Groundbreaking
At the beginning of November, Bühler announced the official beginning of the construction of its Energy & Manufacturing Technology Center. With this move, we are strengthening two of our main pillars: training and continuing education as well as innovation at the interface between design and manufacturing. The Center is scheduled to open in the second quarter of 2023. Learn how Bühler intends to make its employees fit for the future there.
Markus Reber, November 30, 2021
In the completely redesigned Energy Center, Bühler is creating the positive energy needed for the innovations of the future. “The energy of the people in the company has a direct impact on the success of the company,” says Christof Oswald, Head of Human Resources at Bühler. This, he says, is how the name Energy Center came about. In a world that is becoming ever more complex, the challenges for the work of the future are also increasing. Bühler and its employees are constantly confronted with incidents, such as Ebola, volcanic eruptions, or currently Corona. An internationally operating company like Bühler must be resilient and respond quickly, creatively, and decisively. “That’s what we want to train here. We want to prepare ourselves intelligently for the future here so that we become even more resilient, even more innovative, and more productive,” says Oswald.
This also applies to some 300 apprentices that Bühler is training in Switzerland. “To ensure that we can successfully compete in the global working world, we are consistently focusing on vocational training, which we are bringing up to the latest standards in the Energy & Manufacturing Technology Center. The building offers over 1,300 square meters of modern training areas for plant engineers, polymechanics, automation technicians, and IT apprentices. The new center also supports lifelong learning for employees. Preparing our employees for the working world of tomorrow is a continuous process that we can support here over decades,” says Oswald. “We are developing the necessary didactics together with the University of St. Gallen.”
“At the Energy Center, all employees can expand their individual health skills. The topics of exercise, nutrition and regeneration become central,” says Judit Fröhlich, Head of Health Management. “We will provide employees of all ages with the tools they need to keep fit in the long term.” With these focal points, Bühler is making an important contribution to its long-term success and further enhancing the attractiveness of its workplaces. “Health, education, and productivity are intricately linked. With the Energy Center, Bühler is once again investing in its most valuable resource: the people of the company. In doing so, we are taking social as well as corporate responsibility and securing our future,” says Oswald.
With the Manufacturing Technology Center, Bühler is specifically expanding its production in Switzerland in the field of prototyping and innovation on an area of about 2,000 square meters. In the new building, Bühler will house the production line which develops, tests, and manufactures innovative technologies, spare parts, and new services for customers in a fast-track process – the so-called Fast Line. Prototyping and testing of new manufacturing processes will also take place in the Manufacturing Technology Center. “By doing so, we are also committing ourselves to Switzerland as a production location in the future. Here, we will manufacture innovations for our customers as pilot projects, which we will later also introduce in other production plants worldwide,” says Andreas Schachtner, Head of Business Development in Manufacturing, Logistics & Supply Chain. The old, 110-year-old building had to make way for Bühler to create more output per square meter. “With the new Manufacturing Technology Center, we can make production there fast, independent, and flexible. Of course, this is like open-heart surgery because production continues as usual.” The expansion is part of the long-term renewal strategy, which also includes the CUBIC Innovation Campus inaugurated three years ago and is now being continued in a focused manner. The construction also frees up building capacities to modernize the logistics part of the factory in the next step.
Bühler is deliberately locating this new, modern production facility close to the CUBIC Innovation Campus and directly adjacent to the application centers. The short distances favor the efficient development of innovations: from the idea and initial trials in CUBIC to prototypes in the Manufacturing Technology Center to series production on site. Thanks to the proximity of vocational training, trainees work in the production of future products from the very beginning. Of course, it is also intended to provide customers with an additional opportunity to be inspired at headquarters on the topics of innovation, manufacturing, and further training.
Construction of the building is expected to take around 18 months. With a length of around 125 meters and a width of 19 meters, the functional building offers a total of 5,000 square meters of space for collaboration, training, and production. To reduce CO₂ emissions during construction, demolition material from the old building will be used as the basis for the foundation. The four-story tower at the head of the structure will be made of wood. Like the CUBIC, it will have a glass façade that functions like sunglasses for the building, meaning it can darken when the sun shines, saving cooling energy. “The building exudes openness and is designed to be flexible. This allows us to accommodate both current and future needs for training, collaboration and modern manufacturing technologies,” says Elvis Pidic, architect of the building and Head of Corporate Real Estate Management at Uze AG. At the same time, the building also faces outward thanks to its own entrance. “It is important to us that we make the building easily accessible for external partners as well. As is already the case with the CUBIC, we consciously want to promote collaboration with partners and customers,” says Pidic. Elvis Pidic leaves it open whether the new building will also stand for 110 years. “But it will definitely be several decades. Several generations will learn, develop novel solutions, and produce here.”
Gupfenstrasse 5
Uzwil
9240
Switzerland
