SSI Schaefer is investing in the future

Those who have followed the reports in the media about SSI Schaefer over the last few months will have noticed that the company is consistently pushing its expansion strategy. With its claim to shape the future of intralogistics, the company has become not only one of the market leaders, but also a major employer in various regions and countries. Harrie Swinkels, CEO SSI Schaefer, explains the intralogistics specialist’s aspirations: “Through internal growth, cooperative partnerships, and company takeovers, we are steadily expanding our know-how so that we can offer the entire range of systems and technologies worldwide. Thanks to our range of services, our actions are ‘product-neutral’; the focus is on developing optimized customer-specific solutions and not the sale of one specific product.”

One consequence of the expansion strategy is the decision to expand the Giebelstadt and Friesach locations by investing in new, modern building complexes and the related employee growth: In Giebelstadt, at the SSI Schaefer competence center for automated logistics solutions, the ground-breaking ceremony for a 5-story office building took place in September of last year. The building will provide space for 400 workplaces on almost 7,000 square meters in 2020. At the Friesach location in Austria, heart of the proprietary WAMAS^® logistics software, an additional office complex is being built that reflects the company’s strength in IT. After its grand opening, which is scheduled for November 2019, about 170 employees will be moving into the 1,000 square meter IT powerhouse.

Whether high-tech or semi-automated, maximum availability of the logistics systems and a trouble-free workflow are essential for any company. Therefore, it is not surprising that the Customer Service & Support (CSS) solutions of SSI Schaefer have been expanding for years. The range of services extends from classic maintenance to modern maintenance concepts such as predictive maintenance. This Customer Service & Support 4.0 solution continuously records and evaluates the system state. The information gained is used to predict potential outages and prevent them with proactive maintenance.

In order to meet the strong demand and increased requirements, the number of employees has more than doubled over the last few years: Of the more than 1,500 CSS experts around the globe, 130 team members can be found at the location in Graz. This required additional space into which the staff moved just recently. Elie Zita, EVP Customer Services SSI Schaefer, comments on this topic: “We are continuously developing and growing to meet our customers’ challenges. This not only applies to the technologies used in the logistics center, but also relates to the integrated services and support modules. We are also adding training programs and new tools to be able to offer our customers optimized support services and to ensure that the systems run smoothly. For us, it goes without saying that this is part of the overall responsibility of a holistic intralogistics provider.”

The awards that SSI Schaefer regularly receives in various categories confirm that the company is on the right track. Thus, for example, in April of this year the intralogistics specialist received the award for “Best Logistics Brand”, based on a reader and expert vote made by the magazine “Logistik Heute” and the “Bundesvereinigung Logistik”. In June, the company received another award, the “Best of Industry Award” presented by the industry magazine “MM MaschinenMarkt”. Most recently, SSI Schaefer was included in the circle of the most innovative companies in Germany featured in the magazines “Focus” and “Focus Money”, takes first place in the field of logistics.

Soon there will be additional information about the activities at the international headquarters in Neunkirchen/Siegerland and at the worldwide locations of SSI Schaefer.