BOGE managers look towards the future with optimism (from right to left: Wolf D. Meier-Scheuven, Michael Rommelmann, Gavin Monn, Ricarda Fleer and Thorsten Meier.

Future investments, awards and new business models – the Bielefeld-based family-owned company BOGE can look back on a year full of high points.

In 2017, the company was in step with its international customers once again with its advanced compressed air solutions. One highlight of the year was the opening of the smart factory at the head office in Bielefeld.

Since September 2017, high speed turbo technology has been in series production there.

The new “continuous improvement programme” was awarded a prize. This progressively enhances the compressors via ongoing further development in customer deployment. The mechanical engineering company is the first to bring this solution onto the market. Classic maintenance is therefore a thing of the past.

BOGE has been synonymous with forward-looking compressed air solutions through intelligent engineering for 110 years. Its anniversary year saw the opening of the smart factory, and the company creating the preconditions to fulfil the high demands of individual customer compressed air solutions even better.

In the digitalised factory, people, component and machine communicate with one another to produce the parts for the prizewinning BOGE HST high speed turbo compressor, specifically for the customer and to zero error quality. “Achieving this production line represented a major challenge for us”, says Wolf D. Meier-Scheuven, the managing partner.

“Thanks to the advanced production technology we are now in a position to manufacture in many versions and with process reliability. This is innovative and demonstrates our response to the continuously increasing requirements of our customers.”

In 2017, BOGE invested more than five per cent of its turnover in research and development; around twice as much as the average invested by companies in the mechanical engineering sector. “We increased turnover and market shares, but due to our long-term investments, we suffered calculable losses in earnings”, explains BOGE CEO Thorsten Meier. The smart factory alone cost the compressed air company around two million Euro. “We have thereby created the foundations for further growth”, says Meier.

Best Industrial 4.0 Business Solution

The prize for the forward-looking continuous improvement programme from the Handelsblatt demonstrates that BOGE is on the right track.

The leading German business newspaper honoured the concept of continuous improvement for the high speed turbo compressor as the Best Industrial 4.0 Business Solution. With the help of data analysis and simulation, the compressed air experts are constantly further developing the hardware and software of the machines tailored to the customer.

The compressors are therefore continuously improved in operation. The result: A highly efficient compressed air supply that is completely adapted to current requirements and extremely efficient in terms of energy – which reduces operating costs.

 “With our continuous improvement programme, we have taken a step forward in the race for the best digitalisation strategies. Together with the BOGE high speed turbo compressor and the smart factory, we have reached the next level of innovation and can further extend our strong position as a highly specialised family-run company that is successful worldwide”, says Wolf D. Meier-Scheuven, CEO of BOGE.