CPA Bulletin

LIEBHERR FACTORY VISIT: 1 The CPA hosted its annual Stars of the Future awards ceremony on Wednesday 26th June 2019 to find some of the industry’s brightest and most promising talent and reward them for their commitment, ability and potential. This was the seventh consecutive year that the CPA had hosted the ceremony which was held at the Heart of England Conference and Events Centre near Coventry. Traditionally, Stars of the Future has focused on plant mechanic apprentices but for 2019, the scope of the event was widened further with new national titles of CPA Plant Operator Star of the Future and CPA Lifting Technician Star of the Future being introduced for the first time in recognition of new trailblazer apprenticeships. The inaugural Lifting Technician Star of the Future Award was kindly sponsored by Liebherr-GB Ltd. After careful scrutiny of the nominations, the 2019 winner was announced as Niki Fitzgerald of Select Plant Hire who is employed as an Apprentice Tower Crane Operator and currently working at a prominent site in Oxford Street, London. The prize kindly offered by Liebherr-GB Ltd was a chance to visit one of their crane production facilities in Germany to see behind the scenes to see how cranes are designed, manufactured and tested before being shipped to customers worldwide. The visit was arranged so that Niki could spend a full day touring the Liebherr facilities and the decision was made that he would visit the Ehingen factory near Ulm where the company’s mobile and large crawler cranes are manufactured. The aim of the visit being to broaden his understanding of different types of cranes compared to the tower cranes he operates. On the day of the visit, Niki - accompanied by John Young, Select Plant Hire’s Senior Resource Manager - was welcomed by Arran Willis, After Sales Operations Manager of Liebherr-GB Ltd, who kindly arranged the trip and Michael Heckenberger, Area Sales Manager for Liebherr-Werk Ehingen GmbH, who hosted the visitors for the day. The tour started with Michael explaining about the factory and products produced there. The Ehingen factory, established in 1969, currently covers an area of approx. 850,000m 2 with production halls covering an area of some 240,000m 2 with the remaining area devoted to storage, maintenance, despatch and testing approval facilities, so a lot of walking was involved. The first stage of the visit was boom production where telescopic booms were assembled and tested before being despatched to the final assembly area. The group then moved onto the cutting, fabrication and machining facility which produces a wide range of components for both crawler and mobile cranes including the production of a range of different cabs. Installed inside the hall was the production maintenance apprentice training room, with eager Apprentices observed undertaking a variety of task, including basic skills such as the filing of metal. Liebherr Factory Visit for CPA Lifting Technician STAR OF THE FUTURE Winner Niki Fitzgerald Travels to Germany for Liebherr Prize 20 CPA Bulletin > August 2019 www.cpa.uk.net