Ulli Koch has been Managing Director of KOCH Industrieanlagen GmbH, Dernbach, since 2005. The company was founded in 1978 by his father Reinhard Koch in Neuwied as a sales and engineering office. In 1993, the conversion to a robot systems house and plant manufacturer began. This year, the company can look back on 40 years of company history and 25 years as a robot systems house.
pj: Mr Koch, what is the current focus in your company?
Ulli Koch: We implement robot systems for all factory areas as individual systems that can be integrated, e.g. palletising or machine loading systems. We plan and realise complete turnkey systems such as filling and packaging lines, ready-to-ship pallets, complete order picking or machine interlinking systems. Our aim is to Long-term increase in competitiveness of our customers, e.g. by increasing packaging quality, system flexibility and reducing costs.
pj: What particular challenges did you face last year?
Ulli Koch: 1. successful realisation of several major orders, 2. planning and start of realisation for our new office building, 3. maintaining our high level of employee satisfaction despite high workloads, 4. new developments, such as the new ROBOT-Flex packer for optimum film packaging of roll products. 5. further development of our software modules for robots and system control to reduce development costs, increase system availability and improve system operation.
pj: How do you assess the economic situation?
Ulli Koch: We are currently seeing record levels of incoming orders, orders on hand and sales and continue to receive a high number of enquiries. We therefore expect further growth in 2019 and 2020. In the medium to long term, however, we must Slump in the global economy calculate.
pj: What effects do you expect for your company?
Ulli Koch: Our customers benefit from our flexible robot automation systems through rationalisation effects, increased quality and efficiency as well as cost savings. Experience has shown that our robot systems are also procured after periods of economic weakness. In addition, it helps us in such phases that we Customers from a wide range of industries serve. In the last ten years, our sales figures have risen by 140 per cent. We have made provisions for our potential growth in the coming decades and are still on course for success.
pj: What do you see as the most important tasks and trends in the industry?
Ulli Koch: In the realisation of Industry 4.0 both internally and for KOCH robot systems. In increasing the flexibility of our systems with regard to changes in our customers' markets and increasing the training and further education of our employees, intensifying R&D, continuously improving our processes, increasing productivity and improving our services to increase the availability and performance of our customers' systems.
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