Vorwerk Holding

THE CLIENT

The client is Vorwerk Elektrowerke GmbH & Co. KG with the headquarters in Wuppertal. They produce all electrical appliances for Vorwerk. The core business is the direct sale of high-quality products, such as Kobold hoovers or Thermomix.

THE TASK

Vorwerk Elektrowerke GmbH & Co. KG has been operating its production site in Wuppertal-Laaken, directly on the River Wupper, since the end of the 1960s. The site is limited by the river, the topography and public road traffic. In order to meet the increased production of the Thermomix, it was necessary to create new installation areas for injection moulding machines and assembly lines within the existing site at short notice.

THE PLANNING PROCESS

On the basis of a concept study, differentiated technical solutions and temporal dependencies were investigated, considering the continuous maintenance of the production at the Laaken site, and transferred into a planning process that could be approved. With finalisation of the design and approval planning, a contract was concluded in form of an integrated project delivery (IPD). This guaranteed Vorwerk both cost security and adherence to the tight time schedule at this very early stage.

THE REALIZATION PROCESS

The approval planning was transferred to IPD. The operations of cascade-like cooling via Wupper water, wells and mechanical cooling were further adapted to the machine processes. Through detailed coordination with the construction partners, the building could be handed over turnkey in a short construction period including demolition between existing halls, superstructure of the existing building, new electrical feed and prefabricated construction.

THE CHALLENGE

The main challenge was the close location between the Wupper, silos and existing halls. After a construction period of only 6 months, the first injection moulding machines were installed, so that the production of the Thermomix could start on time by 01. January 2017.