“The new building has given us the opportunity to improve
our production processes across the board, which in turn
is allowing us to produce even higher quantities.”
(Dr Ulrich Dähne, CEO of STABILA)
New production hall at STABILA
STABILA recently opened the doors to a new production hall measuring 1400 m² in size. The space is designed to help the company meet the strong demand for spirit levels that are made in Germany, and it will also ensure that the market continues to receive a steady supply of top-quality tools.
Since the company’s very beginnings, STABILA’s Annweiler headquarters have been the location at which all its spirit levels have been manufactured and then sold to numerous markets around the world – spanning more than 80 countries at present.
To ensure that the very highest standards of precision and quality are upheld, the manufacturing process uses automation extensively but also relies heavily on the skills of those working in-house – which means that every spirit level component is produced in Annweiler and assembled by hand. Only raw materials such as metals and granulates are bought in. And STABILA has no intention of changing this approach.
“Our focus on in-house processes, the enormous care we take in selecting materials,
our compliance with the very strictest production standards,
and the multiple internal quality inspections we carry out up to delivery
are the keys to ensuring that the quality of our products is globally recognised and prized.”
(Dr Ulrich Dähne, CEO of STABILA)
Previously, STABILA had been able to produce around 10,000 spirit levels per day. Strong growth over recent years began putting pressure on the existing hall facilities, however, and it became clear that the capacity they afforded left no more room to grow. Now, the additional space available in the new hall has put the right conditions in place for improving workflows within each area of production and integrating new machinery into the process.
The new hall is physically connected to the facility that deals with pre-production of metal profiles and plastic production. This area now also boasts a brand-new processing plant for plastic granulate, which means that every key area of production has had valuable space added to it. In recent years, STABILA has purchased eight new injection moulding machines for plastic production alone, and these have now been integrated seamlessly into the workflows.
Huge investments have also been made in pre-production, however – primarily in setting up another plant for high-precision profile milling. The machining process in this system measures the length and cross-section of the profiles and adjusts their positions for individual machining operations based on reference surfaces, allowing pre-production processes to run more smoothly. The main priority in setting up this system was to ensure ergonomic machine operation combined with convenient material infeed and output facilities, plus quick and efficient machining.
STABILA has invested more than EUR 5 million in the new building and new machinery. Not only that, but its investments in the Annweiler site over the past five years have amounted to more than EUR 15 million. It is already planning its next expansion project, which will focus on its logistics facilities. The ongoing investments that STABILA is making are playing a major role in safeguarding the company’s future and the jobs it provides.
Vial production in STABILA’s new production hall.
STABILA has also made significant investments in pre-production.