After Bauma is before Bauma

Crawler excavators and various types of other specialised machinery such as electric excavators, tunnel excavators and demolition excavators have been rolling off our production lines in Colmar, Alsace, since 1961. Liebherr-France SAS was the first Liebherr company to be established in France and has been constantly growing and developing ever since. The anniversary of the 60,000th crawler excavator was not the only major highlight; there was also the novel assembly line where this model’s so-called “wedding” was held. Five million euros were invested to meet the needs of the new generation of crawler excavators with a flexible and dynamic production structure. New assembly stations, pneumatic transport rails, materials supply and logistics, and digital process control all come together to ensure a smooth workflow.

The guiding principle during the five-year development period has always been ‘‘from market to market’’. This involved maintaining a close dialogue with customers, machine operators and also within the company group with the components division. The results are extremely impressive. The new Generation 8 comprises an initial seven models with an impressive array of features, such as increased engine output for shorter loading cycles, a heavier ballast weight for higher bucket capacities and minimal fuel consumption, which has significantly increased the models’ economic efficiency.

Back to the anniversary excavator: This special model was presented to our employees in an exclusive ceremony after the wedding and before the roadshow.

After that, it was time for the crawler excavator to set out on its anniversary tour. The first important stop was, of course, the Bauma trade fair in Munich. Visitors were invited to watch the excavator in action on the test & drive site. After that, the R 922 stopped off at various locations in France, Belgium and Luxembourg, before returning to Colmar for Christmas. The anniversary excavator brought its roadshow to a close in February 2020 and was handed over to a customer from France.

Innovation always requires people. Many years ago, the American technological historian Thomas P. Hughes argued that the time of the great independent inventor was already well past by the first half of the 20th century. Exceptionally gifted inventors like Thomas Alva Edison and Graham Bell destroyed the basis of their own innovative power by creating major technological systems for electricity and telephony, which left no room for “independent inventors”. Hughes, however, was quite mistaken.

There was and still is a strong desire for the creative spirit of an individual who is willing and able to shape the future on their own. There are many examples of this. In 1949, for instance, during reconstruction works after the war, Hans Liebherr developed a mobile tower crane – thus laying the foundations for a global enterprise. Throughout industrial history, inventors and entrepreneurs such as Liebherr have provided convincing confirmation of the recipe for success: the essential ingredients for major change are the right vision, in the right place, at the right time. This still applies to this day, and American IT inventors have been demonstrating the success of the formula since the 1980s.

It reflects the primitive desire for safety embedded in human nature, in terms of which modern man is not so very different from the Neanderthal. However, question marks are beginning to appear on many apparently obvious certainties. In a time of globalisation, digitalisation, climate change and demographic transformation, for the first time in many centuries the younger generation in industrialised western nations are not convinced they are better off than their parents. In fact, they would be happy to feel that they had achieved even half as much in the course of their life’s work. In China or India, the situation is quite different. In those countries, it is still the privilege of the young to say to their elders: “What you’ve achieved is impressive, but you should see this...”

It actually seems to be bringing a real fresh start. Digitalisation is often seen as the second Copernican Revolution, which is beginning to transform our worldview completely. It affects the way in which we interact and communicate and how we integrate technologies, including the nascent possibilities of artificial intelligence, into our world.

Digitalisation gives us the ability to shift more and more tasks into the virtual realm. In crane construction, for example, we can use simulations to skip over developmental stages without having to construct a series of prototypes to optimise results. This conserves resources and accelerates the development process. Ultimately, however, it is important to relate digitalisation to the real world, in manufacturing as well as the products themselves. Machine construction in Germany is one of the world’s leading examples of this.

The innovative strength and performance capability of our machine industry is demonstrated not only by spectacular new devices, but also by the relatively old vehicle fleets and machinery still in operation across the country. These machines are the result of a development process tailored to the market and to user requirements. Our engineers are intimately familiar with the reality of normal operations, including the often-unexpected challenges users face every day. They keep the repair capacity and maintenance requirements of the machinery in mind right from the start. They truly understand the machines and their use, knowing the importance of reliability, cost and quality. That’s what makes the difference on the global market.

In the 19th and early 20th century, German engineers were always driven to some extent by a sense of guilt: “At some point, nature will strike back”. At that time, this was very much in tune with the spirit of German youth and nature movements. The drive to improve technological developments, increase efficiency and optimise the use of resources was thus based not only on economic concerns but also on moral principles

The steam engine, for example, was one of the driving forces behind industrialisation – a real best-case story. However, its external combustion system made it very inefficient. This prompted inventors to come up with a solution. To increase its energy efficiency, they moved the combustion system into the cylinder chamber, a process that proved to be extremely complex and demanding. At the time, all these innovations typically originated in Germany: the Otto and Diesel engines, along with the Wankel engine, were designed to generate more power while consuming fewer raw materials. In the 1980s, the “Growian” with a rotor diameter of 100 metres was supposed to set new standards in terms of wind power. While the “giant wind turbine” proved a spectacular failure, it nonetheless inspired engineers to produce rolling bearings of such high quality that they were able to withstand the enormous shear forces of the huge rotors. From the late 2000s onwards, around 25 years after the dismantling of the Growian, systems with the same dimensions and outputs have been produced in large series.

In this context, it is fascinating to have a look at people’s expectations for the new millennium back in 1970. There was a lot of scepticism in Europe at the time: a belief that in ten years, all the lights would go out. The prophets of doom included not only our own people, but also many economists from other regions. In economies of scale, the enormous economic systems of the US and Japan were about to overtake Europe and marginalise its technological role. And let’s not forget the Club of Rome – even then, scientists were warning of the collapse of the ecosystem, with peak oil predicted for 1985. Horror scenarios like this certainly had an effect, but not entirely for the worse. This kind of prediction inspired innovations aimed at preventing such a dismal future from arriving.

It’s the so-called Struwwelpeter effect. In Hoffmann’s picture book of short stories from the mid-1800s, this concept was illustrated in drastic terms with badly behaved children having their fingers cut off and even being drowned. The archaic message behind all these stories is that we don’t want to end up like that, so we have to work to avoid it. I think such worst-case scenarios have their good points, if only because they inspire a “now more than ever” response. Now is the time to adopt new ways of thinking and a new narrative, such as the ecological reorganisation of society. Horror scenarios are essential to this process. If we can connect these with positive guiding principles, I see no reason to fear the future. History teaches us that human ingenuity comes into its own in a crisis.