Offering a local service

The rapidly expanding market for continuous panel production lines in China has prompted German complete line supplier Dieffenbacher to build its own workshop in the country, trading as Dieffenbacher Machinery (Changzhou) Co Ltd.   Initially, the facility will be producing fibre bins, forming lines and air graders for MDF lines supplied by Dieffenbacher, as well as flaps for exhaust systems.   With MDF lines distributed all over China, one would think it might be difficult to decide on the best location for such a workshop and that was the first question I put to Bernd Henrich, technical manager and the man in charge of the whole project.   "We looked around Shanghai, Guangzhou and further into Jiangsu province, but there are more than 1,000 foreign companies around here already so the local authorities are used to dealing with them. Also, this area is very good for the kind of suppliers we need and there are workshops nearby which can produce parts for us, such as sheet metal formers, laser-cutting services and so on," he explained. "By the end of this year, I expect to be in a position to see if investment in new machinery for our own workshop will be worthwhile and which machines we need. Another advantage of this city is that there are very good training schools for milling, lathe operators, etc. There are also good road connections, with a two-and-a-half hour journey to Shanghai - itself a major crossroads."   The Changzhou workshop is owned outright by Dieffenbacher and occupies a site of 20,000m², of which the workshop currently occupies 2,500m², leaving plenty of room for future expansion.   The company employs around 20 people, with Mr Henrich the only expatriate on the payroll.   It opened for business in the workshop at the end of January this year and the office staff moved from their temporary accommodation on the site to the new first floor offices just before Chinese New Year in February.   Of course Dieffenbacher has had an office in Beijing for some years, handling sales of new lines and spares and coordinating the company's activities in China and that is not affected by the opening of the new facility.   "We are already producing components for new projects in our workshop and have a stock of spare parts here," said Mr Henrich. "The next step will be raw board handling and then, maybe in the future, some of the heavier parts of the press such as thick sheet metal for the press frames, but no decision has yet been taken on that.   "At present we are only producing for the China market, but with the sales pressure recently, we may also export to other Asian countries in the future."   Changzhou has its own port and so goods can be shipped directly from there if required, or they can be trans-shipped in Shanghai.   Several European machinery companies have taken, or are taking, this route of setting up manufacture in China; it offers   obvious advantages in terms of logistics and customer service and will no doubt be an increasing trend as China seems set to continue its panel production growth for the foreseeable future.