AUSTRIA – The Homag Group has expanded the production capacity of the Schopfloch, Germany site by commissioning a hall in neighboring Horb.

The hall with a usable area of more than 5,000 square meters was rebuilt in just under three months to meet the needs of Homag. The company uses the hall for final assembly and commissioning of large plants. For this, pre-assembled machine components are delivered from Schopfloch.

In order to minimize the throughput time, the machines and systems are already put into virtual operation on the computer in a parallel pre-process. At the so-called “digital twin” the function as well as the interfaces between the machine components are tested before the construction of the real machine. Around 30 employees work on a project-related and temporary basis in the hall.

“In particular, the assembly of our large systems requires a lot of space,” explains Dr. Michael Merz, Plant and Site Manager in Schopfloch. “To relieve our plant in Schopfloch, we have found the perfect solution with the hall in Horb. The machines and systems can be retracted here and accepted by the customers.”

The technical infrastructure of the hall, which was initially leased for three years by Immo Horb GmbH, is comparable to the plant in Schopfloch. There will be a total of eight cranes in the hall and a 100 megabit broadband connection will be available from July.