In 2022, Leadec will celebrate its 60th anniversary. In an interview with Markus Glaser-Gallion, CEO of Leadec, we talk about the past years and how he sees the future of the service specialist for the factory.
Leadec was founded in 1962 as Kesselreinigungsgesellschaft Reichenberger (Reichenberger boiler cleaning company). Do you still clean boilers today?
Yes, we do. But that is, of course, only a tiny fraction of our services. We have been a recognized partner to the automotive and manufacturing industries for 60 years, and today we cover the entire life cycle of a factory. Our services range from production planning and optimization to automation, installations, production equipment maintenance, technical cleaning and facility management. Incidentally, we are still working for our first customers VW and Daimler today.
What were important milestones along the way?
In 1985, the boiler cleaning company changed its name to Deutsche Industriewartung GmbH & Co. KG (DIW) in 1985 and was active on the market as Voith Industrial Services from 2000. During this time, we expanded internationally, among other things by founding a Chinese company and acquiring Premier in the USA and ThyssenKrupp Services in the UK. We also expanded our portfolio in Germany, for example through the acquisition of a majority share in Hörmann Industrietechnik. Since 2017, we have been independent as Leadec.
How do you want to continue?
We will continue on our growth path and reach more than one billion in sales in 2022. We will succeed in this through new services and end-to-end digitization as well as diversification into further industries. With our extensive knowledge of production processes and equipment, we are ideally positioned to make factories fit for the future. In addition, our global presence at manufacturing industry sites is crucial for us. That’s why we are strategically strengthening ourselves by acquiring seven companies in 2021 and four in 2020, for example.
What challenges do you currently see in the factory environment?
The factory of the future is characterized by automated and flexible manufacturing processes, data-driven processes and networked, modular plants. However, if the services related to manufacturing are not just as Industry 4.0 capable as production, then optimization potential will remain untapped. That’s why we see the factory as a system in which manufacturing and services go hand in hand. We support factories in their transformation – toward new drive concepts, increasing connectivity to Industry 4.0, zero-emission factories and digitization in production.
How can digitization help?
Digitization plays a crucial role in the factory of the future. For our customers’ smart factories, we rely on extensive experience in the production environment, our collaborative platform Leadec.os and our own IoT Home Cloud, where machine data is captured and analyzed. This enables end-to-end integration from the shop floor with its equipment to the executed service order – from factory to service.
What does the future look like for Leadec?
From boiler cleaner to leading global service provider for the entire factory – Leadec has undergone a comprehensive transformation over the past 60 years. And we are still a long way from reaching our goal. Because our vision is: We want to be the leading service specialist for the factory of today and tomorrow.
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