 Linde's new development centre in Aschaffenburg |
Linde Material Handling's single largest investment for efficient product development in five years was officially launched in Aschaffenburg last Friday.
The EUR10million (USD13.4 million) new development centre, at the 294,000 square metre site of Linde's forklift-producing Aschaffenburg-Nilkheim plant, unites all departments involved in the iPEP program under one roof.
Linde Material Handling CEO Stefan Rinck called the building "a future source of success" for the company.
 Harald Wozniak |
Head of international marketing Harald Wozniak said the centre was "physical proof" of Linde's sustainability.
The development centre consists of three new buildings and the integration of an existing one. The buildings offer 10,000 square metres of space for offices, test stands, workshops, assembly shops and a prototype workshop (
Forkliftaction.com News #287).
The iPEP program, the blueprint for Linde's new product developments, was launched in 2005 to reduce Linde products' "time to market" Wozniak said. IPEP, a German acronym for innovative product development processes, is also aimed at reducing costs at the start of production and "bringing forward development capacities".
Rinck said with iPEP, an idea's market success and feasibility would be assessed early in the development and its implementation determined. More research and tests would be conducted during the initial stages of product development.
"Conceptional modifications are relatively cheap during this period," he said.
The new process structures had been successful during development of the E12 to E20 electric forklifts and the H14 to H20 diesel and LPG forklifts, the first forklifts developed under iPEP, a Linde statement said.
Linde has been manufacturing forklifts at its Aschaffenburg-Nilkheim plant since 1958. In a media statement, Linde announced it had produced its 500,000th forklift at the plant. The H35 T LPG 3.5 ton forklift was presented to Coca-Cola Erfrischungsgetranke AG.
More than 30,000 1.2-4.5 ton internal combustion and electric counterbalanced forklifts leave the 113,000 square metre Aschaffenburg plant each year. That was about two fifths of all Linde forklifts produced in 2006.
Wozniak said Linde Material Handling (UK) Ltd, in Basingstoke, the UK, and Linde Heavy Truck Division Ltd, in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, produced more than 12,000 units in 2006. Fenwick-Linde, in Châtellerault, France's output was 30,000 units; Linde Xiamen, in Xiamen, China's output was more than 3,700 units; and Linde Lift Truck, in Summerville, South Carolina, US, about 500 units.
Linde anticipated its millionth vehicle would be completed in less than 10 years.
"About 50 years ago our production in Aschaffenburg started with a very small amount of trucks each year. Now we are producing more than 30,000 trucks a year and that number will keep increasing in the future," Wozniak said.