Schreiner Group visibly and noticeably keeps investing in its second German location in Dorfen. The successful completion of the extension of the plant and rollout of the Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV) starts a new chapter for the production location. More space, more efficiency—and an important step toward a Lean Factory. “We’re proud of having reached our goal despite all the challenges in recent years,” said Martin Moser, Schreiner Group’s Operations Manager. “The extension was necessary to accommodate our growth—and the AGV is the next logical step in our automation strategy.”

More Room for Growth

As early as when the new factory building was purchased and opened in 2019, the future extension of the location was included in the conceptualization and planning process. Now it has been completed: The new building has been finished since fall, making clearly larger areas available for logistics functions such as the receiving department, raw materials warehouse, and shipping department. The additional space creates new prospects on the factory floor for additional high-tech machines and thus more production volume. But the true star of the new concept is silently moving through the halls: the Automated Guided Vehicle. The employees have affectionately christened their “new colleague” Toni and integrated him in the team.

Next-Level Smart Logistics

Since summer, the AGV has been in operation in a first version that’s successively becoming even smarter, for instance, due to the pending full integration with a link to the warehouse management system.

The objective is to automate material flows in real time, avoid empty runs, and to further shorten throughput times. “The rollout of the AGV clearly moves us closer toward our goal of even leaner, connected production operations,” said Moser. “It significantly enhances the efficiency of our internal logistics—and as a side effect eases the employees’ workload.”

Dorfen as Factory of the Future

With the combination of a building extension and digitalization, the Dorfen location is an example that shows what modern industrial production can look like today. Flexible scalability, high delivery performance and automated workflow create value—for customers and employees alike.