KraussMaffei completes renewal of production footprint

With the opening of its new headquarters, KraussMaffei has completed the last and largest of four relocation projects. Since 2018, the company – whose production portfolio includes tyre production systems and extruders – has invested approximately 200 million euros in four new plants in Germany and China.

After calling the Munich suburb of Allach home for almost 90 years, KrausMaffei has moved its head office to nearby Parsdorf. Covering 156,000 square metres, the new site brings together the company’s corporate headquarters and injection moulding, reaction process machinery, additive manufacturing and mechanical production, as well as a spare parts warehouse, functions that were previously located in separate locations within Germany. Like the other three new locations, the facility in Parsdorf operates as a Smart Factory that utilises sustainable modern building technology.

The Parsdorf site boasts three production halls, a main administration building, four office and social buildings, two parking garages, a canteen, a cafeteria and a 15,000-square-metre Customer Experience Center. The entire plant design increases efficiency and the halls enable continuous production flow. New machines speed up processes. Shorter distances and new, modern warehouses simplify logistics. An open-office approach also enables better communication between different areas. Departments are arranged in relation to one another in accordance with workflows.

Modern & sustainable

“We have replaced much of our machinery,” says Holger Ahlborn, senior director of operations in Parsdorf. “At the new site, our machines are on average four years old. At the old site the average age was 21 years. This is one reason why our processes are running much more smoothly now and synchronisation of value creation processes is steadily improving. In mechanical production, we have achieved substantial efficiency improvements. In combination, all this allows us to offer customers very short delivery times, which are very attractive to them.”

Sustainability has also improved with the move to Parsdorf, whose buildings are topped with a 9.1-megawatt rooftop photovoltaic system, one of the largest in Europe. KraussMaffei designed the halls, machines and offices for maximum energy efficiency and a large biotope is being created next door. Green areas further break up the site, and over two hundred charging stations for e-cars and e-bikes are available on site for employees and guests to use.

The new Customer Experience Center allows visitors to experience the entire KraussMaffei world. They can access various areas, including a TechCenter and training area for reaction process machinery, a technical centre, a final inspection centre for injection-moulding technology, and a training centre for digital products.

Culmination of a major relocation project

The move to Parsdorf marks the completion of one of the largest relocation projects in the company’s 185-year history. This began in 2020 with the opening of facilities in Einbeck, Germany and JiaXing, China. With the commissioning of the JiaXing plant, KraussMaffei doubled its production capacity in China and equipped itself for manufacturing machinery specially developed for the Chinese market.

At the end of 2022, KraussMaffei Extrusion also moved to a new plant in Laatzen, Germany. This centre for extrusion and recycling technology covers 97,000 square metres, including 53,000 square metres of halls and office complexes.

KraussMaffei states that the new plants enable it to “operate even more efficiently, digitally and sustainably,” thus helping it to optimally meet the challenges of the 21st century.