Yamazaki Mazak is set to more than double the size of its European Parts Centre in Belgium, with a the building of a new warehouse and logistics facility.
The European Parts Centre expansion, based in the town of Leuven, forms part of Mazak’s ten-year plan for growth in its European businesses, which has included recent investment in new Technology Centres in Prague, Katowice, Düsseldorf and Leipzig.
The company has identified customer support as being a key factor in its continued growth and its latest expansion aims to cement the company’s position as a leading service and support provider.
The expansion will enhance the localised service as part of the company’s Total Support, which includes service, spare parts, application engineering support, turnkey project management, training, and spindle servicing.
The new facilities are part of a two-phase expansion of the Leuven site with ground-breaking on the first phase taking place in early August 2013, with a completion date set for 2014. A second phase is scheduled for 2022 to meet projected demand for parts in the European market.
The expansion will increase warehouse capacity from 2,700 m2 to 5,528 m2. The expanded warehouse will be fully automated and equipped with a new “mini-load” system for small parts picking from 8,140 small trays and a stacker crane for 3,000 medium to large pallets.
Marcus Burton, European managing director for Yamazaki Mazak, said the company’s recent success lies to the levels of support it offers to customers, with more than 50,000 machine tools currently on the market.
“Our European Parts Centre lies at the heart of our customer support strategy, aiming to provide the highest levels of service throughout the lifecycle of a machine, from initial purchase through to on-going spares support for older machines which are still in service and productive,” he said.
