German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited KUKA in Augsburg to discuss the factory of the future

Augsburg, 16-3-2015 — /EuropaWire/ — Around 50 journalists and several hundred employees shadowed German Chancellor Angela Merkel on her visit to KUKA in Augsburg. Accompanied by her economic advisor Lars-Hendrik Röller and deputy government spokesperson Georg Streiter, Angela Merkel met with KUKA Executive Board members Dr. Till Reuter and Peter Mohnen and Supervisory Board Chairman Bernd Minning to discuss the factory of the future.

The discussion focused primarily on the influence of digitization on the production and working environment of the future and the role being played by German companies in this development.

The Chancellor was then taken on a guided tour of the company, centered on KUKA’s hardware and software components. Among other presentations, KUKA employees demonstrated to the Chancellor how the sensitive LBR iiwa lightweight robot provides assistance in robot assembly and performs logistical tasks. The tour also included a reference project that came about in the context of development cooperation with Daimler. This project demonstrates how the LBR iiwa, as a central component, can help to make the workplace more ergonomic.

Angela Merkel was particularly interested in the future trends on which KUKA is working in the field of technology development and also informed herself about the nature of the company’s cooperation with universities and research institutes.

“We can be proud of having companies such as KUKA here in Germany,” said the German Chancellor. “For me, the visit to KUKA was important for the purpose of gaining a clearer impression of Industry 4.0 in order to enable us to provide the right political stimuli to allow industry room for maneuver and to invest research funds judiciously.” The Federal Government thus supports a platform that will enable as many business enterprises as possible to benefit from the opportunities of Industry 4.0.

“This visit was of great significance for KUKA,” said Dr. Till Reuter. “Not only because a visit by the Chancellor is such a great honor, but also because cooperation between the worlds of politics and business is an essential precondition for the positioning of German companies in the fourth industrial revolution.”

Here you find a link about the visit of the German Chancellor at KUKA.

We will be happy to help you with press questions:

KUKA Aktiengesellschaft
Press Spokesperson, Head of Corporate Communications
Katrin Stuber-Koeppe
Tel: +49 821 797 3722
PR@kuka.com

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German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited KUKA in Augsburg to discuss the factory of the future