Rittal plans to build a new production plant for compact hardware enclosures in Haiger, Germany.

The company’s largest investment ever, at €250 million ($276m), it is scheduled to be completed by 2018.

We all need enclosure

The 24,000 m sq (258,333 sq ft) facility will manufacture 9,000 enclosures a day from 300 standard types.

In addition, two other plants in the region will be upgraded, while another plant for large stainless-steel enclosures is expected in the future.

Rittal says that Haiger plant will make heavy use of automated systems, including automated guided vehicles (AGVs), “dispensing with human operators.” The plant will be part-operated by an intelligent system that can predictively order spare parts, and increase system availability.

Fully automated control systems, the company claims, will minimize energy consumption, costs and environmental impact.

Haiger is expected to serve as a test bed for automated upgrades that will be rolled out to other Rittal sites around the world.