The manufacturing industry has been facing great challenges for some time now: Several prolonged global crises have led to a decline in orders, and companies see their situation as worse than at the beginning of the year. Our distributors are also experiencing declining sales. This is why it's all the more important for us to face these difficult times together. Therefore, the two Customer Days held at our headquarters in Buseck in September were all about partnership and how we can focus more on our core business while taking into account demographic and technological developments.
In total, we welcomed more than 100 of our BINZEL BestPartners and customers from all over Germany. BestPartners are selected sales partners with whom we work closely to provide users with the best possible service and support. On the one hand, these two days were an ideal opportunity for our guests to see the products up close, test them and talk to the product experts. On the other hand, the event provided an opportunity to interact with each other and with us as a manufacturer.
Prof. Dr. Marco Schmäh from the ESB Business School was invited as a speaker for the supporting program. After the opening of the Customer Days by Jörg Lehnhäuser, Director Sales D/A/CH, Prof. Schmäh emphasized the value of good relationships between business partners in his lively and inspiring presentation "using megatrends: partnerships and digitalization for maximum added value." He emphasized: "It is not enough for the customer to be satisfied; he wants to be successful." That is why a compelling customer experience is now more important than pure performance data.
The first day was all about manual welding. Guests were able to see, touch and try our new products live at various stations. The focus was on our xFUME® fume extraction torches, which make the daily work of welders safer and healthier. We also showcased our ABITIG® welding torches and the new E3® PRO tungsten electrode, a further development of our proven E3®.
A particular highlight was the demonstration of the iBOTone®, our collaborative welding robot, which can be easily programmed without any prior knowledge thanks to its intuitive operation. It makes welding automation accessible to small and medium-sized companies that typically produce small batch sizes. For many manufacturing companies that employ skilled welders, cobots are a promising solution that could reduce the industry's lack of skilled workers in the long term.
On the second day, the focus was on automation. Among our guests were many system integrators who are interested in our automation solutions. We presented innovative robot and sensor technologies that automate welding processes and enable consistently high quality. With the iROB® power source series, ABICOR BINZEL presented a comprehensive solution that has proven itself in all industries, from general manufacturing to automotive manufacturers and their suppliers.
Another highlight was the presentation by Florian Schmitt of Visometry. He presented a software solution based on augmented reality for quality control in incoming and outgoing goods. This technology can be used, for example, to quickly and reliably check the completeness of weld seams on manufactured components.
Digitalization is playing an increasingly important role at ABICOR BINZEL – also when it comes to providing optimum support for BestPartners. In the future, for example, optical recognition processes could be used to make it easier for distributors to identify products and speed up sales.
In addition to the technical insights and presentations, the Customer Days offered plenty of opportunity for personal exchange. The evening event "Grill 'n' Chill" at the ABICOR BINZEL rooftop bar gave the guests the opportunity to talk to each other in a relaxed atmosphere. This event clearly demonstrated the added value of the close cooperation with our BestPartners and customers, who always provide us with important impulses for the further development of our technologies.
The Customer Days 2024 were an ideal platform to highlight current market trends and introduce new innovative products, but above all to further strengthen our partnerships and mutual trust. The feedback from our visitors was consistently positive. They especially appreciated the opportunity to test the products themselves and to get in direct contact with the product experts. The topics of automation, extraction technology and welding cobots such as the iBOTone® were of great interest, as they offer concrete solutions to the many challenges currently facing the industry.
Next year, a similar event will be held to promote interaction with customers and partners and to showcase new developments.
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