INDUSTRY NEWS
DOING MORE AT DEUTZ
To expand its business, Deutz Corp. adopts “value-added” approach at Georgia facility
Photo by Debra Gable
An employee works on an engine assembly line at the Deutz Corp. facility in Norcross, Ga.
The facility, which started life as a distribution center, was recently reorganized to better
accommodate an increase in value-added services.
BY JACK BURKE
It might seem like a simple request, but it ended up changing the way Deutz Corp. does business.
For years, the Norcross, Ga.-based company served as the North
American distributor of engines from
its parent company, Germany’s Deutz
AG. The engines would come in; the
engines would go out.
“This facility was strictly distribu-
tion,” said Juergen Poppelreuter, di-
rector of logistics for Deutz. “Then one
of our major customers approached
us and wanted us to do value-add
(service) on one particular unit that
they had developed.”
The customer didn’t have the space
or the workforce to accomplish the
task, so Deutz agreed to take on
the job. More requests came. Soon,
the distribution center was a hive of
value-added activity. Deutz is now
adding sheet metal, brackets, hoses,
radiators, wiring harnesses — it can
provide more than 120 components to
the engines it receives from Germany.
