For all of the many markets Leitz services, they have experienced specialists who not only understand how to make the product, but the materials and machines they use to make them. They support all customers in finding the solution to special fabrication problems. The Leitz Technology Centre in Oberkochen conducts targeted technical application experiments to seek out the optimum tooling 24 | Supplier Oct/Nov 2018
for processing new materials. Jurgen Koppel is CEO of Leitz and gives an example. “A few years ago the raw materials to produce tungsten carbide cutting tips were in short supply. Much of it was coming from China and the prices were very high. Since then some mines have been re-opened in Canada and the United States so the price is now reasonable again. About this time we started to develop coatings for our tools
to make them last longer and when the price of tungsten went up, this proved our coating strategy to be correct; to extend the life of the tools for our customers and to offer a different solution and this was all developed here in Oberkochen.” Leitz invests in the latest processes and production facilities, in information technologies and international procurement logistics, in efficient organisation and management structures for a continuous reduction in costs and time spent. Their catalogue has 8,000 standard items but amazingly, 60% of their production is tools made to order. The reality is that the total product numbers in the tens of thousands. At their facility in Oberkochen, workers and management come from hundreds of kilometres away and live in housing provided by the Company, returning home for the weekend. This way Leitz can get the best people to make the tools. Oscar Wilde once said “The
average gives the World its consistency, the exceptional its value.” Leitz strives to be exceptional. Manufacturing Leitz manufactures their tools in Oberkochen and Unterschneidheim in Germany; Riedau and Zell an der Pram in Austria; Sao Sebastiao in Brazil and Nanjing in China. Brazil and China mainly produces for local markets and tools sold in Australia will almost always be made in either Oberkochen or Unterschneidheim in Germany. “The production in China is for the Chinese furniture industry which is the biggest in the World, followed by the United States, then Germany and Italy. All of our subsidiaries, including in Australia make some tools for the industry; we call it fast production. They can sharpen all of the tools we sell, even those made here in Germany; its service, service, service. Our production site is the entire World.” says Mahler. Leitz cutting tools are www.suppliermagazine.com.au