Be Top - 01/2014

KnoW-hoW Industry 4.0, no ifs, ands or butseXperIenCe Experience small masterpieces in steelengageMent The tech enthusiasts of tomorrow

Issue 01 | 2014

MagazIne of the frIedhelM loh group

Hidden champions with stature

eXeMplary SMeS

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Editorial

01 | 2014 | Magazine of the Friedhelm Loh Group | be top 03

Dear Readers,

There is a very special aura around small and medium-sized busi-nesses in Germany – also known as the Mittelstand. It is considered the growth engine of the German economy. But what actually makes the Mittelstand so successful? The term alone doesn’t allow us to draw many conclusions. From my perspective, it primarily involves a bold determination yielding a particular corporate culture that in-cludes a down-to-earth attitude, innovative power and social re-sponsibility. It often appears in the form of dedicated people with a pioneering spirit who, through hard work and perseverance, have achieved something special. Among these pioneers is my father Rudolf Loh, who would have turned one hundred last December – he was a visionary and left his imprint on two world-renowned compa-nies. You can find additional outstanding examples of these types of companies in this new issue of be top. Read our exclusive inter-view with Hermann Simon, the author of the bestseller Hidden Champions – there is nobody else who is as familiar with these clandestine world market leaders of the Mittelstand as he is.

It requires just as much bold determination to transport this “sea-soned” Mittelstand economic advantage into the future. We are on the verge of a technological change in industry, with the keyword being Industry 4.0 – the convergence of software and hardware. IT communication and the technology behind it will significantly af-fect us in the future, in the national economy and as the Mittelstand. Within the Friedhelm Loh Group, we have reacted to this change and significantly expanded our software expertise with Eplan and Cideon in the direction of mechatronics. Software connectivity and mastery of interfaces will determine everything in the future. At the 2014 Hannover Messe, professional experts could experience live at Rittal how Industry 4.0 has already become a reality in control and switchgear engineering. This achievement makes us the sole provider in our industry that can offer this kind of service.

Last but not least: the heart of the Mittelstand has always been beat-ing for the people. Mittelstand companies and entrepreneurs bear responsibility: responsibility for the company and for the people who work there and live in the region. Twenty-five years ago, we an-chored this responsibility in our company principles. Moving exam-ples of how we live this responsibility in the group of companies can also be found in this issue of the magazine. With this in mind, let the new issue of be top inspire you – and I hope you enjoy reading it!

Sincerely yours,

Friedhelm Loh

frIedhelM lohOwner and CEO of the Friedhelm Loh Group

doWn-to-earth, InnovatIve and dedICated

be top | Magazine of the Friedhelm Loh Group | 01 | 20144

rubrIK NAME

24an IntervIeW WIth herMann SIMon

38Control and SWItChgear engIneerIng

52It SeCurIty

80engageMent

60SpeCIalISed Steel


14 the gerMan MIttelStand aS groWth engIne

Germany has an unbeatable advantage when competing internationally: its small and medium-sized businesses, known as the Mittelstand. No other country has as many global market leaders.

CovER SToRIES

28 an Inventor WIth heartTinkerer, doer, inventor – Rudolf Loh, the founder of two world-renowned companies, would have turned 100 years old on 8 December 2013.

24 InConSpICuouSly SuCCeSSfulEconomic expert Hermann Simon speaks about the strengths and success strategies of the German Mittelstand.

ExPERIENCE

52 data proteCtIon In blueThe TÜv NoRD GRoUP counts on Rittal for security and energy efficiency in its server rooms.

STANDARDS

THE F.L.G. CoSMoS

80 We love teChnologyRittal supports the Germany-wide youth initiative Tec2You and facilitates contacts between students about to graduate and high-tech industries.

34 CuStoM-Made engIneerIngTogether with Autodesk, Cideon develops individual software solutions for the fields of mechanics and mechatronics.

74 prInCIpleS at WorKTwenty-five years ago, Friedhelm Loh codified the company principles that form the basis for Rittal’s success and that are lived in the Friedhelm Loh Group.

KNoW-HoW

44 InduStry 4.0 Made realEplan, Cideon, Rittal and Kiesling are ideally positioned for the challenges of the fourth industrial revolution.

38 the paCeMaKerSRipploh Elektrotechnik GmbH relies on the know-how of Eplan and Rittal for control and switchgear engineering.

66 the travelS of a data Centreone of the first customers: The RiMatrix S got off to a success-ful start at the company Modler.

03 EDIToRIAL06 SNAPSHoTS12 WoRLDWIDE32 MAGAZINE: FLYING HIGH,

RITTAL PITCHES IN50 MAGAZINE: STAHLo CERTIFIED72 MAGAZINE: TEAM PLAY WINS78 MAGAZINE: GIvING HoPE86 F.L.G. CoMPACT & PUBLICATIoN DETAILS 88 ToP PERFoRMANCES – BE ToP!

ENGAGEMENT

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Simply scan the QR code to discover even more informa-tion, interviews and features in the app.

KNOW-HOW Industry 4.0, no ifs, ands or butsEXPERIENCE Experience small masterpieces in steelENGAGEMENT The tech enthusiasts of tomorrow

Issue 01 | 2014

MAGAZINE OF THE FRIEDHELM LOH GROUP


EXEMPLARY SMES

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ContentS

56 hot, Cold, hotEnclosure climate control from Rittal keeps cooling, even under extreme conditions like those found in India. A climate control specialist reports.

60 SealIng the deal Perfect collaboration: Stahlo and the Huber Packaging Group produce clever packaging.

70 the Wheat froM the Chaff Working with Sartorius AG, a specialist in weighing technology, LKH has come up with a clever solution for an injection moulding project.

Do you have questions,

suggestions, praise or criticism about the current issue? Simply mail the editorial team at: [email protected]

your opInIon MatterS

SnapShotS

135 mis the height of the london eye – also known as the Millen-nium Wheel – making it Europe’s tallest Ferris wheel and the third largest in the world. It stands in the middle of London on the southern bank of the river Thames, near Westminster Bridge, and has meanwhile become one of the british capital’s landmarks. It was originally planned to operate for just five years, but its popularity put a stop to those plans. Which is fortunate, be-cause tourists otherwise wouldn’t be able to enjoy the magnificent views from the 32 gondolas made almost entirely of glass. And thanks to enclosure technology from rittal, they will continue to flawlessly make their rounds above the Thames.

www.londoneye.com


be top | Das Magazin der Friedhelm Loh Group | 01 | 20148

SnapShotS

augenblICK


50 ° Cand higher used to be normal temperatures until recently in the switchgear system at the bosch rexroth ag sand processing plant. At its site in Lohr am Main, Germany, the industrial company for drivetrain and control technol-ogy operates its own iron foundry. The control technology in the plant is subjected to extreme ambient conditions. Impairments to plant systems and power losses necessitated investments in new climate control solutions. Today, fluid-based cooling technology guarantees process security and cost minimisation. tS 8 enclosures, air/water heat exchangers and toptherm chiller systems from Rittal are now being used.

www.boschrexroth.co.uk

SnapShotS


passengers can sail with the norwegian getaway luxury liner. They can indulge themselves and enjoy entertainment across eighteen decks. The 815 theatre seats, 15 restaurants and 8 bars leave absolutely nothing to be desired. With a length of 325 metres and a breadth of 40 metres, the ship was built by Meyer Werft GmbH in Papenburg, Germany, in just 15 months, and was handed over to its owner, Norwegian Cruise Line, in early January. rittal is also on board with the complete It infrastructure for both data centres and with the new Se 8 system enclosures for the lighting technology.

www.meyerwerft.de

4.000

neW projeCtS around the globeglobal player. The Friedhelm Loh Group has a world-wide presence. With more than 65 subsidiaries and with locations on every continent, German ideas are moving out into the world. A selection.

around the World


Germany

rIMatrIX S WInS over That the RiMatrix S data centre (see page

66) arrives six weeks after ordering and

furthermore dazzles with a power-usage

effectiveness of up to 1.15 won over the

medium-sized companies Weiling, based

in Coesfeld, and Remmers, in Löningen.

They are responding to growing demands

on their IT infrastructure with the RiMatrix

S. The two server rooms at Weiling, an

organic foods wholesaler, were no longer

sufficient – and its data centre could barely

keep pace with the company’s rate of

expansion. Remmers, a building materials

supplier, installed a RiMatrix S to

supplement its data centre in order to

achieve ideal load balancing. “We are thus

able to secure our business processes

and can always keep our logistics

promises,” says Heiner Stalling, IT and

Processes Division Manager.

Germany

on rollerSWith innovative ideas, well-engineered

products and top, dependable quality,

Tente – Europe’s largest castors and

wheel manufacturer – has become a

world leader on the global market.

Looking back on many years of coopera-

tion with Rittal, Tente will soon take

delivery of its first 500 tonnes of steel from

Stahlo. Because castors are frequently

subjected to high loads in everyday use,

Tente has special demands for the

surfaces and tolerances of slit strips.

Germany

perSuaSIve audItLKH will be delivering more than 30,000

top and base housing components and

contact plates made of plastic to Karl Ernst

Brinkmann GmbH (KEB). KEB produces

drivetrain and control technology, and is

present in more than thirty countries with

production facilities, distributorships and

sales offices. They are headquartered in

Barntrup, North Rhine-Westphalia,

Germany. LKH, the plastic expertise centre

of the Friedhelm Loh Group, advised KEB

during the design phase of a new inverter

and won over the company with expertise

in workmanship and assembly of

flame-retardant plastics during a supplier

audit of the LKH plant in Heiligenroth,

Germany. Also speaking in LKH’s favour

were the modern machinery, the efficient

production methods and the quality

management system.


South Korea

uprIght forMatThe TS 8 baying systems from Rittal can

also be stacked – a remarkably space-

saving solution that is extremely

interesting for megacities such as Seoul

(photo). Duzon, the Korean market

leader in production control software,

offers its applications and the necessary

infrastructure via its cloud services.

Operating system availability is guaran-

teed with more than forty TS 8 system

enclosures packed with lithium-ion

batteries from Samsung. The 1.2-metre-

high units, bayed and stacked atop one

another, create highly powerful, imposing

wall units. E.ON and Hyosung Corpora-

tion were responsible for the installation

of the power supply system.

Japan

every yen CountSSakura Internet is Japan’s largest data

centre operator and has plans for further

expansion. To achieve this aim, the

company ordered and installed 48 TS IT

racks from Rittal for its site in Ishikari on

Hokkaido. CEO Kunihiro Tanaka looked at

operating costs: “We wouldn’t have

obtained any additional improvement with

conventional racks,” he says. In contrast,

the series TS IT allowed for fast assembly

without the use of tools and considerably

reduced installation costs. Furthermore,

the customer was impressed by the

optional RFID technology and that the

racks have a free vented surface area of

85 per cent: “The highest classification in

the industry,” Tanaka says.

Greece

Clean WaterShort delivery times, excellent consulting

and a convincing product led to

productive collaboration: Siafaras

Electric Systems AR, one of the most

important players in the Greek electrical

industry, ordered 65 TS 8 baying

systems plus side panels and busbars

for a major project in Algeria, where

waste-water treatment systems are

being modernised in 24 locations. Rittal

installed their systems and provides

valuable technical support for Siafaras.

The two business partners have

collaborated previously and look forward

to further joint projects: Rittal can expect

subsequent orders in Algeria from

Siafaras, headquartered in Thessaloniki.


Cover Story GERMAN MITTELSTAND

the gerMan

economy. Small and medium-sized busi-nesses – known as the Mittelstand in Germany – are highly respected every-where; these companies combine a down-to-earth mentality with innovation and global success. This is how the Mittel-stand in Germany became its own brand. But why are they so successful?

Text: Boris Hänßler and Jürgen Jehle

aS groWth engIne


MIttel

01 | 2014 | Magazine of the Friedhelm Loh Group | be top

GERMAN MITTELSTAND Cover Story

MIttelI an Jack, columnist for British news-

paper The Guardian, is worried about Great Britain’s economic reputation.

The United Kingdom used to be admired the world over for its manufacturing sector. Today, the journalist wistfully looks to Ger-many, in awe of the country. He writes, “Ex-emplary Germany, with its technical schools and apprenticeships, its respect for engi-neers, and its layer of family businesses known as the Mittelstand that puts long-term reputation above short-term profit by making the specialised parts that industry everywhere needs. How foolish we were to imagine that national prosperity could be spun from figures on a computer screen, out of thin air.”Ian Jack isn’t the only one who admires Germany. The Frenchman Louis Gallois, former CEo of aerospace corporation EADS and now government advisor, ex-plained to the German newspaper Die Welt:

“France lacks medium-sized companies like those of the German Mittelstand, which are in a position to innovate and export.” It is one of the reasons why France can bare-ly hold a candle to Germany – economi-cally speaking.It isn’t the individual products, such as en-closure technology from Rittal or lasers from Trumpf, that make people sit up and take notice – although they are exceptional. Rather, it is the sheer number of these com-panies making up the German Mittelstand that sends economists, industrialists and politicians around the world into ecstasies as they tell of the tradition, innovation, per-fection and, not least, appreciation of em-ployees in these Mittelstand companies.The term “German Mittelstand” was coined by Anglo-Saxon media – an attempt to somehow describe the German economy with its millions of small and medium-sized firms. There are, of course, small companies

all over the world, but the German Mittel-stand has a special aura around it. It repre-sents its own culture, stands for specialisa-tion and quality, for a strong bond between (mostly) family-run businesses and their employees, for regional and social respon-sibility – and for global market leadership.

“Made In gerMany” IS paSSéThe German federal government even wants to establish the German Mittelstand as a brand with an initiative of the same name – the same way that “Made in Ger-many” (ironically, also coined in the United Kingdom) was a symbol for powerful tech-nology for a long time. The German Mittel-stand remains successful even without such advertising campaigns. In 2010, it contributed considerably, with a 52 per cent share, to value added in the German economy. Its proportion of total turnover for all German companies was

15

Stand



stand’s unique characteristics and success factors,” says Friederike Welter, President of the Institute for Mittelstand Research (IfM) in Bonn and Professor of Business Admin-istration at the University of Siegen. She explains that the characteristic features of the German Mittelstand cannot be copied or quickly transferred to countries charac-terised by a different culture and business climate. The German Mittelstand is a typi-cally German model of success.

faMIly buSIneSS advantageBut what is behind this success? What are these special features? What sets the Ger-man Mittelstand apart from its global com-petition? After all, the German economy weathered the recent financial crisis much better than many of its neighbours. In order to better understand this phenomenon, it’s worth taking a closer look at the Mittel-stand’s philosophy – particularly its values. According to the IfM, successful Mittelstand companies are distinguished by a very mo-tivating and performance-oriented busi-ness culture; they view – and nurture – their employees as the central value creators for innovation, growth and competitiveness. “Family-run businesses in particular are where employees and other stakeholders can rely on strategic decisions being made with a long-term focus and not on easily achievable short-term success,” says IfM president Welter. “That is why the majority of Mittelstand companies endeavoured to keep their skilled employees with the com-pany during the global economic and finan-cial crisis. For this reason they were quite willing to accept temporary declines in pro-ductivity and profits.”one example is the owner and CEo of the Fischer Group in the northern Black Forest, where engineer Klaus Fischer represents the second generation in his family to run the company in Waldachtal, Baden-Würt-temberg. The company is particularly well known for its wall plugs and its Fischer Technology toy construction sets. When Klaus Fischer took over the factory from his father in 1980, he initially asked himself what was actually driving him and his em-ployees. “We came to the conclusion that

we needed something along the lines of a company philosophy,” he said in an inter-view with the Handelsblatt newspaper. “We needed seven years for it. We managed to define values that suit us, that we truly live: innovative, autonomous, serious. Today, all of our employees ask themselves: What does being innovative mean to me? What does it mean to act autonomously at work? What can I contribute so that our company earns money?”In 2013, the group of companies with about 4,150 employees worldwide gener-ated revenues of 633 million euros – and this success originated in a community with just 5,700 residents. The group gener-ates around three-quarters of its revenue abroad, whereby half of the manufacturing still takes place in Germany. The group has about 2,000 employees in Germany. Fischer factories abroad are located in It-aly, the Czech Republic, China, Argentina, Brazil and the United States. All told, the company has 43 subsidiaries in 32 coun-tries. Nevertheless, the group is a classic family-owned business, which according to Klaus Fischer also has many advan-tages in comparison with other legal busi-ness structures. As he explains, “You are close to people. You can make quick deci-sions. You can make investments that sometimes even worsen the bottom line, without displeasing shareholders.” Listing the company on the stock exchange? No, thank you! The company Kärcher could also be a star on the stock exchange. Kärcher is a glob-ally operating family-owned company that produces cleaning equipment and sys-tems. Its headquarters are in Winnenden, near Stuttgart, with fewer than 30,000 in-habitants. The world market leader has 10,000 employees around the world; in 2012 it achieved sales of 1.92 billion euros and sold 10.83 million devices. Despite such dizzying figures, going public is not on their radar. In an interview for the Mit-telbadische Presse, Hartmut Jenner, who has been running the company for over a decade, asked the question, “How would that add value? There is absolutely no ra-tional reason to do so. We have a

THE MITTELSTAND PHILOSOPHyThe German Mittelstand does not have any particular secrets. It instead has a set of values that entrepreneurs have grown up with. It is about a willingness to venture to do something, to take on responsibility for a company, for employees and a region as well. That is the core attitude that char-acterises Mittelstand business owners, and it applies whether there are 5 or 15,000 employees.

THE DIvERSE MITTELSTANDIts diversity is enormous – as are the many attempts to define it. For the Europe-an Union, small and medium-sized busi-nesses are companies with a maximum of 250 employees and no more than 50 mil-lion euros in sales. Additionally, these companies must be independent for the most part. This definition determines how subsidies are distributed, as explained by the L-Bank, the development bank in Baden-Württemberg.

MITTELSTAND FAC- ToRS FoR SUCCESS

around 37 per cent in 2011, or around 2 trillion euros. These numbers make you take notice. Particularly as compared to the thirty DAx-listed corporations, which had a total turnover of 1.19 trillion euros in 2011 – including their overseas subsidiaries. There is no question about it: the German Mittelstand is the true driver of the German economy. Without it, Germany wouldn’t be an export behemoth.Karan Girotra and Serguei Netessine, eco-nomic researchers at the prestigious busi-ness school INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France, recently asked on their blog, “Why don’t we see more of these firms in other countries? Does public ownership bring pressures to continually grow by going into new areas?” Incredibly, even countries such as South Korea, Taiwan and Japan, which all have very different business cultures, are looking to the German Mittelstand miracle for ideas. “Since early 2013 we have been receiving numerous requests from Asian economists and journalists who want de-tailed information about the German Mittel-



The global company is renowned for its wall plugs – nary a handyman has not yet used one of them. Strong and durable attach-ments are needed everywhere – whether in a living room or the Gotthard Tunnel.

Qualified for the 2014 Football World Cup in Brazil: So that the fans can safely sit back down once they’ve jumped from their seat in the Curitiba stadium, the seats are attached with injection mortar, another line of products from the company.

Kids construct: With Fischertechnik-brand construction kits, Fischer created another classic children’s toy and shaped a whole generation of engineers.

The Fischer wall plug was invented by Artur Fischer in 1958. The father of the wall plug was a busy inventor: he registered 1,121 patents and utility models during his lifetime.

fISCher

PERFECTIoN IN DETAIL

18


Never winded: Who can imagine a modern household without cooker hoods, clothes dryers, refrigerators and baking ovens with ebm-papst blowers?

It’s in the mix: Whether electronic cooling for trains, seat ventilation for cars or diagnostic equipment for laboratories – ebm-papst offers around 14,500 products for a wide range of industries.

As the leading innovator in ventilators and electric motors as well as ventilation and propulsion technology worldwide, ebm-papst celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in 2013 – all under the banner of environ-mental protection. With its green-tech principles, the company became the en-ergy ambassador for the German federal government. For its efforts, ebm-papst re-ceived the German Sustainability Award in the category “Germany’s Most Sustain-able Company.”

GREEN TRADITIoN

ebM-papSt

19


Clean performance: In 1988, Stihl developed the world’s first catalytic converter for two-stroke chainsaws. The first Stihl professional MS 441 C-M chainsaw (pictured here), with fully electronic ignition-point control and fuel metering, was introduced on the market in 2010.

Inventive talent in Baden- Württemberg: The 40 million euro development centre in Waiblingen, which opened in June 2004, represents the company’s largest single investment to date. Around 500 designers work here on new products and technologies. Stihl has already registered patents for more than 1,500 inventions.


Stihl looks back on a long tradition as a family-owned company and is, since 1971, as synonymous for chainsaws as Kleenex is for facial tissues. The first model was produced back in 1926, the year of its founding. Today the group of companies is represented in 160 countries with more than 40,000 specialist dealers. Stihl devel-ops, produces and sells motor-driven de-vices for the forestry, landscaping and construction industries.

SUCCESS (UN)CHAINED

StIhl


tItel NAME

high equity ratio, are solidly financed. We’re in a much better position as a family-owned company.” He has defined a clear ten-year strategy. “We can do that because we also have ten years’ time to realise it. on the stock exchange, majorities and owners change, and then strategies can also change quickly.”Speedy profits and short-term success – these aims are not for Mittelstand compa-nies. Instead, they pay attention to their (highly specialised) workforce. “Respect for others and for Creation, that is the founda-tion of the way we run our business,” says Trumpf CEo Nicola Leibinger-Kammüller. The Friedhelm Loh Group is likewise com-mitted to these principles. Friedhelm Loh

adds, “A company’s development is cer-tainly very strongly linked to how it deals with people, to mutual trust and loyalty. That can best be measured by how long em-ployees remain with a company. In this re-spect, I am especially thankful that we have a high degree of continuity. Being predict-able for people, that’s the top priority.” This attitude has impressed economic pow-ers such as the United States, as Christian Koenig, owner of the public relations firm Koenig Communications based in Wash-ington DC, confirmed during an interview with Germany’s international broadcaster Deutsche Welle. The German Mittelstand has a very good reputation in the United States: innovative products, advanced methods of production, high-quality training and appropriate pay for employees. “Word has gotten out, which explains why indi-vidual states are aggressively soliciting German Mittelstand companies.” A number of state governors have travelled to Ger-many in order to win over companies from the German Mittelstand for their states – many have even set up agencies in various German federal states.

not a queStIon of SIzeThe term Mittelstand reveals very little about the great diversity that lies behind it. It is very difficult to describe the Mittel-stand in one definition. The European Union has suggested that firms with a maximum of 250 employees and 50 million euros in sales can be considered small and medium-sized companies – inasmuch as they are independent. The German government-owned development bank KfW designates 500 million euros as the maximum annual sales – which includes 3.76 million firms in Germany in the Mittelstand, even if 3.3 million of these firms gross less than one million euros per year. But even large companies such as Bosch and Würth are happy to be associ-ated with the spirit of the German Mittel-stand. viewed in this light, the figures play a secondary role – it’s the attitude that really counts.Professor of Economics and Bonn-based management consultant Dr Hermann Simon

GLOBAL REPUTATIONSThey are often mentioned – the names of world-renowned family-owned businesses located in rural areas: Trumpf in Ditzingen, Miele in Gütersloh, Würth in Künzelsau, Liebherr in Biberach, B. Braun in Melsun-gen, and Bosch in Gerlingen. They are all frequently regarded as belonging to the Mittelstand, at least in spirit. And Germany is proud of its high number of “hidden champions” from the Mittelstand in many areas of the global economy. The German federal government identified 1,300 such companies headquartered in Germany in 2012, far ahead of the United States with just 366 such companies.

ExPORT HITSThe Mittelstand’s focus on exports is enor-mous: the proportion of companies in the Mittelstand that are active in foreign mar-kets has climbed to over 20 per cent ac-cording to the KfW development bank and the Ifo Institute for Economic Research (“KfW-ifo Mittelstandsbarometer”). That is more than 700,000 firms. Businesses es-pecially active abroad are those with a workforce of 50 employees or more.

INNOvATION DRIvERSThe Mittelstand drives innovation in Germany. In this respect, experts point in particular to the 115,000 innovation and 34,000 research companies that the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs counts in the country. It is precisely these firms that shape Germany’s reputation as the land of inventors, tinkerers and engineers – for instance in mechanical engineering.

(see the interview starting on page 24) isn’t interested in such size determinations at all. In his bestselling book Hidden Champions, he shed light on the German Mittelstand: all of these companies are stealthy champions that are global leaders in their fields. In 2012, the German federal government counted 1,300 such market leaders based in Germany – by comparison, the consider-ably larger United States has “only” 366. Simon defined what all of these successful companies share: they are focused on their specialised markets, which makes the pro-duction lines as well as the organisational structure much simpler. Furthermore, this focus on their core businesses often results in flat management hierarchies – decisions made within the family or through short of-ficial channels are typical. Another feature of Mittelstand companies is their strong focus on exports. According to a Mittel-stand business climate outlook by the KfW and the Ifo Institute for Economic Research (“KfW-ifo Mittelstandsbarometer”), more than 700,000 German companies can be found in foreign markets.one of these companies is Stihl, a Swabian family-owned business headquartered in Waiblingen, near Stuttgart. Founded in 1926, the company became the world’s largest chainsaw manufacturer back in 1971. Stihl constructed an assembly facility in Brazil in 1973, and a chainsaw factory in Switzerland and another facility in the Unit-ed States in 1974. In September 2006, they opened another assembly plant in Qing-dao, China. Today the company sells its products in 160 countries around the world, and Stihl earns about 90 per cent of its rev-enue abroad.Brazil and the United States aren’t just sales markets in the company strategy. Stihl views the foreign factories as mem-bers of a global manufacturing association. If, for example, there are wild fluctuations on the currency exchange markets, affect-ed products can in part be manufactured at the locations where it costs less to do so. “We have a sustainable business model and aren’t looking for short-term success,” says Bertram Kandziora, Director of Pro-duction and Materials Management



20



The company’s first products were flexible shafts such as those used in printing. Sta-tionary machines, such as copy punches, soon followed, and are still regarded as a reference today and make up an important part of the product portfolio. Laser technolo-gy made Trumpf renowned worldwide. Cut-ting, welding, marking, drilling – the compa-ny contributes significantly to technology taking root in all areas of life.

LEADING LIGHT

truMpf

Frenzied flashes: For the develop-ment of the ultra-short pulsed laser – a cooperative project with Bosch and the University of Jena – Trumpf received the German Future Prize in 2013. This accolade is almost the same as being knighted.

Power writing: What do wheels of cheese, water faucets and dash-boards have in common? They are engraved by Trumpf laser-markers across the globe.



The first trailblazing development took place in 1961: the standardised AE enclosure. Just three years later, Rittal entered foreign markets – the first office abroad was set up in the Netherlands. Today there are 64 subsidiaries successfully doing business around the world.

SYSTEMATICALLY SUCCESSFUL

rIttal

Since its founding in 1961, Rittal has grown to become a leading global supplier of enclosures, power distribution, climate control, IT infrastructure, and software and service (see also pages 28 to 31). Solutions from this global player are utilised in electrotechnology, information technology and the auto industry.

Global player: Rittal’s manufactur-ing takes place in eleven production facilities around the world that cover an area of almost 250,000 square metres – about the size of 35 football pitches.


since 2002 and Executive Board Chairman at Stihl since 2005. “We utilise the advan-tages of location within our global manu-facturing association in order to offer rea-sonable market prices on the basis of the respective manufacturing costs. This mod-el facilitates high sales volumes and strong earnings.” A majority of the profits is re-in-vested in the company, so that the equity ratio amounts to 68 per cent. This financial independence enables a great degree of flexibility. It is also put to use during crises, which are something that the Mittelstand somehow better manages than other com-panies. This advantage became entirely clear during the global financial meltdown. Trumpf, for instance – which was just rec-ognised as “Family-owned Company of the Year” by business magazine Impulse – was one of the companies hit hard by the crisis, but it integrated its workforce into the crisis management.The Trumpf Group is based in Ditzingen near Stuttgart. It is one of the largest glob-al vendors of machining tools and the mar-ket leader in industrial lasers. In the fall of 2008, orders dried up practically overnight as a result of the economic crisis. The company, like many others, was surprised by this development. “Certainly no one could have predicted to what extent the entire world economy would be affected,” says Nicola Leibinger-Kammüller, Presi-dent of Trumpf. “Even our innovations, which we hold in high esteem, didn’t help us in that situation.”Trumpf placed all of its trust in the quality of its technology. The new machines were not selling during the crisis, even though they are efficient and provide industrial custom-ers with a clear competitive advantage. So the company hoped that sales would quick-ly pick up after the crisis. President Leibin-ger-Kammüller decided to wait it out, uti-lised the opportunity that short-time work provided and kept the workforce despite the difficult situation in order to rapidly go back to full-time production once the order books began filling up again. It paid off. “At this juncture, we can afford to put short-term economic considerations on the back burner,” she says. “But we also keep our

years. In 2013, ebm-papst won the Ger-man Sustainability Award. Hermann Simon discovered that among the “hidden champions” are many companies with a high equity ratio. In 2013, the aver-age was 38 per cent. This high equity ratio guarantees stability. The structure of the German banking industry, with its savings banks and credit unions, plays its part in this setting: bankers and business owners know and trust one another. Mittelstand companies usually work for years with the same bank. The bank, in turn, is regionally anchored, often very familiar with the com-pany – and share the inherent risks.Germany has no need to worry about the future of the German Mittelstand. Accord-ing to a study by McKinsey, average eco-nomic growth of 2.1 per cent annually is possible for the country through the year 2025. over the same timeframe, exports could increase by 83 per cent, especially in the chemical industry, mechanical engi-neering and the auto industry. For informa-tion and medical technology, the forecasts predict a potential 150 per cent increase. The companies that are strongly represent-ed in these industries comes as no sur-prise: the German Mittelstand. n


workforce because we feel responsible for the people. A DAx-listed corporation must cope with very different pressures.”In order to react more flexibly to business cycles, Trumpf considered introducing a new working-time model after the crisis. For example, employees can now take sab-baticals of up to two years.

InnovatIve WorKIng-tIMe ModelSThe Friedhelm Loh Group is also aware of the importance of innovative working-time models. An essential element of its ap-proach is that employees can choose once each year their individual weekly working times of either 37.5, 40.0 or 42.5 hours.In 2011, 70 per cent of the German labour force was working for companies in the Mit-telstand. Large corporations and the civil service cut 530,000 jobs, while the Mittel-stand created 925,000 new positions. And not only that: Mittelstand companies also invest heavily in research and develop-ment; the largest family-owned companies devoted about 3.3 per cent of their annual revenues to this area in 2012.This investment pays off. The ebm-papst Group, for instance, registered 13.2 pat-ents per 1,000 employees in 2011 – whereas the average for German industry is 0.54. Meanwhile, smaller companies often cooperate with technical colleges and research facilities. The ebm-papst Group in Mulfingen, Germany, which pro-duces electric motors and fans for ma-chinery, ventilation and climate control technology, and the car industry, invested around 74 million euros into research and development in the 2012/13 business year. And what is true for company man-agement also holds true in research: re-sponsibility is writ large. The firm has fur-nished its new ventilators and motors with the “Green Tech” designation. It stands for high efficiency and eco-friendly produc-tion. New products are to be lighter, quieter and more energy-efficient. “We want to continue being a technology lead-er,” says Rainer Hundsdörfer, Chairman of the Board of Management. Some 40 per cent of ebm-papst’s revenue comes from products introduced in the past three

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Cover Story HERMANN SIMoN

an IntervIeW WIth

Who? Prof. Hermann Simon is chairman of the management consulting firm Simon-Kucher & Partners and has taught marketing at the University of Mainz, Harvard Business School, Stanford University and Keio University.

What? Simon-Kucher is regarded as the world leader in the consulting industry for advice on pricing. The company also advises its customers on growth strategies, sales and marketing.

Where? be top met Simon at his com-pany’s headquarters in Bonn, Germany. The company has 700 employees in 22 countries.


HERMANN SIMoN Cover Story

InConSpICuouSly SuCCeSSfulInterview. No one knows the hidden small and medium-sized business global market leaders – known as the German Mittelstand – like Hermann Simon; they remain largely unknown, but are leaders in their fields. In his bestselling book Hidden Champions of the Twenty-First Century: Success Strategies of Unknown World Market Leaders, he describes these companies’ strategies for success – and in this be top interview, why this is especially good for Germany.

how do you define the german Mittel-stand that is, small and medium-sized businesses?hermann Simon: For me, the Mittelstand is a question of the intellectual and cultural mindset. I’ve never taken part in a discus-sion about what size, turnover or number of employees these businesses have. Much of the literature addresses exactly these questions, but that is not what I consider characteristic of Germany’s Mittelstand. It’s the down-to-earth mentality, the single-minded focus, a special business culture in which there’s a relationship of trust between employer and employee. In my opinion, these are the decisive attributes.

So rittal is a classic example in all re-spects?Simon: Rittal is a classic example, which also includes the role of the entrepreneur, who generally remains at the helm for a long time. Imagine, the CEos of companies from the Mittelstand remain in their position for an average of 20 years, while it’s just 6.1 years for large corporations. This figure alone speaks volumes about long-term fo-cus. And 70 per cent of these Mittelstand enterprises are family-run, like Rittal. The

typical “hidden champions” – the most suc-cessful of these companies – are almost all family businesses.

the german federal government is at-tempting to establish the “german Mit-telstand” as an international brand. are they that respected internationally?Simon: The standing of the German Mit-telstand, and thus Germany’s standing, has never been as high as it is now. That has a lot to do with the role that these German companies play in globalisation and Ger-many’s economic strength. You must con-sider that China and Germany are the world’s leading exporters. But when you ask people about why a country is a strong exporter, most answer that it’s due to the country’s many large corporations.I once compared any given country’s num-ber of businesses among the world’s top 500 companies and that country’s success in exporting. In fact, there is an unwritten rule for most countries: the more large cor-porations it has, the more it exports. How-ever, there are two big exceptions to this rule, namely, China and Germany. Some 80 per cent of Chinese exports come from companies with fewer than two thousand

employees; in Germany this figure is about 70 per cent. This shows how the German Mittelstand decisively influences Germa-ny’s economic strength. Astonishingly, hardly anyone knows this. Go out on the street here in Bonn and ask how many peo-ple have heard of companies such as Trumpf or Rittal, despite their success.

In other words, the Mittelstand doesn’t want to be better known.Simon: on the one hand, yes, they want to let sleeping dogs lie – don’t want to give competitors the idea to challenge them. on the other hand, these companies are very focused on their businesses. Further-more, their products usually don’t attract attention in everyday life. Everyone has some sort of connection to these products, but they don’t think about them much. En-closures are needed a lot, but we don’t notice them in our daily routines. Who knows which companies produce engine parts for an automobile? or do you look at the buttons on your shirt? The world mar-ket leader is the Union Knopf Group in Bielefeld. These names will never be as visible as those of carmakers or smart-phone manufacturers.

Interview: Boris Hänßler and Jürgen Jehle


Cover Story HERMANN SIMoN

doesn’t this consistent specialisation present risks?Simon: Specialisation is the strategic ba-sis of the Mittelstand. on the one hand, it does pose the risk of becoming depend-ent on customers and a particular market. The company Reflecta, for instance, used to be the world market leader in optical-mechanical slide projectors. Then LCD projectors came along at some point, and the company didn’t manage to retool itself. Today Reflecta is just a retailer. But spe-cialisation doesn’t just pose this risk; it also simultaneously reduces another: the competitive risk. When you focus on one thing, you become more capable than the competition.

and are trusted. how important is that for Mittelstand customers?Simon: Trust is very important. The de-pendencies aren’t unilateral. A few years ago, as an example, the largest manufac-turer of exterior mirrors for automobiles – it produced about 40 per cent of all mirrors – was in trouble. The mirror isn’t a critical part, but when a company is having prob-lems so suddenly, the auto industry will try to help the company get back on its feet

financially. The customers are also some-what dependent, not just the suppliers.

this dependency surely doesn’t apply equally for all “hidden champions,” does it?Simon: We had a very interesting discus-sion at Trumpf during the economic crisis. We asked ourselves what the difference was between a typical German and a typical Japanese exporter. As examples we used Trumpf and Toyota. What would happen if, from one day to the next, both companies just disappeared from the market? Not much would happen in Toyota’s case – there are enough cars on the market. But there would be chaos for customers if all of the Trumpf machines disappeared. Where would they get their lasers all of a sudden? The same applies for Rittal’s enclosures, by the way.

but now asian competitors are attempt-ing more and more to copy these special-ised products.Simon: That’s true, and successfully to some extent. I think that the only way to respond to this development is for Mittel-stand companies to seriously move into these countries and markets – not just in

sales, but also in research and develop-ment. They must perform there under the same conditions as the competition. The second response is to become more inno-vative! And this is where Germany still has a tremendous advantage, which holds true even within Europe. Germany has about 1,600 European patents per million resi-dents; France has half as much, Italy one-quarter, England one-fifth. Spain most re-cently had just 79 per million residents, and there were only 3 for Russia.

large corporations have more money for research and development – yet the Mittelstand remains competitive. Why is this?Simon: It is certainly remarkable. Among the top fifty patent applicants in Germany, twenty are companies from the Mittel-stand. Calculated to the number of em-ployees, that comes to five times as many patents per person than is the case for large corporations. Innovative strength is actually stronger in the Mittelstand, and they achieve it at a fifth of the cost. In large corporations, they have huge budgets for comprehensive research activities. Com-panies in the Mittelstand use small teams

When Professor Dr Hermann Simon isn’t uncovering the strengths of “hidden champions,” he’s out and about as the very successful chairman of Simon-Kucher. The management consulting firm was

voted number one in marketing and sales in 2011.


HERMANN SIMoN Cover Story

27

that have such a deep knowledge of the material that they can better understand the customers’ needs. This proximity is a very crucial difference.

Maintaining close customer relation-ships is a tenet of the friedhelm loh group. Is customer proximity a typical characteristic for Mittelstand firms?Simon: Let me give you an example: on average, 38 per cent of employees of Mit-telstand businesses have regular customer contact. In large corporations, it’s 8 per cent. The majority of companies cope with technological upheavals through this cus-tomer contact. one example is Arri, former-ly the world leader in 35 mm cameras used to film motion pictures. When the movie in-dustry switched to digital, it was an im-mense challenge for Arri. Remarkably, their reaction was textbook: the company met with researchers from the Fraunhofer Insti-tute for Integrated Circuits in Erlangen, Ger-many, where the MP3 format was invented. Together they developed professional digi-tal cameras – and Arri remains a major player in the industry. The company even completely discontinued production of the old cameras in 2011 without any difficulties.

the economic crisis was also hard on the Mittelstand, yet many companies are recovering more quickly. Why is that?Simon: one reason was certainly that the Mittelstand attempted to keep all of their staff through short-time measures, special leaves and other arrangements. When a larger corporation is in crisis, the first step is usually to lay off part of their workforce. As soon as the crisis is overcome, the cor-porations must laboriously buy back this expertise. Mittelstand enterprises have understood that the loss of qualified and loyal employees is the bigger disadvan-tage over the long term. In fact, holding firm to these employees makes it more likely that they will accept concessions during a crisis and be open to special leaves and short-time measures. The rela-tionship between entrepreneur and em-ployee is naturally also shaped by what is often a rural location. The employer usu-ally lives in the same town as the employ-ee. Entrepreneurs cannot hide themselves – and they don’t, either. They are usually very involved in local associations. I find it striking that many Mittelstand business owners occupy high positions in these as-sociations, as in the case of Friedhelm Loh, who serves as vice president of the Fed-eration of German Industries (Bundesver-band der Deutschen Industrie).

the rural location isn’t only advanta-geous. don’t Mittelstand companies have problems finding qualified staff?Simon: That can be a problem. on the one hand, it’s good to be a “hidden champion” when you don’t want to attract the competi-tion, but anonymity on the capital and la-bour markets is a huge disadvantage. For the labour market, I recommend that com-panies don’t try at all to compete nationally with technology companies such as Sie-mens and BMW; they should instead focus on building up local talent, get involved with schools and universities in the area, and offer, say, internships as well as support students with their theses for bachelor’s and master’s degrees. I believe there are good people in every region who want to stay there. Which does not exclude the need, however, to first be sent abroad in order to gain a more global perspective.

you describe africa as an underappreci-ated market. Should the Mittelstand get more involved there?Simon: Indeed, growth in Africa may com-plete globalisation, so to speak. There are around one billion people living in Africa, and it will be two billion by 2050, according to UN estimates. If there is success in edu-cating young people there, Africa will cer-tainly be the growth region over the coming decades. If it doesn’t succeed, it will remain the world’s problematic region. However, I am hopeful. Ghana, for instance, is growing and politically stable, which holds true for many African countries. Among the ten fastest-growing countries currently, six are in Africa. I estimate that all roads will lead to Africa in ten or twenty years. Germany’s Mittelstand is well positioned globally, is ac-tive in China, India and Brazil. It will also recognise Africa’s importance early on and act accordingly. Thus, I’m certain that the future looks very good for the German Mit-telstand.

thank you for your time. n

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vISIonary entrepreneur Company founder and man of the world:

Rudolf Loh would have been one hundred years old on 8 December 2013. The photos at

right show Loh’s town of birth, Wetzlar, Germany, in the year 1914, and a bicycle

similar to the one the young Rudolf Loh made usable by placing blocks of wood on the

pedals. He was an innovative businessman his entire life and a man of great faith who

was active in his church – including founding the Christian radio station in Wetzlar.

Cover Story RUDoLF LoH CENTENNIAL

RUDoLF LoH CENTENNIAL Cover Story

29

an Inventor WIth heart

rudolf loh. This visionary left his imprint on two world-famous groups of companies, and assumed responsibility for his family, workers and an entire region. Rudolf Loh would have been one hundred years old last December.

Text: Stephanie Backhaus and Boris Hänßler

W hat does a small child do when he receives a bicycle as a gift that is much too large for him?

Wait until he’s grown into it? Not Rudolf Loh. There and then he attached wooden blocks to the pedals so that, despite its and his size, he could hurtle through the town with his friends. Years later he rode about 350 kilometres by bicycle to Brussels, Belgium, to the World Fair to marvel at the technical inventions from all of the important nations. His enthusiasm for technology, his ingenu-ity and his enterprising spirit continually animated Rudolf Loh to action from an early age. Which makes it hardly surprising that such a wide variety of products all came from this man’s workshop, including rubbish bins, safety step stools, hot-water bottles and series enclosures. Loh’s cour-age and enterprising spirit led to a series of business models in the post-war period upon which two companies of international

repute are based: the Hailo-Werk Rudolf Loh GmbH and Rittal GmbH & Co. KG, the leading provider for enclosure and housing systems. The path that Rudolf Loh took as an entrepreneur, who would have been celebrating his centennial at the end of last year, is an exemplary success story of Ger-many’s small and medium-sized business-es. But first things first ...Rudolf Loh was born on 8 December 1913 as the fifth of six children to Georg and Anna Margaretha Loh in Wetzlar, Germany. His father had an enterprising spirit – he came from humble backgrounds but became a master carpenter, built up his own workshop and eventually transformed it into a furniture factory. Rudolf Loh’s mother came from a family of teachers. Loh, who grew up in a Christian home, started as a trainee at the Herkules metalwork factory in Wetzlar after graduating second-ary school, and subsequently


30 be top | Magazine of the Friedhelm Loh Group | 01 | 2014

Cover Story RUDoLF LoH CENTENNIAL

studied mechanical engineering in Cologne from 1933 to 1935. In order to attend uni-versity, Loh had to join a Nazi Party organ-isation and decided for technical emer-gency services, which was later incorpo-rated into the SA, the original paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party. After completing his studies, Loh resigned from the SA. As an engineer, he took over the position of tech-

nical director in the Siegas metalwork fac-tory, which his father had purchased for Rudolf Loh and his brother. The onset of World War II interrupted Rudolf Loh’s ca-reer: in 1938 he was conscripted into the German armed forces. In 1942 he took a life-threatening bullet to a lung on the march to Stalingrad, Russia. After his release from military hospital, he worked as a staff engi-neer for rocket scientist Wernher von Braun until the end of the war. He married Irene Horn in June 1941, whom he had met dur-ing a youth mass in Haiger. Loh’s eldest son Joachim was born in october 1942.In 1947, Loh decided to start anew. He dissolved his partnership in the factory in Siegen in order to found the Rudolf Loh

Metallwarenfabrik GmbH in Haiger (re-named the Hailo-Werk Rudolf Loh GmbH in 1960). Starting from scratch in a war-damaged building, he, his wife and three employees started with the production of bathroom furniture and metal beds. What can you make for very little with very little? What do people need for everyday life? Loh took these questions and made them the premise for his product development – and developed series production. Dur-ing a time when only few houses still had intact heating systems, his first successful product was a hot-water bottle. His com-pany produced more than 100,000 of them during the winter of 1949/50.

good IdeaS lead to breaKthroughIn 1960, as an inventor and tinkerer, Loh recognised the growth opportunities in household goods. Sensible and labour-saving devices for the household were developed, especially for the kitchen. His employees manufactured high volumes of articles in series, including safety step stools, ironing boards, rubbish bins, ta-bles, chairs and stools. These products made Hailo famous the world over; their modern successors are used in millions of households around the globe. Twenty years after the company’s founding, Hailo was firmly established both in Germany and abroad. Loh’s own family also grew. The birth of son Friedhelm on 16 August 1946 and daughter Christiane Margarete in 1952 rounded off the Lohs’ happiness in their private lives. Two years later, the five-

“ In the factories, we are there so that many families have work and bread.”

Rudolf Loh

deeply rooted yet CoSMopolItanIn 1947, Loh founded the Rudolf Loh

Metallwarenfabrik GmbH, which – starting in a war-damaged building (page 31, top left) – ini-

tially became successful primarily with hot-water bottles. In 1960, it was renamed

Hailo, the specialist for household devices. Enclosure manufacturer Rittal was founded in

1961 under the name Rudolf Loh KG, Elektrogerätebau, Rittershausen. The series

production of wall-mounted and freestanding enclosures (page 31, centre) began on the first day. Rudolf Loh and his wife Irene had

three children. They travelled extensively, especially in service of the church. The photo

on page 31 at left shows Rudolf Loh in September 1970 in his office, seven months

before his death.


RUDoLF LoH CENTENNIAL Cover Story

member family moved to Haiger. Loh passed on his attitude towards life to his children. He is claimed to have said, “In the companies, we aren’t the bosses; we are there so that many families have work and bread.” All his life he remained true to the motto “Business alone never fully satis-fies.” A man of deep Christian faith, he be-came involved in religious causes wher-ever he could: he supported the work of his church congregation in Haiger, and be-came the chairman of the Missionary and Bible School Wiedenest and of Wetzlar’s Christian radio station, which he himself founded. He and his wife Irene travelled to Africa and Eastern Europe in order to sup-port local congregations. Rittal was found-ed on 1 April 1961 under the name Rudolf Loh KG, Elektrogerätebau, Rittershausen. The electrical devices factory was intend-ed to be a second mainstay. Through his contacts with electrical wholesalers in the region, Rudolf Loh knew that the emerging electrotechnology industry was making its own enclosures or had to have them pro-duced as individual pieces. It was expen-sive, delivery times were long and the qual-ity was unreliable. Loh purchased the Schneider weaving mill in Rittershausen, where he established the series production of electrical control cabinets.From the very first day, Loh’s factory began with the series production of two each of wall-mounted and freestanding enclosures – the birth of series enclosures. The slogan of the founding years was, “The enclosure that you need tomorrow, we built yesterday

the frIedhelM loh group today

FIRST-CLASS

– and it’s ready for delivery in our ware-house today.” The company grew rapidly. In 1969, Loh changed the company’s name to Rittal-Werke Rudolf Loh KG. In the same year, the company delivered the first modu-lar RS enclosure based on a framework structure – preassembled and with a wide range of accessories. Plant engineers were enthusiastic about the flexible technology. They were Loh’s breakthrough on the path to becoming a medium-sized global com-pany. However, Loh was unable to witness the success for long: during a trip to Africa in the summer of 1970, an ailment of the nerves and muscles that had remained dor-mant until that time suddenly broke out, presumably caused by a prophylactic im-munisation. Loh died in his home in Haiger on 21 April 1971 of the incurable amyo-trophic lateral sclerosis.Although Rudolf Loh reached only the age of 57, over the span of his short life he cre-ated lasting values. His children became entrepreneurs who are active in family busi-nesses, social and Christian organisations, and honorary posts, taking up responsibil-ity for society and working to its benefit. The Friedhelm Loh Group, for instance, has been honoured for the sixth time for its out-standing company and employer culture with the “Top Employer Germany” quality seal – which certainly would have pleased founder Rudolf Loh. n

11,500employees globally.

15 production centres around the world in Germany, China, England, USA, India, Italy.

ChaMpIonS leagueRittal is the world leader in enclosure systems, Eplan a leading CAD software provider and Kiesling a technology lead-er for enclosure machining, and Cideon is the largest Autodesk partner in Ger-man-speaking countries.

1,500 patents and more than 200 registered designs and utility patents.

1,100 software and engi-neering specialists.

square metres of production area globally (Rittal alone).

250,000

MagazIne

32 be top | Das Magazin der Friedhelm Loh Group | 02 | 2013

How do you calculate electrical out-put? How much cooling output is re-quired? Those thirsting for knowledge and the answers to these and many other questions can find them in two new books in the Rittal Technical Li-brary. The second volume of the se-ries, enclosure and process cooling, contains the fundamentals of enclo-sure climate control and presents practical tips for using efficient cooling technologies. The third volume, tech-nical aspects of enclosures, contains a collection of data and facts about enclosures. This specialist literature delivers technical data about installa-tion materials, cables, busbars, fuses and motors. Readers will also find cal-culation equations for enclosure cli-mate control requirements and illustra-tions of enclosure transport methods.

the rIttal lIbrary haS tWo neW hIgh-flyerS

FLyING HIGH

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Use the following link to go to the downloads section of Rittal’s homepage: http://www.rittal.com/com-en/content/en/support/downloads/Downloads.jsp



MagazIne

33

The Rittal Foundation has provided material donations and active support to “Neustart e. v.” in Breitscheid, Germany, an organisa-tion helping at-risk youth. The association provides advice and support to young peo-ple who have chosen the wrong path in life. The young men whom Neustart is looking after live in a supervised flat-share.

Eplan offers standardised communication interfaces that simplify data exchange with other systems. SAP interfaces to Eplan and a wide variety of CAD systems are available with SAP integrations for electri-cal and mechanical engineering. Eplan additionally enables data exchange be-tween PLC programmers and electrical system designers via direct system inter-faces, including, for example, B&R, Sie-mens and Schneider Electric. Machinery control systems can also be linked to Eplan through standardised interfaces.

orion, an energy provider based in Christchurch, New Zealand, is Rittal’s first international customer for the standardised RiMatrix S data centre. It’s to provide a se-cure backup for the company in this earth-quake-prone region. Along with its quick delivery, the data centre’s innovative cli-mate controls proved to be the deciding factor for orion. With the Zero-U-Space Cooling System, the air/water heat ex-changers are installed in the raised floor. Rittal had previously won over orion back in 2011 with the delivery of Rittal IT infra-structure for the electricity grid, which sup-plies approximately 350,000 inhabitants.

Germany complains about a lack of skilled labour, so Rittal is doing something about it. Production workers who haven’t completed vocational training can take a one-year pre-paratory course in order to obtain vocation-al qualifications as machine and plant op-erators. This prep course, which is a joint offering by Rittal and the Loh Academy, ends with external testing administered by the Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK). “one great advantage is that course participants can use the knowledge directly on the job,” says Stefan Deibel from the Loh Academy, emphasising the direct relation-ship between learning and everyday work.

LINK TIP:

www.neustart-breitscheid.de (German only)

TOP CAE SOLUTIONSSophIStICated InterfaCeS

ONCE AROUND THE WORLDrIMatrIX S In neW zealand

SMALL JOB MIRACLEIdeaS to foSter SKIlled labour

MISSIon for a neW Start

RITTAL PITCHES IN

The institution’s centre is the “Hofgut Begeg-nungen” (roughly translated, “farmstead of encounters”), where repairs were urgently needed. The Rittal Foundation did not hesi-tate when asked for assistance. Along with a substantial donation of materials, Fried-helm Loh Group employees also pitched in: the association had hoped for fifteen help-ers, but around seventy employees from the offices and production plants came to help,

including Christoph Caselitz, Chief of Cus-tomer operations for Rittal and Chairperson of the Rittal Foundation. They worked in six-teen project teams. The farmstead’s work-shop is also a Rittal supplier: they produce and deliver around 3,500 airfreight boxes for enclosure systems each year.

full Speed aheadChristoph Caselitz (left) and other hard-working colleagues pitched in at the “Hofgut Begegnungen.”

WISSen GREEN CARBoDY

a vIeW to perfeCtIon“Our job is to find out what makes customers more competitive and where potential can be exploited,” says Gerhard Wulff, Director of CAD Product Management at Cideon Systems GmbH. “That’s why it’s important to always consider the user’s point of view.”


CIDEoN KnoW-hoW

35

W hat do motion pictures such as The Hobbit and Life of Pi, build-ings such as the Shanghai Tower

and innovative products such as Tesla elec-tric cars have in common? Autodesk prod-ucts were used during their development. Hiding behind these names is one of the leading global software specialists for com-puter-aided design (CAD) and computer animation in such diverse fields as archi-tecture, building technology, structural and civil engineering, automotive and transpor-tation, mechanics and mechanical engi-neering, and even media and entertain-ment. Autodesk customers utilise the technology to create digital models and processes for the visualisation, simulation and analysis of their projects. The objective is to virtually represent a product so that all of its aspects can be analysed long before the first actual prototype is created.Cideon, the most recent addition to the Friedhelm Loh Group, is an Autodesk Plati-num Partner in the field of mechanical engi-neering. This designation indicates the high-est degree of solution-oriented expertise, comprehensive service and support offer-ings, as well as outstanding customer satis-faction. Eplan and Cideon together have 1,100 employees offering mechatronic engi-neering solutions for a wide variety of appli-cations and concentrated expertise in the Autodesk environment. Furthermore, the Cideon Software division offers integrated solutions and know-how for the management of construction processes with computer-aided engineering (CAE) and SAP. Thus, with the software specialists of the Friedhelm Loh Group, it is possible to imple-ment optimised solutions with Autodesk prod-ucts in the area of mechanical engineering, to supplement these as needed with Eplan electrotechnical software, and to seamlessly integrate them into a company’s workflow – a breadth without parallel in Germany.

The importance of combined software so-lutions for computer-animated construction was clearly demonstrated at the Autodesk University in November 2013 (see column at right). More than 1,200 specialists met to learn about the newest Autodesk trends. Their newest product was introduced, CAM 360, a cloud-based solution that enables the calculation of programmes for comput-er-controlled processing centres from CAD models. This makes Autodesk the first pro-vider of a complete process chain that runs in the cloud.

SuCCeSSful projeCtS preSentedCideon participated in the conference with a user presentation on the topic of steelworks plant engineering at Paul Wurth Umwelttechnik GmbH. Gerhard Wulff, Director of CAD Product Manage-ment at Cideon Systems GmbH, and Jörg Ingenfeld of Paul Wurth Umwelttechnik demonstrated how the design process was optimised. To start with, Cideon’s consulting expertise was required; the company’s CAD specialists trained key users, assisted in creating construction guidelines and accompanied employees through the initial steps of the process. “Comprehensive and practical training for users is always the key for efficient use of a CAD system and thus for successful projects for our customers,” Wulff says. Navisworks is just one component of the solution: the project’s current status can be input into this software at any time so that people can take a tour of the virtual plant on a monitor. Wurth and Cideon staff members worked closely together on the project: Wurth employees had detailed knowledge of their processes, and the ex-perts from Cideon contributed their soft-ware expertise.Working together meant that solutions for each requirement were quickly

CuStoM-Made engIneerIng

Cideon. As an Autodesk partner, Cideon offers extensive know-how in the area of mechanical and mechatronic software solutions. They develop seamless and efficient engineering processes – made to measure for every customer.

Text: Ralf Steck

autodeSK unIverSIty

IN PRACTICE, UP CLoSE

Autodesk University is the company’s annual user conference. The event in the United States attracts more than 5,000 attendees every December; additional “universities” take place each year in Japan, Russia, Bra-zil, China and Germany. The next Autodesk University in the United States will take place from 2 to 4 December 2014 in Las vegas.

trendSetterThe Autodesk universities are always popular; new developments and application examples attract many visitors.

LINK TIP:

Learn more about Autodesk University at http://au.autodesk.com


KnoW-hoW CIDEoN

36

found. Autodesk’s CAD programme Inven-tor was used; it was with this programme that Autodesk developed parametric 3D CAD software built on modelling elements in the mid-1990s. All of the modelling steps are saved both individually and in relation to one another. The models can be selectively manipulated after the fact, and mechanical movements can be represent-ed as video sequences. AutoCAD soft-ware was also used in this process. It remains one of the most powerful applica-tions for creating two-dimensional draw-ings or layout plans for plant engineering, and it has a breadth that no other provider achieves. For this type of project, the ap-propriate training is important: “Trainings that incorporate the manufacturing of com-ponents into the engineering process, combined with methodical instruction in construction on the CAD system itself, help customers to more quickly become efficient in working with the system,” Wulff explains.

Made-to-MeaSure SoftWare SolutIonS Users of Autodesk products benefit from these Cideon trainings and from the wide array of products. For instance, visualisa-tion solutions and their enabling technolo-gies can be used in bids for machine con-struction and in architecture. There is a suite of products with suitable software for every application need.Autodesk’s large portfolio of cloud and app solutions is also unique among CAD suppliers. For many years now, Autodesk has been offering an Internet-based plat-form for collaboration through which pro-ject teams can exchange data. The cloud offerings cover the entire product develop-ment process. Autodesk 360 offers the basic framework as well as data import, export and visualisation functions. A whole

range of additional products builds on this framework: the spectrum runs from Fusion 360, a 3D CAD system, to Simulation 360, a simulation solution, and even includes CNC programming with the new CAM 360 and data management with PLM 360. Aside from being available at all times and from every location, the practically limit-less computer resources also make the 360 offerings interesting.Even smaller designs can require a huge amount of computing power if, for exam-ple, an ideal solution is to be found for each simulation. But, as Autodesk CEo Carl Bass once put it, because “renting a processor for one thousand minutes costs as much as one thousand processors for one minute” in the cloud, Simulation 360 makes it possible to quickly calculate such optimisation simulations.Whether you prefer local solutions or want to utilise the new opportunities in the cloud, Autodesk can offer you the right solution. Finding the correct components for each individual application in this port-folio and networking them into an efficient overall solution are challenges that require a high level of experience and knowledge of these components. Cideon, with its Autodesk experts, offers exactly this know-how and embeds the Autodesk world of solutions into existing workflows. Gerhard Wulff says, “Companies are searching for exactly this optimisation. They invest a lot of money in manufacturing processes, to reduce manufacturing costs and to make production design more flexible. The groundwork is being laid for this in construction.” n

praCtICal eXaMpleS

TIPS FRoM ExPERTS

you can learn more about the Cideon and Paul Wurth Umwelttechnik practice-based project at www.cideon-systems.de. At tinyurl.com/n272hhu, you can see the complete presentation at the 2013 Autodesk University Germany by Gerhard Wulff of Cideon and Jörg Ingenfeld of Paul Wurth Umwelttechnik on the topic “Factory Design in Steelworks Construction” (about 45 min; German only). This presentation also shows how the pro-ject was implemented using the Autodesk Factory Design Suite.

APP TIP:

Read more about Cideon and Autodesk in the be top app

NAME rubrIK

373701 | 2014 | Das Magazin der Friedhelm Loh Group | be top

Cideon is a global engineering specialist with three main business fields: CAE systems provider (Cideon Systems), software develop-ment for CAD integration into SAP (Cideon Software) and construction services for rail-based vehicles (Cideon Engineering). The most recent addition to the Friedhelm Loh Group, Cideon supports companies in a wide range of industries, helping them to implement innovations, optimise engineering processes and thus increase their efficiency, provide added customer benefits and enhance the company’s value.Furthermore, Cideon is an Autodesk Platinum Partner with a broad software portfolio of development, construction, design and visualisation software. Since February 2013, Kuttig Computeranwendungen GmbH belongs to Cideon. Kuttig and Cideon Systems have combined their Autodesk businesses beneath the flag of Cideon with around 140 employees

in German-speaking countries. The combina-tion of Eplan, Autodesk products and Cideon expertise yields a uniquely comprehensive consulting and solutions portfolio that can support a company’s entire product develop-ment and manufacturing processes.Together you get peerless mechatronic CAE–PLM expertise from a single source. Eplan focuses on its disciplines of electrical, fluid power and electrical instrumentation and control engineering, and Cideon, in turn, concentrates on mechanical engineering.

FRoM IDEA To PRoDUCT

one-Stop eXpertISeCideon has three divisions: development and construction service provider, software manufacturer and CAE systems developer.

perfeCt deSIgnEngineering processes are where the groundwork is laid for reducing manufacturing costs. Perfectly attuned tools for 3D construction, docu-mentation and production simulation before fabrication support this process.

LINK TIP:

www.cideon.com


praXIS NAME


39

RIPPLoH KnoW-hoW

Control and switchgear engineering. Efficiency is essential in the design of control and switchgear systems and is a top priority at Ripploh Elektrotechnik GmbH.

Text: Hans-Robert Koch and Thomas Reintjes

W hen engineers design control and switchgear systems, their goal is in fact quite simple: to

minimise sources of error, reduce assem-bly times and standardise processes. The challenge they face is that many systems are unique. one solution: in order to achieve greater efficiency in the design of control and switchgear systems, tools are required for automated planning and doc-umentation, and standardised enclosures are a must. A pioneer in the use of such systems is the Westphalian company Rip-ploh Elektrotechnik GmbH, which has sys-tematically automated switchgear design and production. For customers in the me-chanical and plant engineering sectors, Ripploh designs and builds complete electrotechnical systems. It also has moved into the field of building automa-tion. It meets its customers’ different needs with state-of-the-art engineering platforms.Ripploh is one of the first users of the Eplan Engineering Center (EEC), which is capable of portraying the full range of en-gineering tasks, from ordering and materi-als management to electrical design using

Eplan Electric P8 to the automated con-figuration of enclosure housings and ca-ble assembly. Component data flow smoothly through the entire process. “Today every enclosure comes with its own data package,” says Uwe Scharf, Head of Product Management at Rittal. The relevant data are available at all stag-es of production, shortening the produc-tion process, increasing quality and keep-ing down costs.

deSIgnIng WIth the ConfIguratorAs the foundation of project planning, Ripploh uses a virtual modular system that is stored in the EEC. “We have defined a total of 760 modules for building automa-tion – for the control of heating and ventila-tion systems, for example. Complete circuit diagrams can be generated within 24 hours of starting the configurator, re-gardless of how extensive these diagrams are, whether they are 600 or 800 pages long,” says Andreas Ripploh, Managing Partner of Ripploh Elektrotechnik GmbH. “We no longer submit quotations to our customers because they can use the con-figurator to select assemblies that

the paCeMaKerS


KnoW-hoW RIPPLoH

The Eplan Engineering Center (EEC) allows

users to depict functional assemblies in a

modular system and to use this system as the

basis for configuring new plants and ma-

chines. It simplifies the design of increasingly

complex systems and the coordination of vari-

ous technical crews – in the field of building

automation, for example, the crews installing

heating, climate control, solar and electrical

systems. Ripploh’s engineers have defined

760 assemblies from a selection of thousands

of construction modules and stored them in

the EEC. When customers select the required

components from the modular system, the

software quotes a price. If the customer ac-

cepts the quotation and the configuration is

consistent, further data are provided by the

configuration tool. The rules defined in the

EEC are automatically followed; all of the nec-

essary information is requested; and even de-

tails such as enclosure door hinges can be

set. At the same time, the EEC ensures a

high degree of flexibility, as engineers can al-

ter the modules at any time.

ConfIguratIon by eeC

DESIGNED IN A WINK

are offered at a fixed price.” Ripploh adds, “In principle we’ve catalogued the entire field of enclosure design.” Because most enclosures are custom-made, efficiency-enhancing automation is often difficult to achieve, but much can be accomplished by defining modules. “Engineers can cre-ate libraries that enable them to reuse much of their earlier work,” says Uwe Scharf. “Those who put in a lot of work when they first use the software benefit all the more in subsequent projects.”

optIMal juSt-In-tIMe produCtIonAndreas Ripploh illustrates the enormous added value by citing an example. At noon one day a customer provided him with in-formation on the individual configuration of a four-compartment control system. The circuit diagram, which was more than 500 pages long, was sent that evening, and the finished enclosures were delivered just five days later. “our customers can see quick-ly what they want to order and what the system costs – that’s exactly what they ap-preciate about working with us.”once the order is placed, a plausibility check is made and detailed engineering can begin. Production follows immedi-ately afterwards: an automated drilling system prepares the mounting plates and the housing, and the cables are assem-bled. The circuit diagrams are generated automatically in Eplan Electric P8 and Eplan Pro Panel. Because the EEC is con-nected to the ERP system ABAS, compo-nent lists are available immediately and missing components can be ordered with-out delay. Thanks to the unbroken flow of data, costs related to the design and pro-duction of enclosures can be reduced by more than 20 per cent.

For Ripploh, selecting the right enclosure system is essential to achieving the great-est production efficiency. The enclosure system must lend itself well to different switchgear projects and meet the require-ments of various industries, which is why Ripploh has relied on Rittal housing and enclosure technologies since 1995. There are concrete advantages to designing en-closures on the basis of a standardised system: the uniform TS 8 system platform and matching range of accessories fea-ture various installation options for enclo-sures of different types and sizes.one example: when individual enclosures are used as stand-alone solutions that are shipped worldwide and installed in harsh environments such as waste compactors in the recycling industry, companies can draw on the same enclosure system tech-nology found in bayed enclosures. Be-cause Rittal has based its new SE 8 stand-alone enclosures on the existing TS 8 platform, the same interior installation op-tions exist as in the traditional bayed sys-tem. “our staff do not have to constantly reinvent the wheel. This compatibility elim-inates a huge source of error that can cause chain reactions from the ordering process and assembly to late delivery,” says Ripploh, pleased. An additional ad-vantage is that staff expertise in designing and assembling enclosures on the basis of the TS 8 system can be transferred direct-ly to the new stand-alone units. Because the interior installation of the SE 8 and TS 8 systems is completely identical, customers do not have to decide until planning begins whether a stand-alone or a bayed enclo-sure is necessary. Unlike bayed enclo-sures with a frame and removable side panels, the body of the SE 8 is

“ We have defined 760 modules from thousands of design drawings and stored them in the Eplan Engineering Center.”

Andreas Ripploh, Managing Director of Ripploh Elektrotechnik

LINK TIP:

you can find additional information on the Eplan EEC at http://www.eplan.de/en/solutions/ mechatronic/eplan-engineering-center/

NAME praXIS


a one-Stop Shop for eXpertISeRipploh Elektrotechnik is a pioneer in modern control

and switchgear engineering solutions. The medium-sized company designs complete electrical

systems for machines and manufactures its own enclosures on the basis of these designs. It offers

all-in-one solutions based primarily on Rittal’s TS 8 and SE 8 enclosure systems with their efficient

installation options. Even if most enclosures are custom-made and require a great deal of

manual work, much can be accomplished with the help of integrated value chains extending

from engineering to processing.


KnoW-hoW RIPPLoH

autoMatIon aS a Standard Andreas Ripploh, Managing Partner of Ripploh Elektrotechnik GmbH, is setting store by the systematic automation of electrical and enclosure engineering.

made from a single piece of sheet steel, which makes it easier to work with be-cause there is no need to assemble side panels. And because the rear panel is screw-fastened, the enclosure is easily accessible. The cable-entry solutions fa-miliar from the TS 8 bay system can be used on the integrated base frame as well. The doors and the base/plinth of the SE 8 have been adopted from the TS 8 pro-gramme. Also beneficial to Ripploh is the improved design. The new stand-alone enclosures feature automatic potential equalisation between the enclosure body and the rear panel and the gland plate. Special contact elements that press against the surface coating during assembly establish a se-cure electrical connection and eliminate the need for separate earth straps. This innovation significantly reduces costs and installation times.Compared to the previous model, the SE 8 offers enhanced options for interior installation. As in the TS 8 system, con-figuration is possible on two mounting levels, increasing flexibility and creating additional space. The doors and bases/plinths have also been adopted from the TS 8 programme. The SE 8 offers substan-tial savings, especially in larger widths. Ripploh, an engineer himself, is sure of one thing: “If it is clear that systems will

not be expanded and a stand-alone en-closure suffices, the SE 8, which is based on the same technology, is a real alterna-tive to bayed systems at an attractive price.”

an end to paperStandardisation and automation will con-tinue on other levels. Rittal Manager Uwe Scharf (see interview, page 47) believes that in the future, customised enclosures will be produced at least partially on the assembly line. “Work such as wiring that today is done exclusively by hand will be partially automated,” he predicts. “Engi-neering data are currently available for all products. The next step is to provide pro-duction machinery data as well.” Ulti-mately, says Scharf, the sales process will also have to be better integrated into the data flow because sales staff still use too much paper today. A stack of copied documents is no longer delivered with the enclosure at the end of the production process. The documentation is generated automatically from the stored data. As a result, automation offers manufacturers greater security – along with improved quality, reduced potential for errors and fewer working hours. n

APP TIP:

Additional information can be found at www.ripploh.de and in the be top app.

vIDEO TIP:

Scan the QR Code to watch the interview with Andreas Ripploh (German only).


NAME praXIS

43

SySTEM ENCLOSURE SE 8

r ittal’s SE 8 enclosures are stand-alone solutions, but are also compatible with Rittal’s product

portfolio. They are based on the TS 8 platform, so all system accessories for TS 8 bayed enclosures – including climate control modules – can be used with individual SE 8 enclosures. This compatibility streamlines warehousing and simplifies ordering. Furthermore, the same 3D data can be used for engineer-ing. With their intelligent features, SE 8 enclosures enhance efficiency in control and switchgear design. Side and roof panels do not need to be assembled, thus reducing installation costs, and automatic potential equalisation makes additional earth straps unnecessary. The sheet steel and stainless steel models can be used in

nearly all fields. Due to the closed housing design, SE 8 enclosures are also well suited for higher protection categories. The tried-and-tested system is an ideal standard platform with endless options for enclosure design.

perfeCtly deSIgned

reSultSThe electrotechnical system is designed

in the EEC and later implemented as

specified when the enclosure is built.

APP TIP:

Additional information on the SE 8 can be found in the be top app.

44

KnoW-hoW INDUSTRY 4.0

data ConSIStenCy the Key aIM Switchgear construction is still dominated by manual operations, but workflows will change. The Friedhelm Loh Group is already offering promising approaches to streamline the value chain even more efficiently in future.

InduStry 4.0 Made real Integrated value chain. Under the slogan “Next level for industry,” Eplan, Cideon, Rittal and Kiesling offer pioneering solutions for integrated value chains in panel building and switchgear construction.

Text: Elke Bieber and Hans-Robert Koch


I n the future, software connectivity and interface control will determine every-thing. one important aspect is the link

between business and technical software. “This means,” says Friedhelm Loh, “that if processes are to be monitored from order intake all the way to the customer, you need to assemble a great many software components in a way that ultimately ena-bles machines to actually talk to each other and that provides integrated pro-cesses.” The entrepreneur is describing not merely an obsession, but rather a paradigm shift, which visitors to the Rittal stand at the Hannover Messe were able to witness in real time. Under the slogan “Next level for industry,” pioneering solu-tions for integrated value chains in panel building and switchgear construction were presented by Rittal and sister companies Eplan, Cideon and Kiesling. “Even if it takes a few more years to implement the vision of Industry 4.0, some promising ap-proaches have already been achieved at Eplan, Cideon, Rittal and Kiesling,” ex-plains Uwe Scharf, Rittal’s Executive vice President of Product Management (see interview, page 47). The focus of current

development activities in panel building and switchgear construction is on optimis-ing the product creation process in its en-tirety. The aim is to enhance the integration of product development and production processes as well as to increase the con-vergence of virtual and real worlds. “Con-sistent standardisation, integrated product data models and data storage, data-com-patible tools, coordinated processes in en-gineering, and new automated mechanical engineering and processes are essential prerequisites for implementing Industry 4.0.” Unfortunately, it (still) looks quite different in practice: switchgears employed in low-voltage main distribution are standardised in the industry today and built using Rittal’s modular design, but each system is indi-vidually designed and produced – in in-dustrial practice, still with considerable manual labour and data disruption.Today, with companies like Eplan, Cideon, Rittal and Kiesling, the Friedhelm Loh Group is already providing highly ad-vanced solutions. “As a modern technol-ogy partner network, our responsibility does not end with supplying a product, software, a modular enclosure

45

THE NETWORKED FACTORy

From the perspective of the German gov-ernment, Industry 4.0 is tied to important location perspectives. This consideration makes the evolution towards cross-pro-cess, cross-company networked smart factories one of ten future projects in its high-tech strategy, for which the German government has earmarked 200 million euros in funding. In addition, industry as-sociations and leading companies have joined forces as “Platform Industry 4.0” (www.plattform-i40.de) to stimulate re-search and development and promote common standards for participating stake-holders. Of particular interest is coopera-tion between disciplines such as produc-tion technology, mechanical engineering and process technology, as well as auto-mation technology, computer science and the Internet.

FUTURE PRoJECT INDUSTRY 4.0

INDUSTRY 4.0 KnoW-hoW



system or a processing machine,” ex-plains Friedhelm Loh. “We consider the process and the interaction of these com-ponents and our services, coordinating everything to optimum effect. We stream-line the value chain.” Among the require-ments for the vision of Industry 4.0 in panel building and switchgear construction:

virtualisation: It must encompass all of the engineering and the integration of pro-cesses from product development to pro-duction. virtualisation requires an integrat-ed product data model using commercial, technical, electrical and mechanical data. Switchgear engineering begins with the definition of requirements and electrical engineering. virtualisation is already pos-sible now, and normally uses native 3D data. Rittal provides all MCAD compatible product data free of charge on the Cade-nas platform “Partserver.”

Continuity: Today’s electrical engineering uses powerful CAE systems. To streamline subsequent processes, it is essential to keep using generated data continuously and without additional expenditure in ar-eas such as material procurement, ma-chine tool control and assembly. If Eplan Electric P8 is used in electrical engineer-ing, for example, a virtual 3D prototype can be created subsequent to hardware engineering for implementation with Eplan Pro Panel. The data for housings, acces-sories and equipment installed in the en-closure come from the Eplan Data Portal, where more than 370,000 product and device records from 57 major manufactur-ers are available. In addition to technical data, the 3D graphics data needed to cre-ate a virtual prototype are available for the components. Users will soon be able to access the entire Rittal portfolio – includ-ing commercial data for integration into enterprise resource planning (ERP) sys-tems, technical product information and logical data for engineering and purchas-ing-to-logistics integration.

automation: Switchgear construction is still dominated by manual operations. Kiesling Maschinentechnik GmbH – a subsidiary of the Friedhelm Loh Group – offers many ways to simplify and accel-erate workflow with their machines used in machining enclosure components, trim-ming support rails and cable ducts, and assembling rail terminals. All machines support the reutilisation of data from the Eplan electrical design and the virtual 3D prototype.

data availability: In future, no employee will gather the components for a produc-tion order using a printed bill of material. Instead, in the “smart factory,” all purchas-ing, logistics and materials management data will be coordinated in such a way as to ensure the constant availability of re-quired components.

Integration and standardisation: There are still many hurdles to clear along the road to Industry 4.0. In particular, integrat-ing engineering solutions into existing IT infrastructures – ERP systems are one ex-ample – still has not been satisfactorily re-solved in many cases. Standardising inter-faces and processes among the individual disciplines within the value chain in switch-gear construction is a challenge for the future. Data storage and availability will be of crucial importance in Industry 4.0.

These innovative approaches serve cus-tomer requirements and streamlining capabilities in equal measure. “Engineer-ing processes are always the most expen-sive ones in the entire value chain, and they must be fast and cost-effective,” Friedhelm Loh stresses, keeping in mind the demographic changes in Germany as well. “We will have six million fewer work-ers in 2030. For competitive reasons alone, we are obliged to ensure that our employees work much more efficiently than is the case today.” n

TAILORED SOLUTIONS

Today, efficiency in panel building – and, as a result, in Industry 4.0 – can already be significantly increased through the use of MCAD and ECAD product data (RICAD 3D and Eplan Data Portal) and networked software tools (Eplan Electric P8, Eplan Pro Panel, Rittal Therm and Rittal Power Engineering), as well as automated ma-chine technology from Kiesling, such as the Averex wiring robot. At the Hannover Messe, Rittal presented the RICAD 3D components library with a complete data update. In addition to the Eplan view app, Rittal Therm and Eplan Data Portal soft-ware tools were available as app versions.

REALITY PRoJECT INDUSTRY 4.0




oPTIMALLY EQUIPPED FoR INDUSTRY 4.0

What does Industry 4.0’s vision have to do with rittal and eplan?uwe Scharf: “vision” sounds like something in the distant future, and that’s not entirely correct. Some ele-ments of Industry 4.0 are already utilisable today. Large industrial compa-nies, such as carmakers, are already making use of opportunities in cross-linking the value chain, even across company boundaries. They are becom-ing more flexible, are able to react more quickly to changing requirements and even produce small batches profitably. Expectations are also high in mechani-cal and plant engineering for the convergence of manufacturing and the Internet. Our customers expect solutions from us, and this area is an important source of earnings potential for us.thomas Weichsel: The Eplan systems are already geared towards integrated data processing, which is necessary for efficient product development and plays a crucial role in Industry 4.0 as well. From the concept phase through the creation of a prototype to purchasing-to-logistics integration, virtualisation is state of the art at Eplan. In addition, Eplan and Cideon are equipped with numerous interfaces to other software systems such as SAP and the market-leading PLM [product lifecycle manage-ment] systems.

however, when it comes to enclosure construction, manual operations are still the rule ...Scharf: There’s been a lot of develop-ment in this area, and we see ourselves as a driving force. Machinery from our subsidiary Kiesling Maschinentechnik automates much of the workflow. Now robots can even manage the compli-cated wiring of mounting panels. This process is considerably less time-con-suming, and all machines can immedi-ately reutilise the engineering data. Several departments are involved in

a Well-Integrated duoThomas Weichsel, Eplan’s Product Manager for Control Panel Engineering (left), and Uwe Scharf, Rittal’s Executive vice President of Product Management, promote Industry 4.0 through their close collaboration on enclosure construction.

switchgear construction, such as mechanical design and production. Here again, data like NC machining pro-grammes, information about wire fabrication and bills of material must always be available and up to date. This condition in turn requires secure, high-availability networks for data storage and transmission.Weichsel: If we want global value networks to develop – and German industry is working towards that – then companies need to be provided with comprehensive, secure networks.

Where is there a particular need for action?Scharf: As mentioned, for companies to be responsive, data must be available at exactly the right time. Only then can decisions be made about the best next step in the production process. In

addition, engineering solutions must be better integrated into existing IT infra-structures, when it comes to access to enterprise resource planning systems, for example. Standardising interfaces and processes among the individual disciplines in switchgear construction is a challenge for the future.Weichsel: IT is in demand during the migration to Industry 4.0. We deliver soft-ware solutions and expertise. In our consortium, integrating the various processes has been given a high priority. In addition to leading software solutions for ECAD, MCAD and PLM systems, Cideon allows us to cover every aspect of process consulting and implementa-tion in these areas. That’s quite unique in the industry. With 1,100 software and engineering specialists, we are optimally equipped for the mega-trend that is Industry 4.0.

Interview. Major players in German industry see Industry 4.0 as such a deciding factor in maintaining a competitive edge that they are vigorously promoting this future- oriented technology. Eplan and Rittal are ideally positioned, as product managers Thomas Weichsel and Uwe Scharf explain in this interview.



1Welcome to “next level for industry”!

“Galileo” reporter Tim Feldner (ProSieben Tv) welcomed the Messe visitors

to Rittal’s Industry 4.0 Arena. Every half hour he and colleague Alexandra

Tapprogge explained how integrated engineering, standardised systems

technology and automated machining can reduce the cost of switchgear

engineering by as much as 50 per cent.

HoW INDUSTRY 4.0 WoRKS visitors to the Hannover Messe got a first-hand look at practical applications of Industry 4.0 in me-chanical, control and switchgear engineering at Rittal’s Industry 4.0 Arena, where journalists Alexandra Tapprogge and Tim Feldner demonstrated in just five minutes how value chains might look using solutions from Eplan, Cideon, Rittal and Kiesling. It was a perfect example of process acceleration – from engineering to production. But see for yourself ...

design through eplan and Cideon

Perfectly integrated: In the Eplan area, visitors were shown how to select

appropriate components (such as Rittal enclosures and accessories) from

more than 370,000 records in the Eplan Data Portal simply by drag and drop.

Since Cideon joined the Friedhelm Loh Group, fully automated data

synchronisation between Eplan Platform and SAP PLM is also possible. 2

49



Wiring in 40 seconds: Kiesling’s averex

Looking to the future: Wiring a mounting plate can also be fully automated. Whereas

manual wire preparation and cable wiring take about 180 seconds per connection on

average, the Averex wiring centre does it extremely reliably in just 40 seconds, thanks

to laser sensors. The system can be easily integrated with electronic wiring lists

and CAD layout tools. Sigmar Gabriel, Germany’s Minister for Economic Affairs and

Energy, was awestruck during his visit to the Hannover Messe. 4

layout and fully automated enclosure machining

Rittal and Kiesling created a real enclosure from virtual mounting

layout data, “using components from Rittal’s modular system,”

explained Tim Feldner. Thread drilling and milling data for enclosure

panels is forwarded from Eplan to Kiesling’s Perforex machining

centre. A time-consuming manual task can now be fully automated

and performed with extreme precision. 3

+ + +

Magazine


Three new subsidiaries right off the bat in Japan, South Africa and Turkey: all signs point to expansion for Eplan. At the Hannover Messe (photo), the solutions provider Eplan rang in its thirtieth anniversary. More than 40,000 customers, over 100,000 installations in more than fifty countries, and 700 employ-ees – all outcomes of an ongoing success story that began with three people in 1984. “We are excellently positioned globally, and I see huge opportunities in view of the world’s growing markets,” says Maximilian Brandl, President of Eplan. The company, which is the market leader for CAE solutions, is pre-sent in more than fifty countries. There is greater expansion in the growing markets of the United States, China, India and Japan. Substantial double-digit growth is planned for 2014, and more than one hundred addi-tional positions are to be created.Friedhelm Loh first invested in Eplan back in 1986 (when it was still known as Wiechers & Partner), having recognised the company’s prospects early on. Today he consciously directs the company’s focus towards opti-mised value chains. “our customers expect rationalisation potential from us,” Loh ex-plains. “That is something we can target with Industry 4.0 ideas. In this context, the power-ful association of Eplan, Cideon, Rittal and Kiesling forms an outstanding basis for in-creasing value creation for our customers.”

LINK TIP:

www.eplan.de/en

Stahlo has again received ISo/TS 16949 certification and thus continues to fulfil the auto industry’s high quality standards. The Swiss Association for Quality and Manage-ment Systems (SQS) audited all processes at Stahlo, from initial customer inquiry to materials delivery. This uniform standard was initiated by leading car manufacturers and is a prerequisite for delivering to top carmakers and industry suppliers. As one of the largest independent steel service centres in Europe, Stahlo manufactures slit-ted coils, blanks and contoured blanks for the auto industry.

STAHLO CERTIFIED

auto InduStry partner

Johannes Remmel, Minister for the Environ-ment of North Rhine-Westphalia, honoured Rittal for its involvement with the Ökoprofit energy-saving project in its Burbach factory. Ökoprofit is a project of the state government; with the assistance of a modular consulting and qualification programme, companies are being supported with the introduction and improvement of operational environmental management. Eleven companies are partici-pating in Burbach. Between April 2013 and the project’s end in April 2014, they saved 2.7 million kilowatt-hours of energy as com-pared to the reference period and reduced carbon dioxide emissions by 900 tonnes.

BIG ENERGy SAvINGS

aCColade for rIttal

eplan`S 30th annIverSary

vIBRANT GROWTH

50

Last year, seventy new trainees began their apprenticeships at the Friedhelm Loh Group and its subsidiaries Eplan, LKH, Loh Services, Rittal and Stahlo. This number of trainees again makes the group of compa-nies the largest trainer in its respective re-gion. The companies offer young women and men apprenticeships in nineteen differ-ent occupations. The group of companies will continue to hold steady on its proven recruiting course.

LINK TIPP:

www.friedhelm-loh-group.com/en/karri-ere/schueler_ausbildung.asp

AHOy, APPRENTICES!

traInIng Start at f.l.g.


MagazIne


Connecting to the high-speed Internet is a local political topic in many muni-cipalities. Businesses in particular benefit from a good network connec-tion and take this factor into considera-tion when choosing a location. Rittal is now actively assisting with broadband expansion: Deutsche Telekom ordered around 28,000 multifunctional enclo-sures from Rittal for dependable broadband expansion. For Rittal, it was the largest order in the company’s history. Rittal designed the multifunc-tional enclosures in aluminium and modified them for the Telekom’s de-manding requirements. The systems are dustproof, vandalism-resistant and corrosion-proof, and a pure polyester powder coating makes the surface nearly immune to graffiti.So that municipalities can be connect-ed to the fast vDSL network, a system rollout across Germany was started and will run through 2016. “For this lo-gistics challenge, we require depend-able partners like Rittal,” says Uwe Abel from Deutsche Telekom Technik GmbH, Southwest Branch.

HIGH SPEEDbroadband eXpanSIon WIth rIttal

LINK TIP:

For more information, head to www.rittal.com.


eXperIenCe IT SECURITY

data is a strange commodity. You cannot see or touch it, it has no weight and no specific form – and

yet it can be stolen, damaged or even de-stroyed. The consequences can be ex-tremely serious – in many fields, data can be a company’s most important asset. Un-surprisingly, IT security has been a top pri-ority for business for quite some time. And after the extensive spying by the United States’ NSA intelligence agency became known, the topic has once again gained in importance.Data espionage is by far not the only dan-ger that a company must defend against. Even when data do not have a physical form, they can be destroyed by fire or water. If there is a fire in a computer centre, data protection isn’t the only thing in danger – this type of event also places a company’s business operations in danger. The same

holds true for power failures or acts of sab-otage that bring servers and other compo-nents to a standstill and cripple processes across all departments.Comprehensive, uninterrupted protection of IT infrastructure provides crucial assur-ance for a company. Yet how can corpora-tions and businesses best meet these chal-lenges? The TÜv NoRD GRoUP in Hanover provides the perfect example; they’ve just built one of the most modern, most secure data centres in Germany.The company has brought together all IT functions into 1,500 square metres of floor space. They were previously handled by decentralised facilities both in Germany and abroad. The new data centre has “Trusted IT Site Level 3” certification, which documents compliance with very high se-curity standards. In cases of fire, for in-stance, the two server rooms can withstand a blaze for three hours without the infra-structure in the interior being endangered. or for protection against intruders, five graduated security zones with access con-trols guarantee that only authorised em-ployees can gain entry to the respective zones. And the TÜv NoRD GRoUP also has stringent demands with respect to IT infrastructure availability, such that the data centre cannot have more than 10 minutes of unplanned outages annually, and must additionally be able to run for 72 hours in-dependent of the external power supply. The group of companies invested about

tÜv nord group. one of the most modern data centres in Germany is located in Hanover. Along with high accessibility and security, energy efficiency is also important. Solutions from Rittal are used in the server rooms and for energy distribution.

Text: Kerstin Ginsberg and Dr. Jörg Lantzsch

data proteCtIon In blue

the tÜv nord group

The group of companies has 140 years of security expertise behind it and nowadays more than 10,000 employees working for national and international clients in over 70 countries in Europe, Asia, the Americas and Africa. Their broad certification, service and testing programme encompasses both specific single tests and the management of complex security solutions for people and technology.

eight million euros in the project, about one-third of which covered construction costs.

MaXIMuM dependabIlItyIn order to ensure that the security require-ments for the new data centre were opti-mally implemented, the TÜv NoRD GRoUP brought on board external partners from the industrial and IT sectors. The group counted on only those companies that are among the best in their fields for good rea-son. Röwer Sicherheits und Gebäudetech-nik GmbH handled installation of the elec-trical and security-technical equipment. Kesselhut Schaltanlagen GmbH & Co. KG was responsible for construction of the low-voltage main switchboard (LvMS). And be-cause the companies can guarantee max-imum dependability only when the hardware also fulfils the highest quality and security standards, Kesselhut installed a LvMS based on Rittal’s Ri4Power system. “We’ve had nothing but the best experi-ence with Ri4Power over the past years,” says Kesselhut CEo Andreas Pahl. The Ri4Power system has already been type-tested with the most popular switchgear devices from most manufacturers. Kessel-hut had additional testing carried out be-cause the company had made some mod-ifications to the system.Like the supply from the medium-voltage system, the LvMS also has a redundant design; the entire data centre is linked to the electricity grid by two main


IT-SICHERHEIT praXIS


NAME rubrIK

square metresThe new data centre covers

1,500 square metres.

1,500

312 tonnes

Energy savings in the TÜv NORD GROUP data centre

amount to 312 tonnes less carbon dioxide emissions each year.

tS It racksServer Room 1, which has been in commission since early 2014,

holds 120 TS IT Racks.

120


eXperIenCe IT security

the system, including temperatures in the server rooms. For data consolidation, the TÜv NoRD GRoUP also depends on Rittal’s expertise and know-how. All relevant information is summarised through the CMC III monitoring system from Rittal. This system not only contributes to improving the data centre’s energy efficiency, but also adds to its security. As Leroy Racette ex-plains, “In the final expansion phase, we want to ensure that employees have access to designated server enclosures only.”What was particularly pleasing to all par-ticipants was the fast and trouble-free ac-tivation of the centre: in late october 2013, the data centre was handed over to the TÜv NoRD GRoUP, and it began opera-tions in early 2014. A glance into the ac-counting books also brought big smiles to faces at the TÜv NoRD GRoUP: the ac-tual costs met the planned costs to the penny. “That isn’t a given for projects of this size,” says Racette. n

MaKe Me blueAll of the Rittal TS IT racks are painted in the TÜv-brand blue.

connections that are completely separate from one another – creating maximum se-curity. Kesselhut engineered the LvMS so that work on individual circuits can be un-dertaken without disconnecting the entire system from the mains.

plenty of SeCurIty WIth lIttle energyAlong with relevant security aspects, en-ergy efficiency was especially paramount for the planning of the data centre. To achieve this aim, the hot air from the server room is transferred into the cooling circuit via heat exchangers; two hybrid coolers on the building’s roof discharge the remaining warmth outside. Simultaneously, two chill-ers ensure that the cool air reaches the data centre. “We save an enormous amount of energy as compared to our previous data centres through such energy-efficient sys-tems,” says Leroy Racette, Divisional Head IT at TÜv NoRD GRoUP. “We’ve calculated that the energy savings corresponds to a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions of about 312 tonnes per year.”The 120 server enclosures in Server Room 1 are technologically and visually top of the line. They come from Rittal, although that cannot be recognised at first glance. All of the TS IT racks were painted in the TÜv-brand blue. Power distribution in the racks is handled by the Power System Module (PSM), also made by Rittal. The socket strips are modular and intelligent – they register and document the servers’ exact power consumption down to the level of the individual outlets.This measurement of electrical power used is a central prerequisite for the energy-effi-cient running of the servers. Namely, if an unbalanced load crops up – that is to say, an asymmetric distribution of the load across the three phases – it results in un-necessarily high power consumption.The Rittal PSM makes the measurements available both through the Web server inte-grated into the monitoring system and through SNMP. The devices are connected to an energy management system which monitors energy usage and allows it to be controlled. other measurements flow into

SySteMatIC envIronMental proteCtIon

The efficient cooling alone means the TÜv NORD GROUP emits 312 tonnes less carbon

dioxide each year, which pleases Leroy Racette, Divisional Head IT at TÜv NORD GROUP.

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54


NAME rubrIK

72hours

The TÜv NORD GROUP data centre can run for 72 hours independent of

external power sources.

metresStacked on top of one another,

all of the TS IT racks in the data centre would measure 240.5 metres

tall – as tall as most television towers in modern cities.

240.5

3months

Getting the data centre up and running

took 3 months.


Country of eXtreMeSIndia’s climatic conditions are more extreme than almost anywhere else on the planet (see map, page 58). This circumstance presents a special challenge for setting up and expanding IT infrastructure in the country.

eXperIenCe CLIMATE CoNTRoL

57

IT-KLIMATISIERUNG praXIS

hot, Cold, hotIndia. There are a variety of different climate zones on the sub-continent. From tropical climes in the south to the mountains in the north, temperature and humidity vary wildly – and present quite a challenge for the climate-control experts from Rittal. A travelogue.

Text: Hans-Robert Koch and Dr Jörg Lantzsch



eXperIenCe CLIMATE CoNTRoL

I t is hot, muggy and a genuine ordeal for a central European.” When Ralf Schneider, Director of Business Devel-

opment Climate Control at Rittal, thinks back to his most recent business trip, he breaks out in a sweat. In the summer of 2013, he was on the ground in India for Rittal. The emerging economic power-house is a country of extremes, which ap-plies to its economy and its society, as well as to the nation’s climate and land-scape. “There are obvious differences to western Europe,” Schneider says. During his trip, he noticed the poverty in the slums of the metropolises as well as the up-and-coming business centres that at-tract industrial firms.The country is striving to expand its own industrial production. For 2014 alone, economists expect the gross national product to grow by 5.1 per cent. There is considerable potential, especially in elec-trical, medical and environmental tech-nologies, in the energy sector and in the food and packaging industries. Banga-lore is representative of this development. Known as India’s Silicon valley, many companies have set up shop here, includ-ing global corporations. About 150 Ger-man companies are located here, India’s third-largest metropolis. Rittal is present with a production facility (see article, page 59). Ralf Schneider noticed that German products are held in high regard. Whether in breweries or sugar refineries, glassworks or automobile factories, ma-chines from Germany are used in many production facilities, which explains why machines make up a good third of Ger-man exports to India.Yet high-tech equipment operates smooth-ly only when the control and switchgear systems are perfectly cooled. It is not an easy task, for India’s climate is truly chal-lenging: the subcontinent includes such varied landscapes as the Thar Desert in the far northwest, the Himalayas in the north and tropical stretches of coast in the south (see the climate map at right). In spring and summer, some regions try to outdo one another with record-breaking heat; in May of 2013, people in the federal states of Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh faced temperatures of 52 degrees Celsius. During the summer monsoons, which begin in June or July depending on the region, the rains come pouring down. The village of Mawsynram in the northeast of Meghalaya state holds the world record for the most rainfall, with an average of 11,874 millimetres annually. In comparison, Berlin receives 581 millimetres per year. In

southern India, the temperatures sink to bearable levels only in winter. At the same time, it can be cool to frosty in the country’s north, especially at night. “India’s climate is extreme in all respects for us central Eu-ropeans,” Ralf Schneider explains. “But the locals suffer because of it too. And the con-stant stress and fluctuation of these condi-tions strain machines, as they place the greatest demands on cooling units throughout production.”

dependable and effICIentIn a climate with high temperatures and high relative humidity, cooling units in par-ticular must function perfectly in order to provide sufficient climate control within enclosures. They have to prevent high electric power losses and overheating. But with respect to enclosure climate con-trol especially, Schneider saw any number of cooling units break down under ex-treme conditions. The result: If the units do not provide sufficient cooling, the compo-nents in the enclosure may overheat, lead-ing in the worst case to machines com-pletely malfunctioning.In order to avoid these risks, cooling units must be properly dimensioned when they are designed (see the interview at right). Those responsible require exact data about the heat loss of the individual com-ponents within the enclosure and about the cooling unit’s output for a temperature of 35 degrees Celsius both within the en-closure and outside it. Unfortunately, that is not enough for India; a climate control system is confronted with different climat-ic challenges (see the climate map be-low). That is why, along with the standard

values, Rittal also offers designers the output data at higher temperatures. The TÜv NoRD GRoUP, a German technical inspection organisation, tested and veri-fied the performance figures for every cooling unit in the TopTherm series. Meas-urements were also taken for an ambient temperature of 50 degrees Celsius and a humidity of 40 per cent. This effort makes Rittal the first manufacturer in the world to have its cooling units tested by an inde-pendent body. Design engineers and end users can thus be certain that Rittal’s cool-ing units provide ideal temperatures, even under permanent climatic stress.Along with the cooling output, the units’ energy efficiency was also certified – a matter of particular interest to Indian cli-ents. Wherever high demands are placed on cooling systems, an investment in high-quality yet economical devices pays off over the long term – an important and unique selling point.In order to ensure that the cooling units are properly dimensioned in the design phase, Rittal makes its free Rittal Therm software available to design engineers. When calculating climate control solu-tions, it also includes the ambient condi-tions and thus the ideal cooling. That is why temperatures of over 50 degrees Cel-sius in India do not pose a problem. n

hot and dry ken

hot and humid

mixed

cold

temperate

• Bangalore – Location of Rittal in India

hot and cold – a land of extremesIndia has a number of different climate zones, from tropical in the south, the Thar Desert in the far northwest, and the subtropical mountains in the north.

59

IT-KLIMATISIERUNG praXIS


FROM BANGALORE TO ALL OF ASIA

r ittal has been present on the subcontinent with its own subsidi-ary in Doddaballapur, near

Bangalore, since 1995. The Indian branch is around 45,000 square metres in size, with about 10,000 of these solely for production purposes. Manufacturing began with a fifty-strong workforce in 1997. In 1998, they received ISO-9001 certification. Today, Rittal India has more than 500 employees and, along with enclosure manufacturing, also offers comprehensive service for climate control production on location, including fast spare-part supply as well as mainte-nance and repair with the company’s own service technicians. Rittal initially sold its products through a large elec-tronics corporation, which was then

followed by a changeover to direct sales. Twelve sales offices were set up in locations throughout the country. Cooling unit manufacturing began in 2002.Rittal India keeps to the established concept of the standard programme for enclosures and housing systems, though adapted to the (climatic) de-mands of the local market. In order to manufacture with qualified employees in India, Rittal has additionally initiated its own training and qualification programmes, which include assign-ments to one of Rittal’s overseas factories.

rIttal on loCatIonA Rittal subsidiary has been running its own production facility in India since 1997.

CLIMATE CoNTRoL eXperIenCe

What are the differences between Indian and german production plants?ralf Schneider:

In the plants that I visited, you often see very modern production machines from German manufacturers. At the same time, the infrastructure often doesn’t meet the standards that we would expect in Germany.

What does that mean exactly?Schneider: Many production facilities are situated in old buildings. It is not unusual for an emergency generator to go on line following voltage fluctuations or power outages. All this poses special challenges for the machines and installations being used.

What must be kept in mind for enclosure climate control in India?

CLIMATIC RoLLERCoASTER FoR TECHNoLoGYralf Schneider, Director of Business Development Climate Control for Rittal, on enclo-sure climate control under extreme conditions in countries such as India.

Schneider: very high temperatures of 50 degrees Celsius, combined in part with tropical humidity, are not uncom-mon. During my visit, I saw climate control solutions that didn’t function properly surprisingly often. The cooling output of the units in use was often insufficient for the at times extreme ambient temperatures.

Were these characteristics not factored in during planning?Schneider: yes, in isolated cases. However, the designers shouldn’t necessarily get the blame. Cooling output for units is commonly specified only for 35 degrees by some manufac-turers. And even if cooling output is listed for higher temperatures, you shouldn’t rely on these figures unconditionally. Examinations of the devices of various manufacturers in our own laboratories established that there were significant differences in some cases.

What were the consequences?Schneider: We had all of our TopTherm cooling units tested by TÜv, an independ-ent German technical inspection organi-sation. The cooling output that we indicate was tested and confirmed. Climate control solutions are designed for temperatures up to 55 degrees. When ambient temperatures are as consistently high as they are in India, undersized units quickly reach their limits. This can result in significantly shorter lifespans for the cooling units. In the worst case, the components in the enclosure overheat and the machine breaks down.

additional unique selling points for rittal technology?Schneider: During my India trip, I noticed that the topic of energy efficiency for cooling units met with very great interest. Especially when much is required of cooling units, investments in energy-efficient units such as the “Blue e” series quickly pay for themselves.

LINK TIP:

www.rittal-india.com


60

eXperIenCe PACKAGING TECHNoLoGY

MaSter Seal Huber Packaging Group’s specially

designed clamping ring is a little masterstroke made of slitted coils from Stahlo (see small photo). Lid

and clamping ring must fit together like a hand in glove. They combine

to ensure that contents are hermetically sealed.



PACKAGING TECHNoLoGY eXperIenCe

b ernhard Kürschner comes to greet us, holding something in his hand that immediately captures our un-

divided attention: a tinplate bucket. In ad-dition to its appealing decorative design, this casual means of carrying info packets has a special feature that Huber Packaging Group’s Director of Marketing and Public Relations describes as an important detail of safe tinplate packaging: the clamping ring. Without this sealing component con-sisting of only four parts, international com-mercial shipments, especially those of haz-ardous goods, would be next to impossible. In plain language, Mr Kürschner talks about the wide variety of industrial packaging of-fered by this company, now in its fifth gen-eration of family-run operation. The first five-litre party keg was developed in 1972, and 1998 brought another breakthrough in the form of the party keg, now equipped with a built-in tap. “Not only are we the in-ventor of the party beer keg, we’re now the global market leader,” Kürschner says proudly. He estimates that if all of the party beer kegs produced since then were placed end to end, they would wrap around the earth several times.Global market leader? Arriving at the train station in Öhringen, Germany, you cannot shake the feeling of having landed in the middle of nowhere. Within view of the station, the Huber Packaging Group building (photo, right) is close enough to touch. Almost as if in greeting, the company banners with the red logo sway jovially in the wind. The trip to Öhringen already promises pastoral idyll at

global paCKIng profeSSIonalThe Huber Packaging Group is a major player among metal packaging manufactur-ers. The family-owned and -operated company develops and produces environ-mentally friendly packaging from tinplate. Their assortment includes a wide array of industrial packaging and the globally successful five-litre party keg. Stahlo, which belongs to the Friedhelm Loh Group, is one of the largest and most modern independent steel service centres in Germany and an important supplier for Huber.

packaging. As a proficient developer and supplier with specialist expertise, Huber Packaging Group GmbH has become a sought-after packaging artist. Stahlo supplies the hidden champion.

Text: Marisa Robles Consée and Jürgen Jehle

its best. No doubt about it, life is good in the Hohenlohe district, and surely not just be-cause it is home to the Swabian-Hall Swine, the well-known domestic pig breed. An ag-glomeration of German industry is en-sconced in the lowlands and seemingly sleepy valleys of the rivers Jagst, Kocher and Tauber. To date, Dr Bernd venohr, con-sultant and professor at the Berlin School of Economics and Law, has identified more than 1,500 global market leaders in Ger-many. But in no other rural district are there as many, relative to the population, as in Ho-henlohe, the home of Würth, Bürkert, ebm-papst, R. Stahl and many other global mar-ket leaders. Mustang Jeans are also from Hohenlohe. Many major companies have their headquarters here. Moreover, a num-ber of mid-sized specialty machinery manu-facturers involved mainly in packaging tech-nology have settled in eastern Hohenlohe, primarily in and around Crailsheim and Schwäbisch Hall – in the “Packaging valley of Germany,” which has its own association and website. Huber Packaging Group’s main facilities are located near the area, in Öhringen. Many scientists have tried to fig-ure out what it is that drives people to excel. In any case, these leaders in technology and innovation, most of which are family-owned, combine the best of two worlds: they have the flexibility of a mid-sized operation and the professionalism of a corporation. “Beverage,” the division responsible for party beer kegs, accounts for only about 20 per cent of Huber Packaging Group’s revenue; at 80 per cent, “Industrial”

SealIng the

deal!


is clearly the core division. Standardised tin-plate packaging for paint and varnish, for chemical-technical products and for some sectors of the food industry is used to create round, rectangular, small and large cans, buckets, hobbocks, canisters and jerry cans, with capacities of 125 millilitres to 30 litres. All of this is achieved by sixteen as-sembly lines, which can produce 240 cans per minute. “The individual production steps must be very precisely coordinated,” notes Bernhard Kürschner on the individual manu-facturing processes during the plant tour. With approximately 700 employees divided between facilities at Öhringen, Ansfelden (Austria) and Györ (Hungary), the packag-ing manufacturer generated approximately 142 million euros in total sales in 2013. Cur-rently, there are about 550 people working at the two Öhringen plants. Tinplate’s high mechanical resistance makes the metal an attractive packaging medium. Tinplate packaging is unbreakable, shock-resistant and puncture-proof, remaining intact even under heavy loads, and also boasts supe-rior stacking strength. In addition, the metal casing is completely impermeable to light, oxygen, gases, scents, flavourings, oils, fats and all kinds of liquids; it also provides reli-able protection against pests.

a foundatIon of hIgh-qualIty SteelThe packaging specialists from Öhringen process tens of thousands of tonnes of tin-plate annually. To make clamping rings, slitted coils are processed, and the sup-

plier of choice is Stahlo, a member of the Friedhelm Loh Group. Stahlo is one of the largest and most innovative mill-independ-ent steel service centres in Germany. “one of Stahlo’s major advantages is that we’re non-affiliated and independent,” explains Bernd Lischke, the company’s Director of Quality Management. “This allows us to be more flexible than most of our competitors in the steel industry.” (See interview, page 65.) Customers like Huber Packaging Group appreciate this flexibility. At branch-es in Dillenburg and Gera, Stahlo produc-es customised slitted coils, cut-to-size sheets, standard sheets, blanks and con-toured blanks in all standard grades. These range from hot and cold rolled, elec-trolytic zinc-plated, and hot-dip galvanised steel, to special grades such as high-strength and ultra-high-strength steels with a maximum tensile strength of 1,450 MPa, or 14,500 bar. To give a better sense of this strength, Lischke uses the ocean as an example: “At a depth of 10,000 metres, the pressure is approximately 1,000 bar – each square centimetre is subjected to a weight of one tonne.” Peter Wenk, assis-tant foreman for clamping ring production at Huber, is in his element here: “The clamping ring welding system is our own in-house production. We designed and developed it,” says the expert, “ultimately producing it with another mechanical en-gineer so as to meet our needs.” The sys-tem was built in 2002 and has an output of 900 clamping rings per hour. The machine, custom-made for Huber, requires

“ The reliability of the clamping ring lock is dependent on the quality of the material. This calls for metal of a constantly high quality and exact consistency!” Thorsten König, Director of Quality Control at Huber Packaging Group

tradItIon aS a prInCIple

HUBER’S 140TH ANNIvERSARY

1871In 1871, Karl Huber laid the foundation

for the manufacture of metal packag-ing: one of his first products was a sealable bucket with a wooden cover to hold cart grease for waggons. As early as 1972, the Huber company de-veloped the first five-litre party keg. In 1998, the first party keg with built-in tap was launched, making Huber Packag-ing Group the global market leader in this packaging option.



vERPACKUNGSTECHNIK praXIS

Steel non-Stop: In step-by-step assembly, Huber production

creates tinplate packaging (1). To make clamping rings, slitted coils (2) from Stahlo are processed.

At the first station of the clamping ring welding system, electrolytically galvanised slitted coils,

moulded beforehand into rings on a separate roll bending machine, are (3) centred; the processing

continues over five further stations. Finally, the finished clamping rings are checked by shop-floor

workers such as Despina Mavridou (left) and combined with the lids (4).

1 2

4

3



only five stations and a single weld to pro-duce ready-to-use clamping rings with a diameter of 328 millimetres from 1.4-milli-metre-thick slitted coils.

truSt and relIabIlItyAt the first station of the clamping ring welding system, hot-dip galvanised slitted coils, moulded beforehand into rings on a separate roll bending machine, are cen-tred by an employee; then, at the second station, grommets are moulded and a re-taining wire is inserted and pre-bent slight-ly. After a lock is added at the third station, the retaining wire is bent and trimmed so that this unit can be welded to the rings at the fourth station. The finished clamping ring comes out at the fifth station. “our goal was to produce a reliable sealing sys-tem requiring no additional tools, with as few individual parts as possible,” explains foreman Wenk. Above all, the reliability of the clamping ring lock is dependent on high-quality slitted coils, notes Thorsten König, Director of Quality Control at Huber Packaging Group. He and Yvonne Lösch, who is responsible for strategic purchas-ing, work closely with Stahlo. During de-velopment of the clamping ring, work was also done on its material properties, liter-ally welding the two companies together. Both consider it a close partnership, whose distinguishing characteristics are trust and reliability: “In the beginning we had to find our way to the right material thickness for the slitted coils – down to the micron. Even a few tenths of a millimetre were enough to effect unwanted warping during the production process,” Thorsten König recalls. Another challenge was asymmetrical bending of the metal, as great force has an uneven effect on the strip steel. “In the end, lid and bucket need to be connected to the hermetically seal-ing clamping ring in a way that ensures a tighter and more tamper-resistant locking of the unit,” says König. “This calls for metal of a constantly high quality and ex-act consistency.”

hIgh StandardS of qualItyStahlo maintains the high quality of steel in its own test laboratory. “Stringent quality as-surance throughout the process chain is a given for us,” says Bernd Lischke, Stahlo’s Director of Quality Management. “We test the materials for tensile strength, yield strength/proof stress and elongation at fail-ure in our in-house lab and use a vacuum emission spectrometer to perform chemical testing.” In addition, non-contact measure-ment systems monitor compliance with tol-

erances in ongoing production. Stahlo’s internal barcode system documents the path of all materials from the mill to the final product, ensuring traceability.That is an important criterion for Yvonne Lösch, purchasing expert: “We need high-quality slitted coils to manufacture our clamping rings.” Although the tinplate mar-ket in Germany is down slightly, Huber Pack-aging Group’s share of hazardous goods packaging remains consistent. “We are leading specialists in the field,” she explains, referring to nearly one hundred licences for road, rail and maritime transport. n

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lady of the rIngSyvonne Lösch is in charge of steel purchasing at Huber, including slitted coils from Stahlo for clamping rings.


PACKAGING TECHNoLoGY eXperIenCe

HOLy SHEET METAL! – THE WORLD OF HUBERMetal packaging. A durable and indestructible material, metal packaging also provides a valuable foundation for the manufacture of new metal products.

SCrap Steel: a reCyClIng pro

The industry is constantly working on ways to reduce weight: half-litre beverage cans weigh only half as much as they did in 1970.

In 2011, a total of about 1.75 million tonnes of aluminium and steel were processed into packaging in Ger-many, an increase of 2.5 per cent over the previous year. According to the Federal Statistical office, although the quantity of tinplate packaging pro-duction in 2011 decreased by 4.6 per cent over the previous year, produc-tion value increased by 1.5 per cent.

Sources: Steel Institute vDEh/Stahl-Zentrum, verband Metallverpackungen e. v., Federal Statistical office of Germany and GADv, Huber Packaging Group

As a result of its unique recycling network, germany is a net exporter of scrap steel. The material flow has increased two-and-a-half-fold since 2005. About four million tonnes of scrap were withdrawn from the market in 2012.

-50 %Wow!

one tonne of scrap steel saves 1.5 tonnes of iron ore 0.65 tonnes of coal 0.3 tonnes of limestone

NoT ALL STEEL IS THE SAMEInterview. Stahlo, one of the most innovative steel service centres, is Huber’s first choice, as Bernd Lischke, Stahlo’s Director of Quality Management, explains.

how important is good consultation?bernd lischke: Proper consultation saves time and money during produc-tion. There are special requirements for steel for each type of use. Extensive specialised knowledge is necessary to select the optimal composition, malle-ability and surface texture, for example.

What is the biggest challenge with respect to slitted coil, which is pro-duced for huber packaging group?lischke: Lids and clamping rings, which firmly and securely seal contain-ers with hazardous goods or high-grade

varnish, have a gap width of only one-tenth of a millimetre. A lot of Stahlo’s know-how goes into that. To ensure that the narrow, thin strip steel doesn’t tear during further processing, Stahlo must always provide consistent quality.

Is there any part of everyday life that doesn’t involve steel? lischke: Steel is truly versatile: it’s powerful, easily malleable, all-purpose and, most important, durable.


riMatrix S. Aschaffenburger Maschinenfabrik Johann Modler is banking on Rittal’s modular, standardised data centre, which was planned, delivered and successfully launched in a very short time.

Text: Elke Bieber

pIggybaCKIng a data Centre On the low loader, the RiMatrix S data centre embarks on a journey to its final destination, the factory grounds of Aschaffen-burger Maschinenfabrik Johann Modler. It will take up less space than three parked cars.

S hipping large machines long dis-tance is not an uncommon proce-dure for Christina Klang, Chief

operating officer of Aschaffenburger Maschinenfabrik Johann Modler GmbH, which produces grinding technology for customers around the world. But one winter morning last December, when a 22-meter low loader pulled up on the factory grounds and a crane lifted the High Cube ISo con-tainer off the cargo bed, it was “actually a little exciting.” After all, a data centre doesn’t float in the air every day on its way to landing with centimetre-precision at its new location. Modler had already taken care of electrical and water supply connec-tions, so now the container, which takes up less space than three parked cars, includes everything a data centre needs: six server enclosures and one network enclosure, cli-mate control, an uninterruptible power sup-ply (UPS) system including coordinated power distribution, and the Computer Multi Control III (CMC III) monitoring system – all that in a 7.25-metre-long, roughly 3-metre-wide and -high container. “Ready-to-use” is the word that project director Achim Bührle uses to describe this solution, which can be found in the Rittal catalogue since 2013

XXlpackage Right on time for the holidays, Rittal delivered the RiMatrix S package to Aschaffenburg on 13 December.

the travelS of a data Centre

6:15a.m. Departing Herborn: The data centre begins its 124-kilometre trip to Aschaffenburg.


under the name RiMatrix S – a standard-ised, modular data centre with a pre-de-fined service package, as well as pre-de-fined delivery times and costs.As Rittal’s partner, Frankfurt-based Innovo Cloud GmbH provides the appropriate hardware and software. Integrating exist-ing systems according to Modler’s wishes is not a problem: “It’s often the case with mid-sized companies that existing

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480

3 x 3 x 7.25 metresExcellent dimensions for a data centre. Square, practical, high-performance: the RiMatrix S compact solution.

hp strongThe data centre is a light load for the truck-mounted crane: its 480 hp can lift 70 tonnes on its hook. The data centre’s 10 tonnes are child’s play.

10tonnes of concentrated IT power are hanging from this hook.

RIMATRIx S eXperIenCe


eXperIenCe RIMATRIx S

hardware isn’t yet amortised and should continue to be used in the new private cloud solution,” says Innovo Cloud Manag-ing Director and Chief Information officer Stefan Sickenberger. “The concept we’ve developed offers our customers invest-ment protection, and the migration to the new system takes only a few days.”

SolutIonS for SMall and MedIuM-SIzed enterprISeS Innovo Cloud is committed to providing a response to legitimate reservations of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) about an IT megatrend like cloud computing. Although at first glance it might seem convenient to rent software, IT infra-structure, platforms and any related ser-vices from third-party providers by means of the Internet as a cost-saving measure, SMEs are wary because they want to know about the location and the security of their data. “It was essential for us to be able to keep our business data on site and not be forced to store it in some public cloud with-out any control,” says Modler Coo Chris-tina Klang. “our customers are very seri-ous about their confidentiality requirements. In the specialised field in which we oper-ate, it is often a matter of identifying com-petitive advantages for our customers with extreme precision.”In any case, cloud computing is cost-effec-tive for SMEs only when “software as a ser-vice” (SaaS) is offered in a standardised yet manageable form, because extensive configuration work can make a would-be bargain expensive. That’s why Innovo Cloud offers standardised cloud service components: the hardware, which no one else can access, remains on the compa-ny’s premises as a private cloud. Christina

Klang thinks it is “great, but ordering IT in-frastructure with just a few mouse clicks still takes some getting used to.” The IT up-grade was necessary for several reasons. First of all, the server room needed to be enlarged, but there was a lack of space. In addition, Modler needed a separate area for the printers in order to keep out equip-ment emissions. Finally, the heat and noise coming from the server room were putting a strain on workers. Modifying it would have meant major expense and inconven-ience in the offices. Moreover, the previous data centre was no longer efficient enough. “We have to be able to access production status in real time,” explains Modler Coo Klang. “We have to be able to simulate new orders quickly, in keeping with current transport and stock availability. Across the entire supply chain, there are more and more interfaces that need to be interlinked.” For that, Modler needs a stable, expand-able IT infrastructure that best supports company growth.Rittal expert Achim Bührle knows that “many SMEs consider modifying their data centres, either because they’re expanding or because they want to be prepared for changes like an upcoming move.” RiMatrix S introduces a new level of flexibility – a com-pany can take the data centre with it, up-grade it or rent excess capacity, perhaps to neighbouring businesses in the same in-dustrial area. “The container option can also be implemented as an interim solu-tion,” Bührle says. “once it’s no longer needed, it can be sold. That’s a very cost-effective option.”For Rittal and its customers, the data cen-tre’s cost effectiveness plays a prominent role in design and especially in day-to-day operation. The system specialist offers pro-spective customers a return-on-investment calculation for the facility, including plan-ning, investments, operating costs, staff and services. “Because RiMatrix S is standard-ised like no other product, it considerably reduces the amount of planning work for the companies,” says Achim Bührle. “Planning a data centre by means of conventional methods would take one to two years from concept to launch.” In contrast, RiMatrix S customers receive their data centres within six weeks. Moreover, all components are optimised for energy efficiency. In this way, RiMatrix S achieves Power Usage Effective-ness (PUE) ratings of up to 1.15.For SMEs, the switch to a professional com-plete solution also means a higher level of security: “In cooperation with the technical inspection association TÜv Rheinland, we have done everything possible to make

What SMeS Want

SMEs need flexible data centre solutions. RiMatrix S offers them:

• short planning phases and subsequent delivery time of six weeks,

• cost transparency,

• space-saving, adaptable solutions,

• a scalable IT infrastructure that can keep pace with business success,

• user-friendly handling and reliable service,

• site visits from IT professionals, dedicated contact people responsible for trouble-free operation.

APP TIP:

More information on RiMatrix S and Innovo Cloud can be found in the be top app.

RiMatrix S secure,” says Achim Bührle. Fire, burglary, leakage and redundancy protec-tion, and UPS are standard. Stefan Sicken-berger adds, “When it comes to data pro-tection and IT security, we comply with the recognised standards of the banking sec-tor, providing SMEs an unusually high level of security.”CMC III, Rittal’s monitoring and alarm sys-tem, has sensors that measure parameters such as temperature and humidity. If the measured data drops outside the green zone, administrators are immediately noti-fied, even by mobile phone if desired. “Nat-urally, our service department is available round the clock,” Bührle adds.That’s reassuring for Modler, because the family business has only one administrator, who has other responsibilities on his shoul-ders in addition to the supervision of the data centre. The Aschaffenburgers see themselves as pioneers. “Innovation has always been the driving force behind our company,” says Christina Klang. “And in-novation always means venturing into new areas. With Innovo Cloud and Rittal, that’s a very promising prospect.” n

vIDEO TIP:

Scan the QR code to watch an on-site movie of a RiMatrix S delivery.

01 | 2014 | Magazine of the Friedhelm Loh Group Group | be top

NAME praXIS

69

the XXl Starter paCK Shortly after placing the order, Modler COO Christina Klang can already be pleased about the launch of their new data centre (1). At the headquarters in Herborn, Rittal loaded the modular, standardised data centre RiMatrix S (5), which was delivered to Modler in Aschaffenburg (2) on 13 December. Achim Bührle (left), Rittal project manager and systems engineer, and Innovo Cloud CEO Stefan Sickenberger (4) were very satisfied with RiMatrix S’s initial performance tests (3).

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5

1


eXperIenCe LKH

the injection moulding machine works with great precision. It depos-its inner locking levers on the con-

veyor belt – 8 every 20 seconds, 24 a min-ute, 1,440 an hour. Every 20 seconds a decision must be made as to whether the parts that land on the belt are good – in other words, whether they meet quality standards. That’s too little time for drawn-out analyses. “Usually the pressure and temperature sensors in the tool itself en-sure the proper quality,” says Rüdiger Braun, Head of Engineering and Sales at LKH. However, due to the special design and component geometry of the new tool developed at LKH, such sensors could not be installed with cabling. The new ma-chine is able to produce fourteen versions of the inner locking levers, always eight in a pass. In order to ensure the best-possi-ble quality control, the production manag-ers developed a solution that reliably eliminates defective components.All fourteen versions of the lever are made from a polybutylene terephthalate contain-ing 30 per cent glass fibre. Each lever weighs about 5 grams. The eight-cavity tool, which works with a partial hot runner system, is heated to the right temperature, and then approximately 50 grams of mate-rial – the so-called total shot weight – is introduced. A handling unit removes the eight components. Any surplus material – the sprue – is separated and weighed. The components are placed on the conveyor belt of the Sartorius EWK 3010 weigher, which measures their total weight and swiftly compares it with pre-set target val-ues (currently ± 0.3 grams per shot). If the tolerance value is exceeded, the belt dumps the moulded parts into a scrap container. “Normally, the tolerance limits are met, in which case the belt transports the injection-moulded parts to small con-tainers,” says Braun. At the same time the

APP TIP:

Further information on LKH and the EWK 3010 weigher by Sartorius can be found in the be top app.

the Wheat froM the ChafflKh. Working with Sartorius AG, a specialist in weighing technology, LKH Kunststoffwerk has come up with a clever solution for an injection moulding project. The 100 per cent inspection of components ensures that defective ones are not processed any further.

Text: Beate Schwarz

weighing system counts the good parts to fulfil the planned lot sizes. “Handling, weighing and transport to the correct con-tainer within 20 seconds – that’s an impres-sive achievement,” says the plastics ex-pert. “The primary challenge was to fulfil the high demands of the weighing toler-ance in a dynamic process,” says Geza Lehnert, Regional Sales Manager at Sartorius. The company met this challenge by using the EWK 3010 check weigher. It is equipped with a special start-stop system and installed transversely. “The weigher ensures that defective parts are reliably separated from good ones. This solution enables us to meet the required tolerance limits and efficiently monitor the process.”

reduCed CoStS and retoolIng tIMeSThe weight of the inner locking lever is an indicator of process quality, and the weigh-ing solution makes use of this fact. varia-tions in pressure, temperature, material composition and other parameters lead to various fill levels in the tool’s cavities and to different component weights. While the tool is operating, the technology quickly and reliably identifies parts of series qual-ity – and thus reduces costs and retooling times. Using defined tolerance limits, the scale ensures that only flawless compo-nents are delivered. If several problems crop up in a specified time period, an alarm sounds and production is halted. LKH uses the potential of modern, user-friendly tool sensors to monitor and control many phases of production. It constantly attempts to achieve optimal efficiency in both production and tool design – the use of a tool with exchangeable inserts un-leashes tremendous rationalisation poten-tial in the manufacture of inner locking levers. The automatic 100 per cent inspec-tion of moulded parts can serve as a mod-

el for the production of other components. “our production specialists began with the well-known, proven method of weighing moulded parts for quality control and in-corporated this method into a reliable au-tomated process. But LKH is known for its pragmatic solutions in other areas as well,” says Dr Guido Stannek, Managing Director of LKH. n


LKH praXIS

7171

The Sartorius EWK 3010 is a highly pedantic inspection

system. If the actual value is not 100 per cent correct, the system

removes the part.

8 pieces every 20 seconds, 24 a minute,

1,440 an hour.


the f.l.g. CoSMoS MAGAZINE


Dynamic markets pose a challenge for machine, control and switchgear engineering. For this reason, the value chain must be fit and prepped for the future. The alliance of Eplan, Cideon, Rittal and Kiesling showed how this challenge can be met at the Hannover Messe with Industry 4.0 solutions that perfectly intermesh all steps along the value chain in manu-facturing industries. Under the motto “Next Level for Industry,” the Friedhelm Loh Group presented itself as a powerful force for value creation to speed up processes from engineering to production and to synchronise all data. The advances made in process automation also pleased Germany’s Chancellor

INTEGRATED vALUE CREATIONthe frIedhelM loh group preSentS “neXt level for InduStry”

Angela Merkel: “We have to continue working on the inter-face between the Internet and mechanical engineering and the classic industrial fields,” she said. During his visit to the Hannover Messe, German Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy Sigmar Gabriel said, “It is only by developing indus-trial standards for important Industry 4.0 applications today that Germany will become the leading supplier and leading market for IT-based technologies tomorrow, and will be able to remain competitive in the future.” The German federal government supports Industry 4.0 through its 2014–2017 Digital Agenda.


MAGAZINE the f.l.g. CoSMoS

73

Under the motto “A system for the future” (“Zukunft mit System”), Rittal piqued inter-est in technology in students from all over Germany at the 2014 Tec2You trade fair. visitors were allowed to tinker and play with technology, with Rittal trainees lend-ing a hand. There was enormous interest from young people: 5,500 students visited Tec2You at the Hannover Messe – many of whom came from the Lahn-Dill district where Rittal is headquartered. As in years previous, Rittal invited secondary-school and college students and organised bus tours to Hannover. At Tec2You, Rittal ap-prentices set up a live table-football pitch (photo) at which stand visitors took on the positions of the plastic game figures. Rittal products were playfully converted for use on the football pitch. Enclosures quickly became goals. Groups of male and fe-male students competed against one an-other in speed and team play. As a prize, all players received a fan scarf in the col-ours of Germany’s flag, creating a World Cup vibe two months before the Football World Cup in Brazil. In addition, the young students could also find out about training and study opportunities at Rittal.

LINK TIP:

www.tec-2-you.de (German only)

SuCCeSS at teC2you thanKS to traIneeS

This year, the apprenticeship workshop of the Friedhelm Loh Group at Gnadenthal Abbey took place under the motto “Indus-try 4.0.” What will the industrial future look like? How do people and machines work together? The apprentices answered these questions in their project reports, the best of which were honoured by a jury. “I hope that you are the kind of people who don’t go through life with fears, but instead get things done with a positive attitude,” was the advice Friedhelm Loh gave the young trainees. “You are the next generation. You are this company’s capital.”

LKH Kunststoffwerk in Heiligenroth, Ger-many, sets an example for the integration of disabled people; the Forum Sozial Ger-echtigkeit (Forum for Social Justice) was impressed by LKH’s efforts during a visit in early December. The Friedhelm Loh Group company is one of the leading German plastic processors. Within the scope of in-house projects, there are four people with disabilities working at LKH who previously worked in Caritas workshops. Uli Schmidt, spokesperson for the forum, underscored the significant role that economically strong companies play in integrating disabled people into the labour force.

At the end of 2013, 203 employees cele-brated fulfilled professional lives at the Friedhelm Loh Group. These 203 employ-ees celebrating anniversaries with the company have contributed a total of 807,000 workdays – which translates to 2,211 years. Friedhelm Loh personally thanked them for their commitment. It was the tenth anniversary for 85 employees, and another 108 have been with compa-nies of the Friedhelm Loh Group for 25 years. Ten of the honourees can look back on a lofty 40 years. In his speech, Friedhelm Loh thanked all of them for their dedication and loyalty.

INTEGRATION IN ACTION

TEAM PLAy WINS!

people WIth dISabIlItIeS at lKh

2,211 yEARS OF COMMITMENTf.l.g. annIverSarIeS honouredf.l.g. apprentICeS and InduStry 4.0

WORKSHOP OF IDEAS

KoSMoS flg 25 JAHREthe f.l.g. CoSMoS CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITy

74

Company principles. This year, the recipe for success for the Friedhelm Loh Group has endured for a quarter century – a story with heart and mind.

prInCIpleS at WorK


Text: Dirk Miller

1St CoMpany prInCIple

“ The capability and cooperation of our staff harnessed to their goal focused motivation is a key asset of our company.”

25 JAHRE KoSMoS flg


CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITy the f.l.g. CoSMoS

T he first things that visitors to Rittal in Herborn, Germany, see when they arrive is a sculpture about three me-

tres high in front of the main entrance to the company headquarters. Their eyes first wander to the five bronze figures holding up the globe in their outstretched arms; then they linger on the writing on the mas-sive granite pedestal. In both English and German one can read there: “The capabil-ity and cooperation of our staff harnessed to their goal focused motivation is a key as-set of our company.” This statement is the very first company principle of the Fried-helm Loh Group.For Rittal’s fiftieth anniversary, Friedhelm Loh placed a visible symbol for the foundation of the company’s success in this sculpture. “First and foremost, a company is made up of people, not buildings, comput-ers or machines,” he says. His absolute esteem and respect for people is expressed

in all of the company principles that he stated 25 years ago. “We recognise the correlation between skills and knowledge development, motivation and company success.” With the principle, “We view our customers as partners who determine the success of the company,” he clearly put the focus on customers and made clear, “our products and services must offer clear ben-efits to our customers in particular with re-gard to quality, technical capability, range and availability.”

pIoneer of appreCIatIonCreativity and innovation as a central aim, quality consciousness and environmental awareness, responsibility along the entire value chain – the family-owned business anchored all of these concepts in its corpo-rate culture back in 1989. This step was taken long before the dissemination of the principles of the Global Compact

vIvId eXpreSSIon of a CoMpany prInCIple“Every time I walk by it, I’m inspired by how simply and emotionally this work transports our core message,” says Friedhelm Loh describing the sculpture. It was made by Dutch artist Corry Ammerlaand-van Niekerk for Rittal’s fiftieth anniver-sary. The figures symbolise the employees’ determi-nation and unity. As an expression of their global commitment, they hold the world in their hands.

the f.l.g. CoSMoS CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITy


“ For me, the appreciation of people is the basis of our leadership culture.”

Friedhelm Loh, owner and CEo of the Friedhelm Loh Group

The marketing research company Nielsen has shown that companies that act responsibly are viewed more favourably by their customers and can often convert their good deeds to business success. According to the results of a Nielsen survey, 37 per cent of German respondents indicated that they would reward socially responsible companies by purchasing their products and services – a 5 per cent increase from two years ago. Globally, half of respondents indicated that they would do so. Customers today take a more critical view of companies and use their market power to influence them. Accordingly, 41 per cent of German respondents indicated that companies contribute to global problems through their business activities. In contrast, just 15 per cent think that companies can help solve these challenges. Ingo Schier, CEO of Nielsen Germany, finds that both strategically anchored commitment and traditional charitable donations are important. He states that companies do not necessarily have to rely on classic social commitment; they can also take a path toward a “height-ened sense of responsibility, more deliberate business practices or more sustainable innovation.”

SUCCESS THRoUGH RESPoNSIBILITY

began in the year 2000, before the interna-tional guidelines for social responsibility (ISo 26000) were released in 2010, and before the United Nations endorsed the “Guiding Principles on Business and Hu-man Rights” in Geneva in 2011.All Friedhelm Loh Group companies pledge to use proper and recognised busi-ness practices and also expect the same from their suppliers. Rittal places great value on health and workplace safety, and has policies in place to protect its employ-ees from harassment, discrimination and abuse. The family-owned company acts in

an environmentally conscious and sustain-able way at all locations. Not least, the company contributes to social and eco-nomic development in the regions where it is located. Employees who take part in so-cial projects are supported in these efforts. Among the numerous examples is the Friedhelm Loh Group’s traditional annual year-end donation; in 2013, employees and owner Friedhelm Loh collected around 400,000 euros. Half of the sum went to vic-tims of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, and the rest was donated to charitable es-tablishments and organisations located

Ideal and realIty Company principles are applied every day in the Friedhelm Loh Group. Three examples:

InnovatIve poWer

The largest company of the Friedhelm Loh Group – rittal – has registered more than 1,500 patents and has received multiple innovation prizes.1

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITy the f.l.g. CoSMoS


traInIng and eduCatIon

Over the past ten years, more than 35,000 people have attended the loh academy, the central institution for advanced training and staff development for the Friedhelm Loh Group. Trainers and lecturers are experienced in the industry, and participants and graduates benefit

directly on the job. The Loh Academy cooperates with professional associations and technical colleges. In 2014, the Friedhelm Loh Group was chosen as one of germany’s top employers for the sixth time by the independent CRF Institute.

SoCIal reSponSIbIlIty

Since the year 2000, employees of the Friedhelm Loh Group and owner Friedhelm Loh have donated around three million euros to charitable organisations. The Friedhelm Loh Group donated 400,000 euros as its

traditional annual donation in 2013, which went to victims of Typhoon Haiyan and to social institutions and organisations in locations where the group of companies has branches. Employees and owner Friedhelm Loh jointly raised these funds.

where the group of companies has branch-es. overall, a total of 31 local, regional, national and international institutions and relief organisations were pleased to re-ceive the funds. In 2011, on Rittal’s fiftieth anniversary, Friedhelm Loh founded the Rittal Foundation and furnished it with start-ing capital of five million euros. The returns on the foundation’s capital are distributed annually and benefit social and cultural institutions in the places where Rittal has branches. The Friedhelm Loh Group also invests heavily in apprenticeships and ad-vanced training, and is one of the founding

members of StudiumPlus, a dual-course programme of studies in cooperation with the University of Applied Sciences in Giessen, Germany. For the Friedhelm Loh Group, the company principles provide the foundation for daily conduct in business, and year after year they are anchored in all business goals, projects and activities in all departments. n

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MagazIne

Rittal’s training workshop in Wissenbach and the Comenius-Schule in Herborn are working together to get pupils interested in occupational training and to prepare them for working life. In February, Matthias Hecker, director of Rittal’s training workshop, pre-sented the Comenius-Schule with a welding machine, a welding table, welding shields and gloves. The school will now use the equipment in pre-vocational education classes. In order to ensure that the welding machine is operated properly and safely, Rittal plans to offer courses for teachers, who will then pass on their knowledge to pupils.

A yEN FOR TECHNOLOGy

WeldIng MaChIneS for SChool

on 27 March 2014, 51 female students from Herborn and the surrounding area paid a visit to the Friedhelm Loh Group in order to get a taste of working life and make plans for the future. The occasion was the four-teenth nationwide Girls’ Day. At six of the company’s plants the girls were introduced to the various occupations in which Rittal offers training. A total of 250 young people are currently in vocational training in these fields. Some of the visitors had a look be-hind the scenes at production processes at the Herborn plant. Assisted by three techni-cal trainees, the girls eagerly soldered LED men with illuminated heads and fashioned elephants from aluminium. Their verdict: “Pretty cool.” The objective of Girls’ Day is to give young women an impression of the exciting work in traditionally male domains. After a similar discovery day last year, one girl decided to do an internship at Rittal’s training workshop in Wissenbach and was inspired to pursue a technical career. Tobias Sohn, an instructor at the training workshop, is proud of this success story. Chances are good that more female train-ees will follow in her footsteps.

WorKS lIKe a CharM! Three pupils soldering for the first time on Girls’ Day.

gIrlS’ day at the f.l.g. In herborn

ON-SITE vISIT

For the sixth year in a row, the CRF Top Employers Institute has honoured the Fried-helm Loh Group as one of Germany’s top employers. In addition to flexible working time models, the factors contributing to its selection were improved career opportuni-ties in an international environment, the wide range of training programmes for skilled staff and executives, the equal op-portunity initiative and the health manage-ment programme.

ExCELLENCE

f.l.g. onCe agaIn naMed top eMployer

LINK TIP:

http://www.friedhelm-loh-group.de/en/karriere/index.asp

What are the distinguishing features of Asian culture? How should you conduct yourself in meetings there? What are the challenges facing Chinese society and the Chinese economy? on a visit to the Loh Academy, Professor Hermann Siebdrat of the Cologne University of Applied Science answered these questions and many more, dispensing advice to around eighty StudiumPlus stu-dents and twenty Friedhelm Loh Group staff members. The Loh Academy is open to em-ployees as well as the general public.

SUCCESS IN CHINA

a leCture at the loh aCadeMy

LINK TIP:

www.loh-akademie.de

MagazIn

Employees and company owner Friedhelm Loh collected 400,000 eu-ros for the Friedhelm Loh Group’s tra-ditional end-of-year donation. Half of the money is going to the victims of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines. The other half is intended for non-profit institutions and organisations in the communities where the group has its locations. A total of 31 organisa-tions and aid agencies stand to ben-efit at the local, regional, national and international levels. Some of the mon-ey has gone to the division of the He-phata Diakonie that supports disa-bled people. Among other things, it operates group homes for people with disabilities. In addition, dona-tions have been made not only to Seniorenhilfe Dietzenbach, an organi-sation in southern Hesse that pro-vides aid to elderly persons, but also to the oberlausitzer Kinderhilfe in Bautzen, which supports chronically ill young people and their parents.

GIvING HOPEfrIedhelM loh group raISeS end-of-year donatIon of 400,000 euroS

LINK TIP:

http://www.friedhelm-loh-group.de/en/engagement/

InItIatIve for ChIldren In needThe Friedhelm Loh Group brings aid to children in in those areas of the Philippines worst affected by Typhoon Haiyan.

engageMent PRoMoTING YoUNG PEoPLE

Text: Stephanie Backhaus and Deborah Konietzka

Collaborations. How do young people find the profession that best suits them? And how do technology companies find motivated trainees? one way is through a lively exchange of ideas – as shown by Rittal’s activities in schools and the youth initiative Tec2You.

S mile,” says Tina Pfeiffer-Busch, a training instructor at Loh Services. “That’s one of the most important

things for trainees at the Tec2You stand to remember.” “Yes, smile and engage the pupils,” says former trainee Holger Wun-derlich in agreement. “It’s hard at the begin-ning, especially if you’re a bit shy, like me.” Tina Pfeiffer-Busch and Holger Wunderlich are on the team that organised Rittal’s pres-entation at Tec2You, the youth initiative of the Hannover Messe (see article, page 73). “Taking part in the exhibition is a bonus for the trainees who have done especially good work,” says Pfeiffer-Busch. There’s a lot for them to do at the fair: they must learn to present themselves and their company, introduce the occupations in which Rittal offers training, distribute flyers and explain product details. “You also have to know ba-sic facts, such as how many trainees we have,” says Wunderlich.For both Rittal’s trainees and the pupils in graduating classes in Herborn and the sur-rounding area, participation in Tec2You is the highlight of Rittal’s activities to promote young people. Since 2007, Friedhelm Loh has enabled pupils from the region’s schools to visit the industrial fair and expe-rience the world of work. “Nowhere else does a young person have the opportunity to learn about the operations of industrial companies,” says Pfeiffer-Busch. “This re-cruitment campaign for young people is

highly important for companies focusing on technology. Tec2You is the ideal platform.” In Pfeiffer-Busch’s view, it is essential to highlight occupational training in Germany and show young people an alternative to studying at university. With this aim in mind, she provides schools with information on the trainee programmes at the Friedhelm Loh Group. Rittal currently has 250 trainees learning one of twenty-one professions. They benefit from various forms of support at the company: work experience in two junior businesses, involvement in two-day workshops (see page 73), a “Duales Studi-um” programme, which combines a univer-sity degree with practical work in the com-pany, and participation in trade fairs.In order to get more young people inter-ested in occupational training, Rittal has reached out to various schools in the re-gion, including the Comenius-Schule in Herborn. Rittal established the first ties twenty years ago, and collaboration has intensified ever since. The cooperation agreement signed in 2012 provides for joint activities by the two partners. Among other things, pupils at the primary and secondary schools make benches for the schoolyard in Rittal’s trainee centre, working together with its trainees, and teachers are given the opportunity to do a welding course. School director Karl-Ernst Paul values the Friedhelm Loh Group’s commitment. “Pre-paring young people for a profession

WeteChnology

love

NAME engageMent

81

THE EDUCATOR

Karl-ernSt paul

The director of the Comenius-Schule in Herborn helps pupils prepare for their future careers. He has initiated various projects in which pupils can gain prac-tical experience at companies, and he personally accompanies them to Tec2You. Paul values the commitment of companies such as Rittal: “Pupils benefit enormously from a visit to Tec2You and the occupational per-spectives they get to know there.”

01 | 2014 | Magazine of the Friedhelm Loh Group | be top | 81


THE TECHNOLOGy FAN

holger WunderlICh

Holger Wunderlich had his first experi-ence with technology at the age of eight, when he built a remote-controlled robot. He completed a training pro-gramme in mechatronics and today works as an electrician at Rittal’s plant in Rittershausen. Now twenty-one, Wunderlich took part in Tec2You twice as a trainee and particularly enjoyed the work with the other members of his team. What did he tell the school pupils at the fair? “That training is fun for us.”

engageMent PRoMoTING YoUNG PEoPLE


NAME engageMent

01 | 2014 | Magazine of the Friedhelm Loh Group | be top | 83

THE yOUNG HOPEFUL

ColIn benner

Colin Benner visited Tec2You in Hano-ver in the ninth form and was thrilled: “We were given a lot of information about different professions. Anyone who goes to the fair should take a pen and paper.” Rittal maintains close ties with his school, the Comenius-Schule in Herborn, and organised the trip to Tec2You. Colin’s father works in Rittal’s training workshop in Wissenbach, and Colin has done an internship at the company.


engageMent NAME

THE TALENT SCOUT

tIna pfeIffer-buSCh

A training instructor at the Friedhelm Loh Group, Tina Pfeiffer-Busch is re-sponsible for commercial trainees. She especially likes working with young people. “You have to be open and take an interest in the trainees’ needs.” She wants to be a role model for them and project determination and curiosity. In addition to the trip to Tec2You, she or-ganised a training workshop in 2013 devoted to the theme of Industry 4.0.


PRoMoTING YoUNG PEoPLE engageMent

is one of my most important tasks,” says the educator. For five years his school has been certified by the Hessian state govern-ment as a learning centre offering “career orientation by highly qualified staff.” As Paul explains, “School must be relevant to the pupils’ lives.” offerings at the Comenius-Schule range from basic IT training in the fifth form to two days of practical work in a company in the sixth form to job application training in the ninth. Karl-Ernst Paul is par-ticularly proud of student businesses in fields such as catering and social services that contract to do small jobs. “If you dele-gate responsibility, you teach the pupils self-sufficiency and independence. You’re quickly rewarded for the trust you put in them,” adds the educator, who was once a student at the Comenius-Schule himself. His educational approach is based on ap-preciation and respect: “Everyone has tal-ents and strengths. That’s where I begin.”

paSSIng on the enthuSIaSMA highlight of the school’s close collabora-tion with Rittal is the annual visit to Tec2You. “A visit to the trade fair is highly motivating for pupils and provides them with an in-centive to explore technology. In terms of career orientation, they benefit a great deal,” says Karl-Ernst Paul. Colin Benner, currently a student at the Comenius-Schule, is a case in point. The tenth-former visited Tec2You in Hanover in 2013 and completed an IT internship in Rittal’s Rit-tershausen plant. “There I learned what it’s like to work in such a big company,” he says. He has always been interested in IT and technology, which is reflected in his school activities. Together with other Comenius pupils he maintains the school’s website and has also helped to make

proMotIng young people

GREAT SUPPoRT!

The national youth initiative Tec2you debut-ed at the Hannover Messe in 2007. Since then it has offered students and companies the opportunity to enter into a dialogue. Stu-dents learn about important high-tech in-dustries and explore career prospects. In 2014, more than 5,500 students from all over Germany visited the Hannover Messe. Rittal took part in Tec2you under the motto “A system for the future” (“Zukunft mit Sys-tem”) and organised bus trips for students from the Herborn region to the world’s most important industrial fair (see also page 48).The Tec2you initiative was established by Deutsche Messe AG, the Federal Associa-tion of German Industry and the location-marketing initiative “Germany – Land of Ideas,” which is supported by the German government and the German business community. The initiative’s partners include leading companies such as Rittal, Harting, Phoenix Contact, Siemens, Beckhoff, Endress and Hauser, as well as the South Westphalian Chamber of Industry and Commerce in Hagen. The collaboration be-tween schools and businesses is also sup-ported by various trade associations: the Association for Electrical, Electronic and Information Technologies, the German Engineering Association, the Central Association of the Electrical and Electronics Industry, WorldSkills Germany and acatech – Germany’s National Academy of Science and Engineering.

benches for the schoolyard. In Colin’s eyes, the school’s practical approach to learning is a great alternative to lessons in the classroom. “Project work is always fun,” he says. He is currently making plans for his education after the tenth form. “I’m going to complete my A levels and at the same time do a training programme in me-chatronics.” What he likes about this oc-cupation is above all the combination of electronics, engineering and IT.Holger Wunderlich agrees. He did a train-ing programme in mechatronics at Rittal. It was a field he chose early on, during an internship at Rittal’s plant in Ritter-shausen. Today he works as an electrician at the plant. n

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“ visiting the Tec2you pavilion at the Hannover Messe is highly motivating for pupils.”

Karl-Ernst Paul, director of the Comenius-Schule, Herborn

| 86 be top | Magazine of the Friedhelm Loh Group | 01 | 2014

F.L.G. CompaCt/pubLiCation

FACTS & FIGURESSimply top. The Friedhelm Loh Group is a regional family-owned company, multifaceted innovation leader, networked global player, top employer and much more.

2013 revenues (in euros)

2,200,000,000

Trainees

250 in twentyone occupationsSubsidiaries around the world Agencies around the world Production plants around the world

65 40 15

carbon neutralnatureOffice.com | DE-179-731720

print production

pubLiCation detaiLS

be topThe Magazine of the Friedhelm Loh GroupIssue 01 | 2014ISSN 2195-3198

pubLiSHeRFriedhelm Loh Stiftung & Co. KGCEO: Friedhelm LohRudolf-Loh-Strasse 135708 Haiger, GermanyPhone: +49 (0) 2773 924-0E-mail: [email protected]

ReSponSibLe FoR ContentDirk Miller

editoR-in-CHieF and CooRdinationRegina Wiechens-Schwake,Hans-Robert Koch, Peter Sting

ReaLiSation and deSiGnmuehlhausmoers corporate communications gmbhMoltkestraße 123−13150674 Köln, GermanyPhone: +49 (0) 221 951533-0E-Mail: [email protected]

pRoJeCt manaGement Jürgen Jehle (managing editor), Karsten Mühlhaus

editoRiaL StaFFStephanie Backhaus, Adam Blauhut (Eng-lish translation), Leonie Demmer, Ginger A. Diekmann (English copy-editing), Anthony B. Heric (English translation), Jürgen Jehle, Elke Weidenstraß (German copy editing)

autHoRSStephanie Backhaus, Elke Bieber, Kerstin Ginsberg, Boris Hänßler, Jürgen Jehle, Hans-Robert Koch, Deborah Konietzka, Dr. Jörg Lantzsch, Dirk Miller, Thomas Reintjes, Marisa Robles Consée, Beate Schwarz, Ralf Steck

aRt diReCtion Christiane von Bonin, Katrin Kemmerling

GRapHiCS and pRoduCtionVanessa Lentz, Annika Nelles, Jörn Plenz

pRint and LitHoGRapHYWilhelm Becker Grafischer Betrieb e. K., Haiger, Germany, purpur Wolfgang Herrig e.K., Cologne, Germany

pHoto CReditSPage 1: Cultura/Plainpicture; page 3: F.L.G.; page 4 top): Matthias Jung/laif; page 4 (middle right): F.L.G.; pages 6/7: Daniel Kalker/dpa; pages 8/9: Michael Koch/Digital Fotogroup; pages 10/11: Michael Koch/Digital Fotogroup; page 12 (left): Kesu/Shutterstock; page 12 (middle): Lau-rence Mouton/Photo Alto/Plainpicture; page 12 (right): Sven Hoppe/Shutterstock; page 13 (left): Elektrons 08/Plainpicture; page 13 (middle): Operation XZ/Birta Images/Plainpicture; page 13 (right): ImagineChina/Corbis; page 17: Fischerwerke GmbH & Co. KG; page 18: ebm-papst Mulfingen GmbH & Co. KG; pages 18/19: Andreas Stihl AG & Co. KG; page 21: Trumpf GmbH + Co. KG; page 22: F.L.G.; pages 24/25: Mat-thias Jung/Laif; page 26: Matthias Jung/Laif; page 27: Campus Verlag GmbH; page 28: F.L.G.; pages 28/29: mediagram/fotolia; page 29 (left): Tolga_Tezcan/istock and F.L.G.; page 29 (top): TaiTai6769/istock; page 30 (right): F.L.G.; page 30 (front): F.L.G.; page 30 (backgrund): Makaron-Produktion/istock; page 31 (left): F.L.G.; page 31 (front): F.L.G.; page 31 (background): F.L.G.; page 32 (background): arka38/shutterstock; page 32 (front): arka38/shutterstock; page 32 (bottom left): r.mank; page 33: F.L.G.; page 34: Michael Englert; page 35: Autodesk; page 37 (top): Michael Englert; page 37 (bottom): Michael Englert; pages 38/39: Mi-chael Koch; page 41: Michael Koch; pages 42/43: Michael Koch; page 44/45: Zhee-Shee/Shutterstock; page 47: F.L.G./Nils May; pages 48/49: Nils May; Seite 48/49 (backgrund): Zhee-Shee/Shutterstock; page 50: Nils May; page 51: Deutsche Telekom AG; pages 53–55: F.L.G.; pages 56/57: Bernard Castelein/Corbis; page 59 (top): Rittal; page 59 (bottom): Rittal; page 60 (top): Huber Packaging; page 60 (bottom): Huber Pack-aging; page 61: Michael Koch; pages 62–64: Michael Koch; page 65 (top): Michael Koch; page 65 (middle and bottom): mmcc; pages 66/67: Michael Koch; page 69: Michael Koch; page 71: Denise Graetz; page 72: Bundesregierung/Kugler/Hannover Messe 2014; page 73: Nils May; page 75: F.L.G.; page 76: Dieter Schwer; page 78: Herborner Tagblatt/Gerdau; page 79: Steve de Neef; pages 80/81: Michael Koch; page 81 (in box): Birgit Fehr; page 82: Michael Koch; page 82 (in box): Birgit Fehr; page 83: Michael Koch; page 83 (in box): Birgit Fehr; page 84: Michael Koch; page 84 (in box): Birgit Fehr; page 88 (top): Solar Impulse/Reuters/Christian Hartmann; page 88 (middle left): Steve Nicklas, NOS, NGS; page 88 (middle right): Jamie Francis/dpa; page 88 (bottom left): Wichy/Shutterstock; page 88 (bottom right): Christoph Strasser/ Lex Karelly/lupispuma

© Friedhelm Loh Group 2014, ISSN 2195-3198

Employees around the world

11,500In Germany alone, employees represent

45 nationalities

pHoto editoRStefan Hirsch

KnoW-hoW Industry 4.0, no ifs, ands or butseXperIenCe Experience small masterpieces in steelengageMent The tech enthusiasts of tomorrow

Issue 01 | 2014

MagazIne of the frIedhelM loh group


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be top | Magazine of the Friedhelm Loh Group | 01 | 2014| 88

top perforManCeS – BE TOP!

be top!

Top performances are the order of the day in all of the Friedhelm Loh Group companies. And the record holders on this page are also in top form.

The most expensive painting

Never before has so much been bid for an artwork at auc-tion: the triptych Three Studies of Lucian Freud by Francis Bacon cost around 106 million euros.

The best solar plane

With their solar plane – Solar Impulse HB-SIA – pilots Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg hold seven world records. Their ambitious goal: circumnavigating the Earth.

The fastest bicycle race

At the Race Across America in 2013, Christoph Strasser traversed the United States faster than ever before. He covered 2,911 miles in 7 days, 22 hours and 52 minutes.

The largest amount of data

Scientists managed to send over a wireless network about 100 gigabits of data per second – the equivalent of the contents of almost three DvDs per second.

The deepest dive

On 23 January 1960, Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh dove with the bathyscaphe Trieste into the Mariana Trench. They reached a record depth of 10,916 metres.

an overvIeW of thefrIedhelM loh group CoMpanIeS

rIttal gMbh & Co. KgAuf dem Stützelberg35745 Herborn, GermanyPhone +49 (0) 2772 505-0www.rittal.com

rittal – the System.faster – better – worldwide.

KIeSlIng MaSChInenteChnIK gMbhGallische Straße 2 63128 Dietzenbach, GermanyPhone +49 (0) 6074 8290-0www.kiesling.net

Kiesling – We automate panel building.

lKh KunStStoffWerK gMbh & Co. KgAuf der Birke 256412 Heiligenroth, GermanyPhone +49 (0) 2602 99942-0www.lkh-kunststoff.de

lKh – We make more out of plastic.

Stahlo StahlServICe gMbh & Co. KgKasseler Strasse 2735683 Dillenburg, GermanyPhone +49 (0) 2771 302-0www.stahlo.de

Stahlo – processing steel straight from the line.

eplan SoftWare & ServICe gMbh & Co. KgAn der alten Ziegelei 240789 Monheim am Rhein, GermanyPhone +49 (0) 2173 3964-0www.eplan.de

eplan – efficient engineering.

CIdeon gMbh & Co.KgTzschirnerstraße 5a02625 Bautzen, GermanyPhone +49 (0) 3591 3744-0www.cideon.de

Cideon – efficient engineering.

Friedhelm Loh Stiftung & Co. KGRudolf-Loh-Strasse 135708 Haiger, GermanyPhone +49 (0) 2773 924-0Fax +49 (0) 2773 924-3129E-mail: [email protected]

www.friedhelm-loh-group.com

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