Service News 19.04.2022 | Quality made in Germany: 30 years of Duravit bathroom furniture from Schenkenzell
19.04.2022 | Quality made in Germany: 30 years of Duravit bathroom furniture from Schenkenzell
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In situ for over 30 years: Duravit bathroom production in Schenkenzell
• High level of automation for optimum quality
• State-of-the-art technologies combined with expert craftsmanship
30 years of Duravit’s Schenkenzell furniture factory: April 2022 marks a round birthday for this unique global location of the bathroom furniture and washbasin specialist. The plant in the Kinzig Valley stands out thanks to its unique combination of high automation and perfect workmanship. Furniture production is at the core of the comprehensive bathroom portfolio Duravit, which boasts over 200 years of expertise in the manufacture of premium-quality sanitary ceramic.
From the get-go: combination of tradition and modernity
In 1992 the buildings of a former cloth factory – just 25 kilometers away from its Hornberg base – offered Duravit the opportunity to increase its manufacturing capability and expand its industrial bathroom furniture production. The philosophy from the get-go was to combine a high degree of automation with expert craftsmanship. The result: unmistakable products with an appealing design in excellent quality. Today, the Schenkenzell workforce is mainly made up of specialists such as carpenters, wood mechanics and varnishers, many of whom served their apprenticeship in the company’s own training workshop. Duravit employs a total of 164 staff in Schenkenzell, of whom twelve are apprentices.
High automation for maximum flexibility
From the get-go, the focus in terms of the site design was on precision manufacturing and consistent quality. The fully automated cutting operation for the panel sections evokes associations with a car factory and features exemplary standards of occupational health and safety. The high level of automation enables maximum flexibility in the manufacture of the various items of bathroom furniture, from series such as Ketho.2, L-cube, D-Neo, or Happy D.2 Plus.
The core of this is the new production line, which came on stream in 2020. The Manufacturing Execution System (MES) controls the manufacturing process, which comprises three robots as well as panel store, saws, layer store, sorting store, and formatting line. Around 110,000 different components can be manufactured on the spot, and custom orders can also be realized. No furniture parts are stored: each item produced is part of an order and can be manufactured in a minimum batch size of one. New or modified product lines can be flexibly integrated into the production process in a range of batch sizes. Depending on the design, the furniture is shipped within three to six weeks of order processing.
Craftsmanship and state-of-the-art processes
“The parts that come out of the system are so perfectly finished that no reworking is required. Packing and assembly are still performed by trained staff. That’s the only way to achieve the high quality standard that Duravit is committed to,” explained factory manager Ulrich Weber. In Schenkenzell, skilled craftsmanship is more highly sought-after in the 21st century than ever before: “Our patented c-bonded process, which is unique anywhere in the world, combines the ceramic of the washbasin with the furniture surface of the vanity unit. This requires precision working that is finished in manual working steps.”
In-house development with intensive practical testing
The in-house development department ensures that even unorthodox designs work perfectly in everyday use. Supported by the quality team, they ensure that all bathroom furniture meets the highest standards by subjecting it to stress and functional tests, trials in the climatic chamber, and through the assistance of certified testing labs.
