After three years of planning and construction, the new Deutz-Fahr tractor factory – the so-called ‘Deutz-Fahr Land’ – is now producing tractors from 130hp upwards.
Deutz-Fahr Land, in Lauingen, Germany, is the site in which 6 Series, 7 Series and 9 Series tractors are manufactured – for sale around the world.
A new tractor leaves the line every 12 minutes. It takes about 16 hours in total for each individual tractor to be pieced together. The assembly line stretches to a length of 0.7km.
The plant can produce 5,000 to 6,000 tractors a year (working on a single shift basis). Series production of the first 11 Series tractors (350-440hp) is planned for next year.
A plot of 150,000m² adjacent to the existing premises was purchased for this project. The L-shaped building, with a covered area of 42,000m² is said to use “state-of-the-art technology in the areas of assembly and painting and for the hydraulics, electronics and chassis tests – for quality assurance”.
About 10% of the tractors are put through a thorough three-hour check, which includes a test-drive on a special track.
Together with a new customer centre – called ‘Deutz-Fahr Arena’ – the overall cost of €90 million is the single largest individual investment in the company’s history.
Planning for the new factory began back in 2013. A team consisting of factory employees and advisers apparently spent many sessions pacing off areas, collating data, making calculations and discussing numerous alternative solutions.
According to Deutz-Fahr, it was crucial to simulate the new factory processes ‘live’ first. At the so-called Design Laboratory – a training workshop was set up specifically for this purpose. Each workstation was developed together with “experienced employees”, tested on the product to be built, documented and finally implemented at the new factory.
A warehouse with 4,000 storage locations for large parts, and a small parts facility with 25,000 locations, was integrated into the facility – to speed up the tractor assembly process.
Lodovico Bussolati, SDF (Same Deutz-Fahr) CEO said: “The new factory is playing a crucial role in reinforcing the Deutz-Fahr brand in the global market. The new manufacturing plant, together with our modern and innovative tractor range, will speed up growth.”
Andrea Paganelli, Industrial Executive Director, added his comments, saying: “Thanks to the passionate involvement of all relevant parties, be it external or internal, we now have the most modern tractor production plant”.
