IF you’ve ever wondered how Europe mounts a claim to be the premier manufacturer of quality farm equipment while operating in a high cost economy and paying wages at least comparative to Australia, and with a unionised workforce to boot, a visit to Claas’ Harsewinkel, Germany harvester plant offers a few clues.
Innovation, quality control and efficiency drips from a place that manufactures every Lexion, Tucano or Jaguar harvester as well as the distinctly Euro Xenon tractor.
Of course, there’s the massive European, Russian and Central Asian tractor market on the doorstep to help sell the iron, and similarly massive subsidies that allow 20 cow farmers to own the latest model machinery.
But with healthy competition in place, you’ve still got to have your act together or you’re bound to become plankton to a whale.
And in Germany getting your act together means a real commitment to invest in technology, particularly automation, and squeeze every last drop of efficiency from every process.
Tom McKenny also visited the big Agritechnica expo in Hannover, Germany. Click on the image to see a gallery of photos from the event.
At every turn, the Claas Harsewinkel plant is massive, orderly and culturally attuned with employee care and pride - both on the floor and in the offices.
For a factory that is turning raw steel into high tech machines, there’s barely a thing out of place, a tool not tidied and certainly a process not followed.
The floor at Harsewinkel is is clean enough to dine off; the floor at the neighbouring Claas transmission and hydraulics facility in Paderborn seems clean enough to lick.
Some numbers. There’s 400,000 square metres of floor space at Harsewinkel. They’re building harvesters from 44kW to 440kW (Lexion 780) at the rate of about 7000 per annum. The length of the main plant is about 600 metres long and there’s 3500 employees and 820 bikes provided for them to scoot around inside and out.
The hungry beast chews through 30,000 tonne of steel per annum but just 24 million kW hours of electricity thanks to a massive uptake of energy efficient technology and systems.
A Lexion combine packed with 48,000 parts is assembled in between nine to 12 hours. And they are building about 50 units comprising Lexion and small harvesters, Xenon tractors and Jaguar forage harvesters (including a 884 hp beast), every day. And the assembly and manufacturing staff enjoy lunch at humble stations alongside the assembly line for just 15 minutes because they prefer to knock off earlier. Overtime is not paid but rather accrued as in-kind holiday leave.
The market devours ag machinery production. Data from Agrievolution lists first half 2015 projected tractor sales (>22kW) at more than 15,000 for Germany alone. Add in markets such as the US (105,000 units), Russia (12,000) and Canada (12,000) and the world market has the scope to sustain factories such as those operated by the family owned Claas business.
It is mind boggling good and interesting to see these kinds of plants, and sets you wondering about what could have been for the greater Australian manufacturing sector if just some of the same philosophy had been driving government, unions, and culture in a sector that we have witnessed shrink away.
Tom McKenny travelled to Germany courtesy of Claas/Landpower Australia.