazine, „RoadNews“, which pro-
The sales and service team of Wirtgen Australia includes more than 60 personnel. The main location of Wirtgen Australia is located in Penrith near Sydney. An additional sales and service point is
located in Perth in Western Australia.
clearly on the larger spare parts warehouse, which has three times the space
of the old one. After all, it wasn‘t just to
accommodate the spare parts and
wearing parts for Kleemann products
that we wanted this expansion.
And now, of course, we‘re also in the
fortunate position of having four repair
stations in the workshop. And last but
not least, we now have special training
facilities that allow us to offer all manner of training courses.“
vides machine-related and application
engineering know-how on Vögele‘s
Vision pavers in a manner that is specifically geared towards practical applications.
www
Wirtgen Australia and Wirtgen New
Zealand have just launched their
new websites:
www.wirtgen-aust.com.au and
www.wirtgen.co.nz
KLEEMANN GAINS GROUND IN AUSTRALIA
The complete product range of Kleemann mobile crushers and screens is now sold directly by Wirtgen Australia: Andrew Gotley, National Development Manager, conducted
an intensive marketing campaign for the products this year, showcasing them at trade
fairs, congresses and seminars.
The inauguration attracted many customers and guests from Australia and abroad to Penrith/
Sydney.
This MR 122 Z is being used
by Multiquip in a quarry in
New South Wales where shale
is mined.
7
THE WIRTGEN GROUP IN INDIA
INCREASED PRESENCE IN GROWTH MARKET INDIA
LOCAL FINAL ASSEMBLY SECURES COMPETITIVENESS
The Wirtgen Group has already
been represented on the Indian market with its own sales and service
company Wirtgen India for two decades.
Now, the Wirtgen Group is taking the
next step to safeguard its competitive
ability in the long-term: a new headquarters is being built in the industrial
centre of Pune in north-west India,
comprising a large sales and service
centre with connected final assembly
plant for Hamm single-drum compactors, which are in particularly high demand in India.
Long-term local commitment
The Indian market currently harbours
remarkable potential: just like China,
India is one of Asia‘s emerging industrial countries experiencing incredible
economic growth. This dynamism also
has positive effects during times of crisis: the markets recover significantly
faster than those of Western industrial
nations. True to its corporate pledge
„Close to our customers,“ the Wirtgen
The 90,000-m2
site for Wirtgen India‘s
construction project: the
Wirtgen Group is already
represented in India with six
sales and service centres.
The new headquarters
in Pune is intended to
strengthen the Group‘s
strong commitment to the
local market.
Group has already demonstrated a
strong presence in India – a country
with 28 states – through local sales and
service points in Mumbai, Ahmedabad,
New Delhi, Hyderbad, Bangalore and
Calcutta.
„To also ensure that we‘re well positioned to cater to the special requirements of the Indian market in the medium to long term, we have decided in
favour of local production,“ says Stefan
Wirtgen, President of the Wirtgen
Group, explaining the strategic decision.
to ensure that sufficient personnel with
the proper qualifications are available
to operate Wirtgen Group machines in
the future.
Equipped for the future
By expanding its presence in India, the
Wirtgen Group is setting a milestone for
future activities in a market that still
holds tremendous potential thanks to
an ambitious infrastructure programme:
„We‘re convinced that Wirtgen Group
products have the potential to boost
the capabilities of our Indian customers
both in the road construction industry
and the mining industry. If we‘re then
also able to offer products that are proRepresentatives of Wirtgen India attended the foundation ceremony at the new site together with
duced locally and which are precisely
Stefan Wirtgen on 2 August 2009. The ceremony was performed by Indian priests in accordance
matched to the special requirements of
with traditional rites.
our customers in India, then we will
The final assembly of single-drum com- sive factor as the Wirtgen Group is un- have achieved our goal through this
pactors for earthworks is scheduled to compromising when it comes to select- new commitment,“ emphasises Stefan
commence at the new Pune site from ing its suppliers. The quality of the Wirtgen.
mid-2010. The Wirtgen Group has al- components purchased locally in India
ready successfully taken a similar step must fulfil the same stringent require- The local construction firms are certainin China, where Wirtgen China produc- ments placed on products for global ly not short of work: India‘s governes market-specific products for local sale. „The component suppliers based ment is giving a great deal of support
sale at an assembly plant.
around Pune are highly efficient. This to infrastructure expansion and renewnaturally ensures that the products al with projects worth billions, such as
produced locally for our Indian end- the „National Highway Development
customers are of high quality,“ states Programme“, which covers 200 proRamesh Palagiri, Managing Director of jects and over 13,000 km of highway,
Wirtgen India.
or the „Jawaharlal Nehru National
Urban Renewal Mission“, which is fiFocus on training qualified
nancing the infrastructure in the sixty
machine operators
largest cities of India.
At the foundation ceremony for the new
construction project, special thanks Slipform pavers from Wirtgen and
were extended to the management of Vögele road pavers have already been
Rhineland-Palatinate Economics involved in major projects like the
Pune – a location
Ministry, which backed the project in „Golden Quadrilateral“ for years. Now,
chosen with foresight
cooperation with the German-Indian the objective is to increase the market
The future headquarters of Wirtgen Chamber of Commerce. The 90,000-m2 shares of additional product lines of
India is located just 45 minutes from
site comprises the sales building, a the Wirtgen Group. The „Golden
Pune city centre. The central location in state-of-the-art workshop and a large Quadrilateral“ is a motorway system
India, combined with the close vicinity spare parts warehouse for the Indian that connects the Indian cities of New
to the sub-continent‘s most important market. An additional highlight is the Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai and Calcutta.
port and the financial centre of Mumbai training centre, where not only custom- Almost 6,000 km long, the motorway
(formerly Bombay), are clear locational ers of the Wirtgen Group can attend currently has four lanes. It is to be exadvantages. International industrial en- regular training activities, but where a
panded to a six-lane motorway by
terprises, such as Liebherr and Cum- trailblazing project for the Indian mar- 2014.
mins, are already located here, and ket is also in the offing: Wirtgen India
there are numerous component suppli- plans on training some 200 machine opers in the immediate vicinity – a deci- erators from scratch each year, in order
Frank Betzelt, Business Development Manager, and Stefan Wirtgen, President of the Wirtgen
Group, as well as Ramesh Palagiri, Managing Director of Wirtgen India, look forward to the next
step in one of the largest road construction markets in the world.
8
A Wirtgen SP 1200 in operation on a motorway job site in India: almost 6,000 km in length, the
„Golden Quadrilateral“ is one of the Indian government‘s high-prestige projects. The plan is to
expand this motorway system within the next five years.
WIRTGEN GROUP CUSTOMER SERVICE
WIDIAG – SYSTEMATIC CROSS-BRAND SERVICE DIAGNOSTICS:
IN FUTURE, ALL MACHINES WILL SPEAK A COMMON LANGUAGE
A mild summer’s day in the not too
distant future: the sun is shining in a
cloudless sky. A Wirtgen Group service technician is called to a large job
site. Activity on the site is hectic, with
various machines from Wirtgen,
Vögele and Hamm in use. While an
uneasy job site manager leads the
Wirtgen Group service technician to
the ailing machine, the technician remains clearly unruffled. But then
again, he already knows it won’t take
long to find the problem – thanks to
WIDIAG.
WIDIAG is the Wirtgen Group’s new
cross-brand service diagnostics system. In the future, WIDIAG will serve as
an interpreter between man and machine for the service technicians of the
Wirtgen Group’s headquarters, subsidiaries and dealerships, greatly facilitating the diagnosis of faults. This, in turn,
will mean minimized downtimes for the
customers thanks to more efficient
troubleshooting and fault elimination.
When is WIDIAG to be implemented?
“All new machine developments of the
Wirtgen Group are automatically being
equipped with WIDIAG. As of 2010,
WIDIAG will be available as standard in
the new generation of Wirtgen large
milling machines, Hamm’s HD+ series
rollers and the SUPER 1600-2 and
SUPER 1800-2 road pavers from
Vögele,” explains Dr. Günter Hähn,
Managing Director of Wirtgen GmbH.
A number of older machines will be
successively retrofitted according to a
specified rollout plan. “Those machines
that are not suitable for being retrofitted with WIDIAG for certain reasons
will eventually be phased out of the
market, just like every machine at some
point. And precisely that will be the moment when every service technician’s
dream comes true: a single diagnostics
tool for every machine in the Wirtgen
Group,” explains Markus Strunk, Area
Service Manager for Eastern Europe
and Russia at Wirtgen.
Why WIDIAG?
Nowadays, product innovations are
largely based on the further develop-
VIEWS ON WIDIAG,
THE INTELLIGENT
WIRTGEN GROUP
MULTIMETER
Klaus Meindl,
Control Technology,
Hamm AG
“Every four to six weeks,
the WIDIAG team meets to
swap notes in Biebelried
near Würzburg, the
geographical midpoint
between Wirtgen, Vögele
and Hamm.
Every single brand has benefited tremendously from the cooperation. After all, many heads
are better than one.”
Ingo Sundermann, WIDIAG Project Manager at Wirtgen GmbH, developed WIDIAG from the original idea to production maturity together with his colleagues from Vögele and Hamm.
ment and networking of the electronic WIDIAG in practice
components in the machines: this is “I simply connect my notebook to the
the only way to continuously push the machine and WIDIAG reads out all of
range of functions and performance of the machine’s measured values and paroad construction machines. “Our cus- rameters and displays these on the protomers value the broad range of appli- gramme interface. If there’s a problem
cations and the intelligent tools that as- with the traction drive, for instance, the
sist in the operation of Wirtgen Group fault can be diagnosed on the basis of
road construction machines. However, the chronological data of the measured
all of this can only be achieved techno- values recorded while the machine was
logically through the use of highly ad- being operated. WIDIAG can likewise
vanced, fully electronic control systems. read out the machine’s internal error meWe want to utilize all of the advantages mory dump,” says Sundermann, explaiof automation technology for our cus- ning how the diagnostics system works.
tomers, while simultaneously guaranteeing optimum service support. And WIDIAG – a benchmark
that’s where WIDIAG comes into play,” in road construction
explains Ingo Sundermann, WIDIAG Customers of the Wirtgen Group curProject Manager at Wirtgen GmbH.
rently receive on-site assistance from a
professional Wirtgen Group service or“Of course, we already used diagnos- ganization. This service organization
tics tools in the past, but we needed provides highly efficient customer serdifferent systems for each brand. No vice through the use of specialists and
less than 13 just for Wirtgen machines highly developed service tools. “We realone, plus two for Hamm and another ally are the benchmark for service in our
one for Vögele. WIDIAG provides us
segment and for complex special-purwith a panacea – a single tool for all pose road construction machines, like
brands and product groups, tailored milling machines, pavers and rollers for
precisely to the needs of Wirtgen earthworks and asphalt paving. The
Group service technicians,” says Ulrich competition doesn’t even come close to
Städele, Service Manager at the
having such high-quality and useful
German sales and service company service information systems like
Wirtgen Augsburg, in praise of the new WITRAIN and WIDOS, let alone diagdevelopment.
nostics tools like WIDIAG,” states Dr.
Martin Buschmann,
Head of Engineering
and Development at
Joseph Vögele AG
“The introduction of
WIDIAG is no problem
because all of Vögele’s
new Dash-2 generation
machine types are
equipped as standard with the ErgoPlus control system.
We simply have to load the new software.
No changes have to be made to the hardware components.”
Achim Eul, Head of
Control Technology
at Joseph Vögele AG
“We already had a diagnostics tool in the past
that we developed inhouse, but that was more
in the form of an error
memory dump.
WIDIAG is far more user-friendly, it can read
more parameters and can also generate logs,
recording and plotting data to allow graphic
visualization of the data.”
Günter Hähn. And to make sure this advantageous situation remains unchanged in the future, the development
departments of the Wirtgen Group
headquarters have already been hard at
work on even newer developments for
some time. “We’re using WIDIAG as a
basis for future telemetry applications.
WIDIAG is to become the central interface for tasks such as job data acquisition and fleet management,” explains Dr.
Cyrus Barimani, Head of Engineering
and Development at Wirtgen GmbH.
THE TECHNOLOGY WORKSHOP 10 YEARS ON:
A CRADLE OF INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGIES FOR 10 YEARS
WIDIAG is a classic example of the successful and constructive cooperation between
departments and brands within the Wirtgen Group. The requirement to develop a standardized diagnostics software solution for all brands of the Wirtgen Group originated in
the service departments and was brought to life in the Technology Workshop. The development departments of Wirtgen, Vögele and Hamm joined forces to develop a solution, and the result is WIDIAG.
With WIDIAG, the Wirtgen Group is raising the benchmark for professional customer service in the
road construction industry. The above photo shows German sales and service company Wirtgen
Augsburg testing WIDIAG in a pilot project.
WIDIAG is just one example of many developments that originated in the Technology
Workshop. The tried and tested control tools
ErgoPlus, Level Pro, HCQ, WIDRIVE and
Hammtronic, as well as the Wirtgen Group‘s
Product Documentation System WIDOS, are
all based on ideas from the Technology
Workshop.
9
TECHNOLOGY IN OPERATION
CHALLENGING, SPECTACULAR, INNOVATIVE: RACE TRACK IN ABU DHABI
HAMM AND VÖGELE MACHINES BUILD FORMULA 1 CIRCUIT
Tight bends, high-speed straights,
50,000 covered spectator seats and
sensational routing through the middle
of a luxury hotel and along the brand
new marina. These are just some of
the highlights of the fascinating „Yas
Marina Circuit“ in Abu Dhabi.
The circuit celebrated its Formula 1
debut on 1 November to the enthusiasm of motorsport fans around the
world. The builder-owners insisted on
quality in all work sections – especially
when it came to asphalt paving and
compaction. So it was clearly a case
for Vögele pavers and Hamm rollers.
The highly spectacular new circuit is
part of the 40 billion dollar „Yas Island“
project. A huge leisure paradise covering 2,500 hectares has been created
on „Yas Island“ at the north of Abu
Dhabi. The heart of the project is the
Formula 1 circuit, designed by German
race track architect Hermann Tilke. The
5.55 km circuit promises exciting races
as it demands a great deal of driving
skill and the utmost concentration, with
such challenges as the outwards sloping bends.
Majed
Al-Qrdrah,
Manager at
Genavco:
„We have 21
staff in Abu
Dhabi. This
team now takes
care of almost
300 Wirtgen
Group machines belonging to local
construction firms. We provide complete service for all of them. We were
delighted to be able to support the customers from Germany in the construction of the circuit.“
German construction firm Bickhardt Bau
AG was awarded the contract to pave
the gravel and asphalt courses on the
circuit and entire peripheral area.
Between autumn 2008 and August 2009,
they installed 210,000 tonnes of asphalt
over a total surface area of 750,000 m²,
using five Super 1900-2 pavers from
Vögele and seven HD Series asphalt
rollers, one CompactLine HD 12 and a
Rolf Weibel (right),
Vögele Area Sales
Manager for the Middle
East, visited the crew of
Bickhardt Bau on the job
site in spring. At that time,
the machines from the
Wirtgen Group were
installing the base and
binder courses on the
gigantic parking areas
and connecting roads.
10
In August 2009, daytime temperatures of almost 50°C were the norm. For this reason, the wearing course was paved at nighttime when the temperature
dropped to a comparatively „cool“ 30°C. The extremely bright floodlights provided for unique visibility conditions on the job site.
rubber-tyred roller from Hamm. No
question: the machines from the Wirtgen
Group did their jobs splendidly.
Wirtgen Group
technologies in demand
The combination of Vögele high-compaction screeds and Hamm tandem oscillating rollers produced perfect compaction results when installing the base
and binder courses. Particularly stringent requirements were placed on the
precision of the circuit: the finished
wearing course had to display a surface
accuracy of 2 mm measured over a longitudinal distance of 4 m. „Thanks to the
grade and slope control technology
from the Wirtgen Group, such as the
Big-Multiplex-Ski and Niveltronic system, we were well able to achieve this
challenging goal,“ explains Horst Hennighausen, Paving Manager, who had
already supervised the asphalt paving of
the circuits in Bahrain and Shanghai.
Top service in the Persian Gulf
The machines used in such a gargantuan project naturally clock up the hours.
Regular, professional maintenance is
thus essential to the overall success of
the project. The Wirtgen Group assists
Around Yas Island, Arab firms built numerous access roads leading to the vast grounds during the
course of 2009. Hamm rollers and Vögele pavers were always on the scene!
its clients in this task by means of a
dense network of Wirtgen subsidiaries
and authorized dealerships around the
world. In Abu Dhabi, the service technicians of Genavco took care of the rollers
and pavers of Bickhardt Bau. „We‘re extremely satisfied with the service of the
Wirtgen Group in the United Arab Emirates,“ says Project Manager F. Dittrich
in summing up his experiences, going
on to add that „The team from Genavco
reliably supported us the whole time
with expertise and original spare parts.“
www
Genavco represents
the Wirtgen Group in the
United Arab Emirates.
Established in 1967, the
company has branches in
Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah and
Al Ain. Genavco‘s Internet
address is:
www.genavco.com
www
Be it Sachsenring, Hockenheim,
Bahrain or Shanghai, Bickhardt
Bau AG is a recognized specialist
at home and abroad when it comes
to building race tracks. For more
information on its projects, please
visit: www.bickhardt-bau.de
Local customer support: Thomas Schaumberger, Area Sales Manager from Hamm, also maintained extremely close contacts with his customers in Abu Dhabi.
TECHNOLOGY IN OPERATION
16 WIRTGEN SURFACE MINERS TOP PERFORMERS IN AUSTRALIAN MINE
NEW 4200 SM: PRODUCTIVITY IS ITS TRADEMARK
Cloudbreak is a gigantic mining
operation run by the Fortescue
Metals Group in the Pilbara region in
the north of Western Australia. The
iron ore mining site covers 40,000 km2
and is approx. 2.5 hours by air from
Perth. The entire project is an amazing
feat of logistics: some 8,000 people
work here, shuttling to-and-from the
mine during shift change on a charter
flight with Skywest Airline – just like
other people commute to work every
morning on the bus.
A residential and administration camp
comprising a huge collection of prefab huts about half an hour‘s drive
away provides the workers with all of
their daily necessities. In addition to
Cloudbreak, FMG is currently developing an additional mining facility
some 40 km away at Christmas Creek.
The powerful 4200 SM in action: together with two 2500 SMs, the largest miner was initially used
in the Brampton pit, where iron ore is mined on three levels.
conventional mining methods using
drills and explosives. Wirtgen miners
have been put to the test for 20 years
now in soft rock, such as coal, and in
hard rock like limestone or granite –
rock that is ten times harder than the
the loading capacity of the dumpers is
high enough for them to cope with the
surface miners‘ high production volume.
Equipped with a special cutting drum
assembly for hard rock, the 4200 SM
A total of 15 type 2500 SM miners are currently in use: the iron ore is transported the 260 km from
Cloudbreak to Port Hedland via a dedicated train. At the port, it is loaded onto ships and primarily
exported to China.
A huge screening plant at Cloudbreak
processes the iron ore into three products
with different grain sizes.
Recipe for success:
average iron ore found at Cloudbreak.
selective mining
FMG directly exploited the advantages
Taking stock of the mining operation of the surface mining technology at
since its commencement in May 2008, Cloudbreak to mine crushed iron ore
it is soon evident that the use of Wirtgen more cost-effectively.
surface miners as the primary mining
equipment in this project has truly paid The recently arrived 4200 SM has also
off. The structure of the material, the provided impressive evidence of its
hardness of the rock and the entire ter- worth as a production machine. The
rain provide ideal conditions for cost- benchmark for the high-performance gieffective exploitation of the opencast ants from the Wirtgen product line is an
deposits using the selective mining impressive daily output of 12,000 tontechnology of Wirtgen. Comparisons of nes, all in a single shift. The major chalvarious mining methods for the flat lenges posed by the project are the varstructure of the opencast iron ore de- ying degrees of hardness of the rock in
posits commissioned by FMG clearly the pits and the need to operate a seamfavoured surface mining, instead of less logistics chain and to ensure that
arrived at Cloudbreak in early August
after a 26 hour overland journey.
Wirtgen service technicians Rainer
Salas and David Möhlmann were already prepared and waiting in the early
morning. Thanks to their know-how, it
took just four weeks for the colossal
machine to be assembled and tested
and the FMG crew to become familiar
with operating it. The 4200 SM was put
into regular operation in September, allowing everyone to adjust to the new
machine, from the operators and logistics crews, all the way to the service
crew for the miner, which is responsible for the continuous maintenance of
the specialist mining machine.
CUSTOMER SERVICE CENTRE IN PERTH
As the surface miners are in operation 24 hours a day,
the need for spare parts and maintenance is extremely
high. The challenge faced by John Geary, Managing
Director of Wirtgen Australia, and his team was to be
able to offer key account FMG an efficient service concept with comprehensive support at the highest level for
16 miners. And FMG accepted: the cutting drums and
the conveyor systems of the miners are transported to
Perth for overhauls and repairs. As General Manager,
Steve Coppack (photo) expanded the Perth service
centre for the mining activities. At the mine itself, the
machines are maintained by a team of around 18 personnel, including service technicians of Wirtgen GmbH
and Wirtgen Australia, as well as FMG personnel.
Wirtgen Australia can always rely on expert advice from
Area Service Manager Norbert Ückerath and Christoph Dasbach from Wirtgen GmbH,
who also coordinate the dispatch of service technicians from the headquarters to
Cloudbreak.
4200 SM: pure performance
With the 4200 SM, FMG made a real
quantum leap in performance and productivity. While the 777 series dumpers
from Caterpillar with a loading capacity
of 100 tonnes are still adequate for the
2500 SM miners, FMG has had to acquire Type 789 mining trucks for the
new Wirtgen giant, with almost twice
the loading capacity at 195 tonnes. The
4200 SM can load one of these trucks
in just four to six minutes, depending
on the hardness of the material being
mined. The new machine also quickly
became a favourite among the operating crews, who were only too keen to
get to grips with the 4200 SM. The cab
of the new miner provides the operator
with an improved overview of all relevant working areas and all-in-all a more
comfortable work station thanks to
lower noise levels and protection from
dust and vibrations in an ergonomically
designed operator‘s cabin.
Smart material distribution
The „Automatic Positioning System“
installed by FMG is a highly intelligent
instrument for controlling the distribution of the cut material rapidly and selectively. To this end, geologists calculated and developed a model of the
opencast deposits. This was then converted into a digitized map that is transmitted to the surface miners wirelessly.
This allows the operator of every surface miner to see the position of his
machine and the quality of the material
that has just been mined on a display
in the operator‘s platform. The machine
operator then radios the information on
the cut material to the dumper driver,
together with the location where the
material is to be unloaded. The different grades of iron ore are finally selected from the various storage sites and
mixed according to the desired composition. In this way, the principle of
selective iron ore mining with the
Wirtgen miners is also implemented 1:1
in the subsequent material distribution
phase, in order to comply with the high
demands of FMG on quality.
Another aspect of the principle is the
potential savings in time and costs, as
the mined material ends up at the right
unloading or processing point without
any further interim steps. Depending
on the moisture content, the material is
stored in stockpiles to dry, or fed directly into the further processing chain
on site. Material that cannot be utilized
is either stockpiled as overburden or
used as material for routing operations
inside the mine.
Wirtgen on-site
customer service:
David Möhlmann (left)
has been at Cloudbreak
six months, ensuring
optimum support for
the powerful fleet of
16 surface miners.
11
SOCIALLY COMMITTED
CHARITY GROUP „CHILDREN IN NEED“ SUPPORTS RELIEF WORK IN THE PHILIPPINES
HOPE FOR FAMILIES IN MAHAYAHAY
successful in the end.“ In late 2008, we
decided to follow this path together
with Father Kulüke.
quired land is not available in Mahayahay. The neighbour is not prepared to
let his land for rent.
What has been
achieved to date?
For this reason, the young children
aged between one and five years are
looked after daily by two trained nursery school teachers and three assistants from the community, sheltered
only by sunshades. Lessons are also
being provided for all the children who
should have started school long ago,
but have never been able to do so.
In a preliminary project orientation
phase, every single family was visited
and their data compiled, such as
number of children, ages, schooling, financial situation of the family, illness in
the family. All families were then invited
to attend public discussions. Several
meetings were held to inform them of
the project’s development.
The little girl from Mahayahay very nearly died at birth: today, she is a lively child thanks to the
support of the Charity Group “Children in need”.
“My first visit to the families in the
poverty-stricken Mahayahay area
about eight years ago was prompted
by circumstances reported by a nun
at the Cebu Hope Center which I was
visiting at the time:
She related that, very early that morning, a young woman from Mahayahay
had come to the Cebu Hope Center
with the baby daughter she had given
birth to all alone during the night. She
had no milk for the baby who refused
to stop crying, even after she gave it
boiled rice water.
The young mother had walked many
kilometres to ask the nuns at the Cebu
Hope Center for milk and nappies for
her child. Because we all feared that
the baby might not survive, I urged the
Franciscan nuns to accompany me to
Gisela Wirtgen visited the Mahayahay slum
together with a Franciscan nun.
the Mahayahay district so that we
might take care of the child.
little girl looked ill. We gave her mother
enough money to see a doctor and buy
baby food.
One year later
When I returned to Mahayahay a year
later, I immediately asked about the
baby. Unbelievably, she had survived
and developed more or less well.
The surroundings, however, were still
appalling. The stench was still foul and
whenever it rained heavily, rats and
other pests sought refuge in the shanty
huts. Very few families had a regular income, all the other fathers being unemployed and only occasionally earning a
few pesos in the port.
A large number of families had come to
Cebu City from the countryside many
years earlier with high hopes of finding
work in the city. As unskilled workers,
however, they had little chance and
gradually slipped into total hopelessness.
Where should
we begin to help?
It seemed to me that these people had
fallen so low that normal relief work
would not be much use. Together with
the nuns, we financed sewing courses
for the mothers, paid doctors‘ bills for
the children of the slum, provided rice
for starving families and organized a
festive celebration with gifts and good
food at Christmas.
The basic conditions were defined and
individual mothers, fathers and also
youngsters were selected from the
community to represent it in future.
These selected representatives then attended various training and leadership
seminars.
The most pressing task was for doctors
to examine all members of the Mahayahay families. Two doctors examined them at the beginning of the year.
Many of the children were found to be
suffering from malnutrition, tuberculosis, intestinal problems, infections and
a large percentage of the young patients had to be referred to specialists.
Countermeasures were initiated immediately. The doctors provided medication and it was decided to provide additional daily meals for 156 children in
Mahayahay.
The free services to be provided by
each family were laid out in a community plan. Three mothers are responsible for cooking the additional daily
meal, while other mothers clear up afterwards and take over the cleaning.
The food is also bought by the mothers
under the supervision of one of Father
Kulüke‘s social workers.
It has not yet been possible to open the
kindergarten as planned, as the re-
The German priest Heinz Kulüke is striving
to bring change every single day. For the
families in Mahayahay, his dedication brings
hope and optimism.
It is a start, but a great deal
still remains to be done.
Training the mothers and fathers and
then finding jobs for them will not be
easy. Yet we, the members of the charity group „Children in Need“, are optimistic. With Father Kulüke‘s help, we
will succeed in giving the families of
Mahayahay a future again”.
www
For further information on the
charity group „Children in Need“,
visit us on the Internet:
www.kinder-in-not.de
Background
The conditions which I found in Mahayahay on my arrival were appalling.
There were about seventy dilapidated
huts scattered about a neglected site.
A foul-smelling brown stream ran between some of the huts. In a flash we
were surrounded by innumerable children, many barefoot or wearing oversized slippers. Several of them were
covered in rashes.
In actual fact, however, we were unable to achieve any enduring improvement. And the number of despairing
families looking for a new home in
Mahayahay was growing constantly.
I couldn‘t stop thinking about the situation. In 2008, Father Heinz Kulüke, a
German priest who had lived in the
Philippines for over 20 years, promised
to help us.
Suddenly the nun saw the young mother with her newborn baby standing out- „It will take many years,“ he said, „but
side her hut, the baby in her arms. The so far, the process has always proved
12
Eleven million children worldwide die every year before reaching the age of five,
due to infection, poor hygiene, lack of drinking water, lack of medical treatment and malnutrition.
The project in Mahayahay brings hope to the families in the slum.