Outlook on Added value
Customers increasingly want to be able to process products directly into their own production process. Consequently, the demand for material treatments, just-in-time deliveries, technical advice, inspections and material tests will increase significantly in the coming years. We will respond to that through investing in innovative applications. A new IT platform that we are implementing throughout the organization ensures efficiency, for instance in logistics. And thanks to advanced cutting machines, a renovated swaging center and a robot arm, we can increase our capacity for small and large specialist orders.
Thierry Martinez,
Business Unit Manager Fluid Power, Van Leeuwen Frankrijk
‘Cutting, coating, laser cutting, bending and special packaging, we can do all of this for our customers, as well as carrying out inspections and tests, and taking care of certification,’ says Thierry Martinez, Business Unit Manager Fluid Power at Van Leeuwen France. ‘In fact, the demand for customization is increasing significantly. That is why we are expanding our capacity and investing in improvements of our customers’ work processes.’
‘Our biggest customer, Manitowoc Cranes, one of the largest producers of hoisting and lifting equipment, recently asked whether we could also deliver treated products to their factory in Portugal. And Al-Ko, a supplier for the automotive industry, asked us whether, in 2018-2019, we can also treat the current products that we supply to them. As with other Van Leeuwen branches, in France the number of customers purchasing treated products is also increasing. This is because more and more customers are outsourcing their material treatment services. Why? If we take care of their material treatments it saves them time, money and worries. Based on customer prognoses, we take care of just-in-time delivery of the labeled products.
To meet increasing demand, in 2017 we purchased a new cutting machine, enabling us to provide more in-house customization. In addition, we are further expanding the number of material treatment suppliers. We also expect to call more often upon other Van Leeuwen branches for treatments, for example on Van Leeuwen Czech Republic for cutting work for our customer Sahgev, a specialist in hydraulic cylinders.
We like to help our customers by thinking of solutions together with them. What more can we do to help their work processes become more efficient? That also means daring to take it a step further. For customers in the Energy market, such as General Electric, we supply full packages. In addition to pipes, this includes articles that we normally do not sell. This is how we make the chain shorter for the customer. General Electric is happy with this solution. That’s why we intend to upscale our full package service in 2018.
What else do we do? The implementation of a new SAP system, which we are rolling out in all branches, is almost ready. Thanks to the IT platform we can work more efficiently due to the advanced use of barcode scanners among other things. In the long-term, the system should enable large customers to follow their order online and place orders online.’
Jiri Koucky,
Product Manager,
Van Leeuwen Czech Republic
‘In addition to digitization, robotization will be playing a key role in providing our customers with fast customized services.’
‘Our customers expect us to provide them with complete solutions: products that they can directly incorporate into their production process. They do not want to incur any delays by having to treat tubes into half-products themselves. Even more so now that their order book is so well-stocked. Besides, often they do not have the required know-how in-house. To continue to be able to meet the increasing demand for the fast delivery of treated products, we invested in two advanced cutting machines in 2018. These machines enable us to cut more pipes faster and more precisely. One of these machines is primarily used to cut cylinders and chrome-plated bar steel for customers in the Fluid Power industry. This material is extremely vulnerable and heavy.
To be able to work faster, we will start working with a robot arm. In addition to digitization, robotization will be playing a key role in providing our customers with fast customized services. The robot arm automatically moves treated products from the cutting machine to the boxes.
Our customers are happy with this development: we are now able to accept orders that we were unable to process previously. We have since acquired several new customers
and are also working on various tenders. We expect our capacity to double, and perhaps even triple for smaller pipes, and increase five-fold for precision tubes. We expect to reach the peak of our capacity by the end of 2018.
All these investments and improvements are necessary to bring and keep us in a top position as supplier of Fluid Power materials for the Central European markets.’
Martijn ’t Hart,
Commercieel Directeur,
Combulex
‘With the new automatic cutting machine we can cut up to three thousand short pipes to size a day.’
‘The construction industry is picking up and the price of steel is rising. That means that there is a lot of demand for our products once again. Carrying out material treatments is the rule rather than the exception. Which material treatments do we carry out? Cutting and swaging. Combulex is a market leader in the field of swaging in the Netherlands. We were the first company to offer this in 1988 and demand is still increasing. Therefore, over the past year we have expanded our swaging center with a larger cutting machine and further automated the process. Consequently, we can up our production. The swaging center is no longer on our site. In order to be able to grow with future market demand, it has moved to Van Leeuwen Zwijndrecht, the Netherlands.
Thanks to this move, we were also able to make various investments in our own branch, enabling us to reach higher production levels. The possibilities of our cutting benches have been extended and we have purchased an automatic cutting machine. This enables us to cut up to three thousand short pipes to size a day.
Another step that we took in 2017 was the cooperation with Van Leeuwen’s project organization. Material that remains after completion of a project, we take up in our stocks.
That is a sustainable solution.’