Crane provider Manitowoc has announced plans to build a product verification centre (PVC) close to its Wilhelmshaven factory in northern Germany.
The company also says it will update and modernise its Wilhelmshaven factory, in order to optimise production and increase manufacturing capacity by as much as 40%.
Manitowoc opened its first PVC in 2012 at its Shady Grove factory in Pennsylvania, U.S., providing component-testing capabilities. Plans are in place to build the Wilhelmshaven PVC on a 9 hectare site in the Bauens/Memershausen Industrial Park. The facility will employ a team of 30 engineering personnel.
Speaking of the latest announcement, Jens Ennen, Manitowoc’s senior vice president of all-terrain and truck cranes and the company’s CTO of Global Technology, said the opening of the PVC is the next step in the improvement of the operations at Wilhelmshaven. He continued: “By adding a PVC we can now take our design and production to the next level and ensure we maintain our position as one of the world’s leading producers of mobile cranes.”
The construction phase is due to begin shortly, and it is expected that both the PVC and the facility renovation at the existing Wilhelmshaven plant will be completed before the end of 2016.
