Rhenus Automotive opens a fourth warehouse for John Deere in Mannheim
Rhenus Automotive has started operating another warehouse at its business site in Mannheim-Neckarau and has inaugurated its services with an official celebration. The property developer, Engelhorn, had completed the fourth building at the beginning of this year. Rhenus has already been handling a wide variety of different logistics and assembly projects for the agricultural machinery manufacturer, John Deere, at the site for many years.
The expansion of the branch at Mannheim-Neckarau to include another building is the logical consequence of the excellent partnership between the internationally active logistics specialist and John Deere; this business relationship has continued since 1997. Rhenus handles services along the entire supply chain at its business site in Mannheim: they not only include warehousing, picking, sequencing and pre-assembly work, but also organising and processing empty containers for suppliers as well as operating the spare parts business. Rhenus also manages the entire incoming goods at the branch and provides customs clearance for the items on behalf of John Deere.
“The completion of this new building is enabling us to increase our capacity and therefore significantly expand our position in the area of pre-assembly and sequencing work. We can also further consolidate our position as an outstanding supplier for John Deere because of the increased share of pre-assembly work,” says Thomas Bernhardt, the Managing Director and COO at Rhenus Automotive, explaining the implications.
Following the first two buildings, which were constructed in 2009, a third building was put into service at the site in 2014. The fourth building has been operating since the beginning of this year and therefore increases the total space available at the site to 28,000 square metres. The priority during the planning work was to make the best use of the space available at this plot of land. This has led to a solution that is unusual, even in the automobile sector: the production building has been divided into two storeys. As far as sustainability is concerned, the building primarily achieves high marks because of its excellent energy efficiency class, the greenery on the roof and its solar power unit, which supplies peak output of approx. 192 kilowatts in its current development stage.
Rhenus Automotive has been awarded Partner-Level Supplier status in John Deere’s Achieving Excellence Programme ten times in succession since 2011. This means that Rhenus has been entered in John Deere’s Hall of Fame twice in succession. The agricultural machinery manufacturer awards this prize as the highest accolade to suppliers, which stand out because of their high product quality and particularly good services for the customer. The prize also acknowledges the supplier’s commitment to continually improve its services.