Foundation stone laid for Deutz’s new €26 million shaft centre

The foundation stone for 617 Deutz’s new shaft centre has been laid by Dr Helmut Leube, chairman of the Board of Management of Deutz, together with Jürgen Roters, Mayor of Cologne. This ceremonial act to mark the official start of construction of the German off-highway equipment diesel engine manufacturer’s new facility was watched by Dr Margarete Haase and Michael Wellenzohn from Deutz's board of management, Werner Scherer, chairman of the Deutz general works council, and the employees from the shaft production early shift.

The building will have a total area of 13,500m² square and will be situated next to all other units at Deutz's head-office site in Ottostrasse, Cologne-Porz. It will provide 140 permanent positions for the manufacturing of crankshafts and camshafts for DEUTZ engines. By bringing together its shaft centre activities at the Porz site from 2016, Deutz will gain significant logistical advantages thanks to the proximity to the assembly line. As part of this, the shaft centre was particularly designed in accordance with lean principles aimed at optimising the value chain.

The volume of capital being invested in the new DEUTZ shaft centre will amount to €26 million. Approximately €15 million of this sum will be spent on the building, including fitting it out with state-of-the-art energy technology, and around €11 million will go on new machinery and equipment. The existing shaft production site in Cologne-Deutz will be vacated in stages, with approximately 130 items of machinery and equipment being moved to Porz between the first quarter and the end of 2016.

"Our decision to build the new shaft centre represents an investment in our future because we are safeguarding our ability to innovate and compete. The shaft centre will turn Cologne-Porz into an integrated site for large-scale production series," emphasised Dr Helmut Leube, chairman of the board of management at Deutz.

Goldbeck is the company in charge of the construction project, which is expected to take nine months.