Wittenstein SE

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wittenstein SE

logo
legal form Societas Europaea
founding 1949
Seat Harthausen
management Bertram Hoffmann (CEO), Dirk Haft, Erik Roßmeißl and Anna-Katharina Wittenstein
Number of employees 2,942 worldwide ( March 2019 )
sales 436.4 million euros in the 2018/2019 financial year
Branch Mechanical engineering , electronics , simulation technology
Website www.wittenstein.de

Wittenstein SE headquarters in Igersheim-Harthausen

The Wittenstein SE (self spelling: WITTENSTEIN) is a German manufacturer of planetary gears , gear technology, complete electromechanical drive systems and AC servo systems and motors based in Harthausen , a district of Igersheim in Main-Tauber-Kreis . Areas of application are, for example, robots , machine tools , packaging, conveying and process engineering , defense technology, Formula 1, paper and printing machines, nanotechnology, lifting and stage technology, aerospace and offshore natural gas and oil production.

history

Founding years

In 1949 Walter Wittenstein and Bruno Dähn founded the Dewitta company in Steinheim . The focus of the company was - on borrowed equipment - the production of a double chain stitch machine for the production of gloves. In 1952 the company moved from Steinheim to Bad Mergentheim due to lack of space . An old barrack on the Eissee served as the first manufacturing facility, which was originally only intended as an interim solution. Due to another lack of space, Dewitta moved to neighboring Igersheim in 1964 .

Realignment

In the 1970s, fewer and fewer women wore gloves and, as a result, the sale of machines for making them fell. During this time, the company was responsible for contract work and the manufacture of other products, e.g. B. Shooting devices for steel nails, machines for filling and closing tubes and for packing toasted bread are becoming increasingly important. Soon half of the turnover was achieved through this work.

In addition, a generation change was looming. Company founder Walter Wittenstein gradually withdrew from the company (and died in Igersheim in 1988), his son Manfred Wittenstein joined the company in 1979. He changed the production and product range and, in search of market opportunities and suitable products with unique selling points, came across the manufacture of low-backlash planetary gears.

In 1983 the first planetary gear unit of the SP series was presented at the Hanover Fair . The SPs were so successful that shortly afterwards a subsidiary was founded with Alpha Getriebebau . It was created in 1984 as a cooperation with the medium-sized company Bastian in Fellbach and Wittenstein, with Manfred Bastian and Manfred Wittenstein as managing partners. The assembly was completely relocated to Weikersheim in 1990 . Before moving out in 1996, an average of 40 employees worked there. The era of the sewing machines ended at this location, the sewing machine program was then completely sold with all spare parts, milling machines and devices.

internationalization

At the beginning of the 1990s, Wittenstein began its international expansion. The first foreign subsidiary was founded with Alpha Réducteurs in Paris , followed shortly thereafter by Alpha Gearboxes in Tokyo (Japan). With the establishment of Wittenstein Motion Control in 1992, the group of companies became a system provider for electromechanical servo drives and drive systems. In the following years, further subsidiaries were gradually founded: Wittenstein Intens and Wittenstein Cyber ​​Motor .

In 1995 Manfred Wittenstein founded the "Wittenstein Foundation" together with the then rector of the Deutschorden grammar school in Bad Mergentheim. Every year, one of the school's high school graduates is awarded a scholarship to study science. On Wittenstein's initiative, “Creative Minds” was also a competition for young talent for schoolchildren in the region.

In 1996, the company moved to the first newly constructed building in the Harthausen industrial park. Between 1999 and 2007 the number of production halls at the headquarters grew to a total of six. In 2001 the company received a new structure: the previous Wittenstein GmbH & Co. KG was converted into a non-listed family-run stock corporation. In the further course of the decade, further subsidiaries were founded with Wittenstein Aerospace & Simulation and Wittenstein Electronics . In 2008 the group acquired the majority stake in Attocube Systems and integrated it in 2011 as a wholly owned subsidiary.

Current company development

From October 1, 2013 to the end of September 2016, Dieter Spath , Professor of Technology Management and Ergonomics at the University of Stuttgart, headed the group as CEO. Manfred Wittenstein switched to the Group's supervisory board, to which he has been a member since April 2014 as chairman of the supervisory board. At the end of September 2016, the company changed its name from a stock corporation (AG) to a European stock corporation (SE). From October 2016 the board of directors will include Anna-Katharina Wittenstein, Dirk Haft, Erik Roßmeißl and Bernd Schimpf.

In 2014 a new building at the Harthausen site was completed and occupied.

In 2017, Wittenstein acquired all of the shares in baramundi software AG . For a more market-oriented orientation, Wittenstein is structurally and organizationally repositioning itself in many areas: Wittenstein Electronics: Integration in Wittenstein Cyber ​​Motor. Wittenstein Motion Control: the Industry division is split between Wittenstein Cyber ​​Motor and Wittenstein Alpha . Wittenstein Bastian: Integration of development and sales in Wittenstein Alpha. The Urban production in Fellbach will be further expanded as a production and competence center for gear components and special gear.

In the 2015/2016 financial year, the export rate was 62% and at the beginning of 2016 almost 2,000 people were employed worldwide, around 1,600 of them in Germany.

Bernd Schimpf left the Management Board on March 31, 2019. On April 1, 2019, Bertram Hoffmann took over the position of CEO of the WITTENSTEIN Group. Dirk Haft, Erik Roßmeißl and Anna-Katharina Wittenstein complete the board.

In March 2020, WITTENSTEIN will sell its medical division to the Medtec company Orthofix .

A new subsidiary will be founded on April 1, 2020: WITTENSTEN galaxie GmbH, in order to be able to position and expand the radically innovative Galaxie ® drive technology in an even more targeted manner.

Locations

The group of companies has a total of around 60 subsidiaries and agencies in around 40 countries (as of April 2020). In addition to self-founded Wittenstein companies such as Alpha , Cyber ​​Motor , Galaxie , Motion Control or Aerospace & Simulation , acquisitions such as Attocube Systems and baramundi software AG are also included.

The head office is in Igersheim-Harthausen, where the administration building, the innovation factory, the production halls and the logistics center and the talent arena are located, and the production of gearbox housings, drive shafts and engine components is in the Igersheim plant. The gears are still produced in Fellbach today. - there since 2012 in the "Urban Production of the Future". The group of companies has further production sites as its own subsidiaries in the USA (Bartlett near Chicago), Romania (Sura Mica near Sibiu) and Switzerland (Grüsch, Graubünden).

Awards

In 2015, Wittenstein AG received the Hermes Award for its Galaxie gearbox at the Hanover Fair .

In 2016, Wittenstein AG won the German Industry Innovation Prize for its high-performance gear unit with dynamized individual teeth .

The team of inventors Manfred Wittenstein and Thomas Bayer are nominated for the German Future Prize 2018, the Federal President’s Prize for Technology and Innovation, with the Galaxie gearbox. You officially belong to the circle of the best.

Wittenstein SE receives the Diesel Medal 2019, Germany's oldest innovation award, for the most sustainable innovation for the new Galaxie gearbox .

Others

The innovation effort related to the group turnover amounts to approx. 7% annually, approx. 12% of the employees work in research and development . The training quota is 8.4%.

The international classical singing competition "DEBUT", which was initiated in 2002 by Manfred Wittenstein, supports young opera singers. WITTENSTEIN SE is the main sponsor of the singing competition.

literature

  • Manfred Wittenstein: Business model Germany: Why globalization is good for us. Murmann Verlag, Hamburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-86774-096-8
  • Klaus Spitzley (ed.): High-performance network Germany: Value creation and prosperity for the future Murmann Verlag, Hamburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-86774-215-3

Web links

Commons : Wittenstein SE  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b company information of Wittensten SE - website of Wittenstein SE - accessed on July 31, 2018.
  2. ↑ a b c d e Wittenstein Group - Wittenstein SE website - Accessed July 31, 2019.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Company history of Wittenstein - Website of Wittenstein SE - Retrieved on April 8, 2019.
  4. ↑ New CEO at Wittenstein - Wittenstein SE website - Retrieved on April 7, 2017.
  5. ^ Wittenstein becomes Societas Europaea - Wittenstein SE website - Retrieved on April 7, 2017.
  6. ↑ Generation change at Wittenstein - Wittenstein SE website - Retrieved on April 7, 2017.
  7. ^ New building in Harthausen. Planning. Wittenstein, 2012, accessed in 2020 .
  8. ↑ a b baramundi software AG - baramundi software AG: Continue growing with WITTENSTEIN SE and opening up new markets . In: baramundi software AG . ( baramundi.de [accessed on March 31, 2017]).
  9. ↑ http://ir.orthofix.com/news-releases/news-release-details/orthofix-completes-acquisition-fitbone-limb-lengthening-system
  10. ↑ a b c Wittenstein SE locations - Wittenstein SE website - Accessed on May 9, 2019.
  11. ↑ The Urban Production of the Future - Wittenstein SE website - Retrieved on April 7, 2017.
  12. ↑ Reinhard Karger MA: Prof. Wahlster presents the Hermes Award 2015 at HANNOVER MESSE. German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence GmbH, DFKI, press release from April 14, 2015 at Informationsdienst Wissenschaft (idw-online.de), accessed on April 14, 2015.
  13. ↑ German Business Innovation Prize - Construction Practice website - Retrieved on April 7, 2017.
  14. ↑ Deutscher Zukunftspreis - German Future Prize website - Retrieved on May 9, 2019.
  15. ↑ Diesel Medal - Diesel Medal website - Retrieved May 9, 2019.
  16. ↑ DEBUT Classical Singing Competition - DEBUT Concerts website - Retrieved May 13, 2019.

Coordinates: 49 ° 32 '7.1 "  N , 9 ° 51' 23.7"  E