26 severely damaged machines restored to operation

Following the flood disaster in Slovenia in August 2023, Liebherr-Verzahntechnik GmbH provided active assistance for the automotive supplier KLS d.o.o. With commitment, expertise and minimal bureaucracy, the team of engineers performed what seemed an impossible task in just 1,200 work-hours: all of the Slovenian company‘s gear cutting machines – initially thought to be damaged beyond repair – were back up and running before Christmas.

“The water came overnight,” says KLS founder and CEO Bogomir Strašek. “It all happened so quickly; the employees on the night shift only just managed to get out safely.” The workshops of KLS Ljubno d.o.o. in the Savinja valley northeast of Ljubljana were supposedly flood-proof, and therefore nobody expected flooding on such a scale. The severe weather catastrophe hit the company on the night of August 4, 2023.

A problem for the automotive industry

KLS employs 250 people and manufactures ring gears for the drive trains of internal combustion engines. As the market leader, the company supplies around 80% of the European automotive industry‘s demand; before the flood, around 300,000 ring gears came off the production line every week. The potential harm to the automotive industry from the interrupted production and supply chains was unimaginable. When Liebherr-Verzahntechnik GmbH learned of the flood damage, it initiated a unique rescue operation. “For around 25 years, KLS has been producing solely on gear cutting machines from Liebherr-Verzahntechnik GmbH,” reports Thomas Breith, Head of Product Management for gear cutting machines. “Before the flood, twenty-six LC 380 machines were in operation there.“ Richard Höbel, Commissioning Engineer for gear cutting machines, traveled with the team to the flooded plant and was shocked by what he saw: “All the machines were neck-deep in water. Control cabinets, computers, servers – everything was affected.” It was impossible to tell whether repair and reconstruction would be possible.

Exceptional situations require exceptional methods

In addition to the Liebherr experts, teams from the automotive industry also came. The joint attempt at reconstruction began immediately. The Liebherr team led the crucial repair of the gear cutting machines. “The whole plant had my phone number,” laughs Richard Höbel. “We put up notes with our names and telephone numbers on all the Liebherr machines, along with a priority list of the most important measures.” To get one machine to work, he took components from others and sourced hard-to-get spare parts. It was an enormous challenge in terms of planning, which the Liebherr team from various departments, consisting of Alexander Martin, Manuel Kauschka, Freddy Bastian, Ismail Keskin, Jürgen Schairer, Volker Dominick and Richard Höbel, with the assistance of everyone at KLS, had to overcome without computer-aided logistics. After a week, the decisive moment came: the least damaged machine was restarted. “That was the turning point for all of us,” says Richard Höbel. “It showed us that it could be done. So then we said we‘ll have all the machines up and running by Christmas.”

A technical Christmas miracle

“According to my step counter we walked 15 km back and forth between the machines every day,” Richard Höbel remembers. One machine after another was repaired under the guidance of the Liebherr experts. And with improvisation, hard work and non-stop communication between the teams, their bold forecast came true in the end. “When the Liebherr team left before Christmas 2023, our plant was at 50% production capacity,” says KLS CEO Bogomir Strašek. “If we take just the Liebherr machines, we were at 100%. I would never have thought it possible – our friends from Liebherr worked wonders.”In February 2024, production at KLS was back up to 70% and no traces of the flooding can be seen at the company today. However, it will take many more helping hands to overcome the consequences of the flood disaster throughout Slovenia.