Corona Part 2: Follow-up with Winfried Benz
LiCON, a manufacturer of machining centers and rotary transfer machines, surprised with a positive business development in the first half of the year. How the situation looks today is described by Managing Director Winfried Benz in his latest statement.
The year 2020 in terms of Corona:
A special but not entirely bad year. Various pre-Corona orders could be successfully processed, and in addition, due to the broad global diversification, orders could be continuously generated, e.g. most recently increasingly in China. We can therefore consider ourselves very fortunate here, even if the demands with regard to realization times are high.
Four people in our workforce also tested positive. Fortunately, they are all well again. Our hygiene concept has also prevented colleagues from becoming infected.
The year 2020 in terms of markets and technologies:
For us, the markets are increasingly shifting into the area of large structural components for new vehicle concepts; at the same time, we see that classic markets still have their justification and also generate corresponding demand. In addition, customers are increasingly demanding a holistic approach to the production system, away from the pure machining center to the fully automated production system with the entire periphery, all from a single source, which is what we offer with the core machine tool. Here we have developed further organizationally and were thus able to adapt to the new challenges in good time.
2020 was also a catalyst with regard to new technologies on the software side. For example, we used the opportunity of the shutdown to massively advance our digital twin of the machining centers together with Siemens, optimize our automation solutions and significantly expand our product portfolio. This puts us in a position to serve potential growth markets.
Forecast 2021 and beyond:
In our view, the major trends of digitization, new vehicle concepts and the desire for complete solutions will continue to be the drivers beyond 2021. At the same time, many other markets and customers are in upheaval, and for us there is only one approach here: adaptation to customer needs is required every day and in every interaction; our aspiration is to provide our customers with the best solution for their requirements at all times.
Current and desired policy actions:
We try to keep the focus on us and our options for action. There is no doubt that politics has great challenges to face, the main focus of which should be comprehensible and open communication.
Anything else?
We hope that this crisis will be used as an opportunity for innovation. If you are looking for a partner for this, you have come to the right place.
Frank Dietsche Editor-in-chief of Zerspanungstechnik.de
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