Page 43 - Best of 2016 English

Decisiveness comes from a calm composure: The nal inspection calls for composure, experience and diligence. No refrigera- tor leaves the factory without a nal look over
In the early 1950s, when ruins all over Ger- many were being turned back into houses, the company founder Hans Liebherr got a tip from his bank’s branch manager: A factory
for refrigerators was said to be for sale, and it was sure to be a good deal. It turned out to be not such a good deal, but it was a good idea. Hans Liebherr decided to set up his own refrigerator production. In 1955, as Liebherr rotating tower cranes and crawler cranes were helping rebuild Germany,
the rst refrigerator le the Liebherr factory in Ochsenhausen. ere, deep in southern Germany, 4,500 units are now loaded onto 45 trucks each day. Just as many vehicles come to the factory with supplied parts and materials, including many from Salzgitter. “Last year we delivered some 2,000 t of uncoated cold-rolled sheet,” reports Dr. Ralf Koch, sales director for construction, household appli- ances and end customers at Salzgitter AG. And how long has this been going on? Dr. Koch and omas Fieseler, responsible for steel purchasing at Liebherr Ochsenhausen, look at each other: it seems like forever. But at any rate, as long as the two have been there, so at least since 1999.
e name Liebherr has stood for premium class refrigerators and freezers for much longer. Today they are produced in four locations: household ap- pliances in Ochsenhausen and Radinovo, Bulgaria. Equipment for industry, trade, and laboratories, as well as humidors, in Lienz, Austria. Refrigerating and freezing equipment for commercial applica- tions in Kluang, Malaysia. “We deliver color-coat- ed sheets to Radinovo,” Dr. Koch points out. In
At Liebherr, the future is called “BluPerformance”
addition to white and silver, the goods produced there are green, red or yellow - refrigerators for
the colorful kitchen. But the future at Liebherr is “blue”: e latest appliance line is called “BluPer- formance”. e typical heater exchangers on the back wall have disappeared from these refrigera- tors; Liebherr has integrated the entire refrigera- tion technology into the appliance base. Christoph Roth, head of training at Liebherr, points outs the e ort and lead-time in the production area for a new appliance line. “We invested a double-digit million sum in manufacturing for BluPerformance. e planning took two years, while the construc- tion of the line was accomplished in the course of one year.”
Christoph Roth knows every process step and every employee in the factory - many of whom had started with him as apprentices. Kevek Fiesel, an industrial mechanic who is the third generation
of his family to work at Liebherr, where the third generation of the founding family is running the company, is supervising the “door and side wall line” today. is shows what kind of steel it takes to make refrigerators: so and easily formable. e blank sheet is stamped and chamfered before robot
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Photo: Gunnar Garms