"We will expand our activity by 40% through design and technology over the next 5 years"
Pat O'Leary, Managing Director, Liebherr Container Cranes, Killarney.
Liebherr are one of the world's leading manufacturers of construction machinery and also an acknowledged supplier of technically innovative user-oriented products. Liebherr Container Cranes of Killarney build container cranes and other Container handling equipment for customers all over the world. They employ over 400 people in Killarney and manufacture some of the world's largest man-made mobile structures.
Facing today's business challenges, Liebherr's aim was to maximise production and increase its capacity without increasing the size of the design team. Honeycomb Solutions is working with Liebherr to ensure that these dual objectives are achieved. Through modern design strategies, education around product development best practice and supporting technology, Liebherr is currently realising more profit from product development. Two years ago, it took 20 engineers 20 weeks to develop a crane design. Today, these engineers can create the same design in 12 weeks along with the supporting documentation. This is a significant increase in productivity and decrease of the product development cycle time. This will assist Liebherr with winning more orders while also ensuring that design quality is improved.
In July 2006, a new Liebherr 60 tonne capacity crane was successfully delivered to New Zealand after a sea crossing of 6 weeks and part pre-assembly at Killarney.
