Production line relocation in the timber industry

International, flexible, and on schedule: Hamberger Industriewerke, headquartered in Stephanskirchen near Rosenheim, looks back on 150 years of family tradition and specializes in wood processing. The company manufactures flooring and toilet seats as well as wall and acoustic elements from wood. At the Hamberger Flooring site in Hörselberg/Thuringia, a mixed SCHOLPP team with fitters from Chemnitz and Malaysia was tasked with dismantling several woodworking machines, transporting them to Bavaria, and setting them up again there. Four weeks were available for the implementation of this project. By deploying Malaysian colleagues, SCHOLPP was pursuing a very specific purpose: internal knowledge transfer “on the job”.

The relocation project included a complete production line for room acoustic elements made of wood. Twelve complex machines of different types had to be electrically and mechanically dismantled, packed, transported and set up again: drilling machines, lathes, milling machines, veneer gluing machines, and wood presses. The SCHOLPP team from Chemnitz had a total of four weeks at their disposal. During the two-day planning phase, the best way to dismantle the systems into transportable parts had to be considered prior to embarking on the project. Size, weight, and time were the decisive factors.

SCHOLPP installation team from Chemnitz and Malaysia completes on-the-job training

Robot heavy-duty dollies, two forklifts, a truck-mounted crane, and low-loader trucks were used for lifting and transportation. Project manager Kai Kretzer put together a team of 12 fitters for the installation work and it took two days to prepare the construction site at the dismantling location. What was special about this project was that the team also included nine SCHOLPP colleagues from Malaysia.

They were in Germany for a three-month training course and had the opportunity with this project to familiarize themselves with this type of production technology from the wood industry in on-the-job training. Two supervisors from Germany and two supervisors from Malaysia managed the work on site. “We are increasingly conducting jobs for the wooden packaging industry in Asia, where we deal with machines of similar complexity. That’s why it made sense to train our Malaysian colleagues on the Hamberger project,” explains Kai Kretzer.

Heavy transport of drilling centers with excess length requiring approval

The largest machines in the production plant were the drilling centers. These can process wooden elements of great length and width in one piece. A gantry with various drilling tools moves successively over the workpiece and drills the holes, fully automated using CNC. Due to the length of 13 meters and width of 2.50 meters, the drilling rigs were transported on a 4-axle low-bed loader. The journey was subject to authorization as a heavy transport. It was implemented logistically by the partner company SCHOLPP Kran & Transport from Stuttgart.

Recommissioning on schedule after punctual reassembly

The mechanical reassembly and electrical installation at the destination site in Stephanskirchen was also carried out by the same team. Cross-site support served to pass on and secure valuable installation know-how within the SCHOLPP Group. “Our customers benefit from the transfer of machine-specific knowledge and the resulting personnel flexibility in the long term,” says Kai Kretzer. Reassembly was completed within just 12 days. Hamberger was able to start with the recommissioning of its wood processing line on the agreed date – customer satisfaction achieved. The machine manufacturer also acknowledged the high precision with which the complex woodworking machines were set up again by the SCHOLPP team.