Liebherr Plant Tour

Area 2 & 3 branches, along with members of the National Executive of the ETTA recently received a tour of the Liebherr manufacturing plant in Fossa, Killarney, Co Kerry. They were educated on all the processes involved in manufacturing a port crane from start to finish. The Liebherr Group is a large international equipment manufacturing, family owned company. It is the world’s largest crane company. The plant in Killarney develops, produces, transports and assembles machinery for port handling. The product range includes: · Ship to shore container cranes · Rubber-tyred container stacker cranes · Rail-mounted stacker cranes · Straddle carriers

The tour began with a reception and presentation from Charlie McCarthy, technical director, and Karen Hayes, training and development. The presentation gave an overview of the entire Liebherr company, with the teachers present discovering that Liebherr have many other business interests aside from their highly successful crane and machinery divisions. The presentation also included details of their apprentice programmes, and their involvement in developing modules for their apprentices which are delivered in conjunction with I.T. Tralee, among other third level institutes. Following this presentation, we were given a guided tour of the plant by Pat O' Connor, who wasn't afraid to declare himself as a proud Corkman working in Kerry. Pat showed great patience with us, answering all our questions, no matter how random, while walking very slowly through the plant. After a very thorough tour, with no corner left unchecked, we met members of the design team, and got a demonstration of the software they use, along with simulated testing of parts and bolted sections. We then gathered again in the board room, where we met with Pat O' Leary, managing director. We would like to thank Charlie, Karen and Pat for taking the time out to meet with us and allowing us to roam around the plant, and a big thanks to Pat O' Connor for his excellent tour.