The KION Group has opened the KION Automation Centre Antwerp in Belgium, a Centre of Excellence facility for automated solutions in EMEA. It is the first of its kind and now the primary hub for research and development, testing and customized production of automated solutions in EMEA. Employees from the KION brands will now work and collaborate on automation projects and individual customer requirements.
“Automation is the future for our industry, so I’m very excited about the new facility,” says Ching Pong Quek, member of the Executive Board and Chief Technology Officer of KION GROUP AG. “By bringing various capacities under one roof, we can now respond to market needs and deliver automation projects faster, more innovatively and cost-effectively. The teams design the right automation solutions for our customers and support our regional sales teams.” The new building allows new solutions to be tested and optimized on site and requirements to be addressed individually and quickly. “The Centre of Excellence will enable intensive collaboration across businesses with the aim of serving our customers even better”, says Quek.
Approximately 400 employees with diverse professional backgrounds and 40 nationalities are working at the KION Automation Centre Antwerp. The 11,800-square meter building is well equipped for collaborative work, with a flexible office concept encouraging creative thinking, learning, testing, and training. The building is located near the port of Antwerp in an industrial area that is set to grow and develop further in the coming years.
Cross-departmental collaboration an important success factor at new site
The employees who used to work in the two rented locations in Antwerp and Zwijndrecht have now moved into the new automation centre. It shortens distances and promotes cross-departmental team collaboration. One of the teams is KION subsidiary, automation and software specialist Dematic, which has vacated its previous offices and moved less than 100 meters away to the new building. The team provides centralized services on automated solutions for customers across Europe.
In addition to Dematic, other operating units of the KION Group are also based in the new building. One of them is KION Industrial Trucks and Services (ITS) EMEA, where a team handles customer projects from planning to delivery, including training sessions conducted in the office and test floors. They also focus on the testing and development of custom hardware and software solutions, as well as the production of customized solutions, particularly for industrial vehicles.
Robotic system development will play a major role in the new Centre of Excellence for Automation. The mission of the team is to deliver intelligent, driverless and interoperable robotic products, solutions and services that are easy to deploy, operate, maintain and support throughout their lifecycle in brownfield applications.
Building design focuses on solutions that support sustainability
The KION Automation Centre Antwerp features modern standards of sustainable design, such as advanced insulation, solar panels and a green roof. The goal is to achieve BREEAM sustainable building certification, which is based on a holistic approach to achieving environmental, social and governance (ESG), health and net-zero goals. From energy to ecology, a BREEAM assessment uses recognized performance measures against established benchmarks to evaluate a building’s specification, design, construction and use.
In addition, the KION Group is working closely with the European agency Encon to obtain a WELL Gold certificate from the US-based international WELL Building Institute. The WELL Building Standard is an evidence-based system for measuring, certifying and monitoring building characteristics that affect the health and well-being of occupants.
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