In the production contest organized by Fraunhofer Austria and the Industriemagazin,ENGEL's large-tonnage machine plant in St.Valentin won the title of "Factory of the Year 2023"and was thus named the best production company in Austria.

The plant was awarded both the overall prize and the“Efficient Factory”category. Key success factors are the consis-tent sustainability strategy and the pioneering role in the field of digitalization.

Coordinated manufacturing process

"The right layouts and the right transport routes are of particular importance for our part weights of up to 150 tons.The implementation of this must be clean and coordinated," explains plant manager Martin Weger.

One project that takes this approach into account was the expansion and redesign of the flow assembly.

The assembly principle, in which the closing and clamping unites of the machine are initially manufactured and assem-bled separately from each other, is outstanding in the field of special machine construction.

With the optimizations, the plant's performance limit has been increased by 15% and throughput times have been re-duced by 65%.

Automation increases efficiency

Intelligent C-parts management - the automated reordering of consumables, such as screws, is another highlight. The use of automated guided vehicles for tool dispensing and the highly automated milling centers also contribute to the plant's efficiency.

Weger stated that with these measures, the plant can take on more demanding and complex tasks.