Contract announcement, April 2015. Deutz AG, one of the world’s leading independent manufacturers of diesel engines, has commissioned H+H Herrmann + Hieber to modernise the logistics in part of its highly modern engine production plant.
In shed No. 40 of the Cologne plant of Deutz AG, diesel engines with a broad range of powers and in a total of several thousand variants are built on two assembly lines. The entire working sequence, from the just-in-time delivery of the pre-material up to dispatch, is very largely automated. H+H Herrmann + Hieber, which has collaborated closely with Deutz since the beginning of the 1990s, is responsible for automating the logistics.
Since the highly modern production shops began operating in 1993 Deutz has continually optimised and modernised its working procedures. Now that the time has come for a further modernisation step, the long-established collaboration with H+H is to be continued.
The work required concerns the engine checking and inspection area. The engines assembled on the two lines are fully checked and, during this, they also undergo and must pass a test run. In the intermediate stores before and after the checking stage and in the assembly zone as well (the throughput is currently 50 fully tested engines per hour) the transport automation system is to be modernised. Among other things, the storage and retrieval machines and the conveyor technology are to be equipped with new controls.
The work on site, including final commissioning, has to be completed within a three-week operating shut-down period. To be able to ensure this during so short a time, the individual controls are already being tested and simulated in advance.