Be future-proof, stay innovative: igus expands management

igus expands the management team. L to R: Michael Blass, Gerhard Baus, Frank Blase, Tobias Vogel, and Artur Peplinski. (Source: igus GmbH)

The ongoing digitalization, a high level of product innovation, fast delivery times worldwide, and a sustainable circular economy – just some of the future projects that igus is advancing further this year. To handle this multitude of tasks, the company is now expanding its management team. Customers and employees should know that igus can pursue its independent path at every stage and well into the future.

"We want to continue driving decisive future investments so that customers can access their motion plastics innovations quickly, easily, and reliably," promised Frank Blase at the igus Annual Press Conference 2020 in May. The igus CEO and entrepreneur sees himself on a good path so far. Example of digitalization: "Our 400-square-meter real trade fair booth in Cologne has been online since early May. In the meantime, over 55,000 interested parties from around the world have visited the booth virtually, and 8,700 conversations have been conducted digitally by igus customer advisors there." The focus of the exhibition is on over 120 product innovations that help customers save costs and improve their technology. Among autumn innovations are the 3D-printed smart sliding bearings, with which the triboplastic specialist is for the first time combining Industry 4.0 with 3D printing in a single production step.

To maintain and intensify this unique path of technology and corporate culture for a long time, igus is expanding its management team. The new CEOs Gerhard Baus, New Businesses, Michael Blass, e-cable systems, Tobias Vogel, Sliding Bearings & Linear Technology, and Artur Peplinski, igus International, now complement the corporate leadership around Frank Blase. "I am pleased to be working with this team. Together, we have 148 years of igus experience. We are united by our enthusiasm for motion plastics," said Frank Blase. Each of the new CEOs is responsible for a product area worldwide; one is building up the company locally. "This is unusual and also aligns with our 'solar system organization,' where the customer as an energy source is at the center," explained Frank Blase. At the same time, he appointed three new authorized signatories for the product areas of cables, assembly, and linear technology & low-cost automation. Additionally, five more new authorized signatories were appointed for the areas of production, purchasing, and HR; they complement colleagues in IT and finance.

"Together with the colleagues at igus, we have already implemented many new investments this year. These include further automation of the factory, for example through robolink low-cost robots, the creation of new testing capacities such as the cleanroom laboratory and gear test stands, as well as increasing production capacity to more than 560 injection molding machines and 18 newly installed machines for state-of-the-art toolmaking. At the same time, investments in logistics and information systems for short delivery times have continued. Sustainability is taking up an increasingly larger space in all of this," emphasized Frank Blase, who invested last year in the startup Mura Technologies to support the company in building the first commercial plant to recycle plastic into crude oil. "In the expanded management team, we all agree that we will incorporate the ideas of the circular economy even more strongly into our core business."