Potential far from exhausted

You could literally eat off this floor. The cleanliness of the plant is an expression of the meticulous organisation that prevails here, closely following the Japanese values of Kaizen. Kaizen is loosely defined as the philosophy of striving for continuous improvement of an existing product, and all the production plants of Fischerwerke are geared to these principles of order and development, including the factory in Denzlingen, close to Freiburg. All the group's chemical fastening systems have been manufactured here since the closure of a plant in China in 2011. This growth area gained additional impetus at Fischer due to the acquisition of Upat in 1993. Although Upat's premises in nearby Emmendingen still exist, only tool manufacture, metalworking and the administrative offices are still located there, but the Upat brand has been retained up to the present alongside the main Fischer brand. Chemical fastening systems were given a further boost by the takeover of Rocca in 1998. As this plant was situated in the centre of Denzlingen, the decision was taken to construct a new central plant on an industrial estate close to Denzlingen.
"Since the plant was commissioned in April 1999, we have been able to increase output fivefold," says head of production Jürgen Grün during a tour of the company. 86 people were employed in Denzlingen then - now there are 140 employees. This statistic alone indicates the extent to which production has been optimised in the last 15 years, and Fischer now has a market share of around 18 per cent in Germany. Three chemical fixing products are basically manufactured in Denzlingen. First there are the glass cartridges, a product for which the credit goes to Rocca, the company acquired by Fischer in 1998. The cartridges look like brown test tubes that are closed at the top and bottom. They contain a reactive resin and fillers, and a hardener is also enclosed in a glass cartridge. On application the cartridge is first inserted into a drill hole. "One of the major advantages of this system," says Grün, "is that the drill holes don't have to be cleaned." When the anchor is screwed in, the two glass cartridges are destroyed, causing the components to come into contact and the material to harden. This system is used primarily with high loads, in timber construction or to attach canopies. 60 per cent of these products are now exported to China.