Highlights in the Bernese Oberland

The workshops took place on all three days of the event and customers stayed for one of the days. The night before the event all guests were invited to a social event including dinner (excellent Swiss cuisine!) at Schloss Schadau on the shore of Lake Thun. Not without reason, the Swiss Museum of Gastronomy is located in this building as well.

Around eight o’clock the next morning, the “serious” part of the event started. In his opening speech, that was provided in English due to the international audience, Martin Strehl, CEO at Schleuniger Group, gave reasons for the acquisition by Metall Zug AG – half a year has passed since then. The former owner and majority shareholder of Schleuniger Gerhard Jansen (62) wanted to settle his succession and thus the company was sold for 136 million Swiss Francs to Metall Zug AG in the beginning of 2008. Schleuniger was a perfect fit as a pillar within the holdings of Metall Zug. “They were looking for a niche company in Switzerland,” said Strehl, who was a minority shareholder himself. Today, since he has sold his shares, he is “only” the CEO at Schleuniger Group, which has continued as a strategically independent division of Metall Zug. However, there were not much organizational changes as a result of the exchange in ownership. “Only a few new interfaces came into play,” Strehl noted. The company strategy has remained the same, and even the management team remains unchanged. “We want to develop Schleuniger as an independent unit. With the succession settlement, it was intended that Schleuniger continues on with the same methods that lead us to the successes we’ve already achieved,” continued Strehl. Of course there were expectations to grow profitably, to secure new shares in the market and to go into new areas within the cable processing industry. “With the acquisition by Metall Zug, we have a stronger financial standing than before. As a private owner, one might be slightly more hesitant with large decisions compared to an industrial owner. We feel comfortable under this new roof,” says Strehl. For 2008, he anticipates consolidated sales of around 120 million Swiss francs. The 10 million difference in turnover compared to the year before is largely due to the late acquisition of Pawo.

According to Strehl, the acquisition of Pawo was a stroke of luck. “Pawo has its strengths in two areas that complement Schleuniger well.” This is, on one hand, the standard machine business, similar to the one of Schleuniger, but with other applications (seal assembly technology). “We’ve mastered the stripping and crimping of connectors, but for the automotive industry, seal assembly is a very important process too,” said Strehl. Schleuniger, up until this point, was a principal customer of Pawo for their seal assembly machines because they are integrated into the company’s CrimpCenter machines. “The point was to secure this technology for us,” he revealed. ”The idea that Pawo might possibly go to our competitor would have been a threatening scenario.”

On the other hand, by the acquisition of Pawo, Schleuniger can build upon their already strong expertise in fully-automatic transfer lines. “Pawo has in its history (the former Megomat Transfer Systems) more than 100 systems in the market and people with corresponding experience and customer contacts. This is what really matters and was basis for us to acquire them and further grow the Schleuniger range of fully-automatic systems,” Strehl said as he also noted the fact that more and more countries are forced to automate. “Eastern Europe used to be a place to go for its cheap labour, but labour costs have gone up. By this acquisition, we can meet the demands from the eastern European facilities for a higher degree of automation.” He is confident, that his company will gain market shares within the automotive market. “Electronics and sensor technologies are requirements of the auto industry and these critical technologies take cables, which require automation.” Already in 2007, Schleuniger realized 38 percent of it’s revenue in this market. For 2008, it could certainly become 50 percent, if not more.

“We would like to attach more importance to Asia. Until now, our engineering and production sites have been situated in Switzerland and in Germany. Product development is very much oriented towards the United States and Europe. In this respect, we have to listen more to the voice of Asia,” Strehl offers. Schleuniger is already present in China with sales companies and long-term distribution partners. In two or three years from now, the company could also manufacture and develop there. Schleuniger already achieves nearly 20 percent of its total turnover in China. Wages are also going up in Asia. Because of this trend, the amount of automation requested increases and Schleuniger profits. Strehl considers Asia as an area for additional business and not as a competitor to the local sites. In Thun and in Welschenrohr (where relocation to Balsthal is scheduled for Octobre 2008), Schleuniger employs nearly 200 employees. Schleuniger Automation in Germany (Radevormwald: 78 employees) and Pawo Systems in Unterägeri (85 employees) also belong to the group. Service and sales companies for Europe, the U.S., Japan and China also live under the Schleuniger umbrella. In Russia and India, Schleuniger currently operates with distributors. Strehl doesn’t doubt that there could be direct Schleuniger representation in these countries one day, but nothing specific has been projected. In the United States, in spite of the problems of the American automotive industry and against the trend, profits for Schleuniger still go up.

A shortage of engineers is obvious in Switzerland as well. For this reason, Schleuniger is keeping an eye out for adequate engineers year round. “If the profile matches us, we will sometimes hire a new engineer – even if this wasn’t scheduled in the budget,” Strehl said. “We have the expertise to process cables of all kinds. Coaxial cables are difficult to process, but they are one of our specialities. Due to our specialized capabilities, we have orders from Japan for PlayStations,” comments Strehl. “The trend for ever smaller and thinner wire processing cooperates with our precision.”

The four different workshops and product demonstrations were organized in small groups. In the transfer systems segment, one could see the Transfer Module 6000 processing a 2-conductor multi-core cable with integrated coiling & binding station, conductor separation, and crimping banded closed ferrules on each conductor. This fully automatic platform by means of linear transfer with continuous chain drive is suitable for small to medium sized production lines. It is about a standardized machine concept with use of market proven standard machines. As an alternative, for a simple yet sophisticated automation solution to quality-critical processes, the workshop visitors took a close look at the new Transfer Module 1500. This semi-automatic platform for linking multiple processes with linear transfers is perfect as an entry solution to automation. It features high repeatability, especially for complex and quality critical applications. Customer specific solutions are possible with both modules.

Pawoline SHU, a flexible, individual and adaptable module system with module sizes of 6, 9, 12 and 15 stations, was introduced by video. Application uses of this product are typical in the automotive industry and include processes such as airbag cable with squib connector (welded or crimped version), ABS or safety cables with seat belt buckle switches. The Pawoline TSM, a conventional linear transfer system with continuous belt drive for multi-piece connector assemblies, was also shown by video. Examples of applications are semi-automatic machines with manual loading of a cut cable or an already dismantled cable as well as fully automatic lines with automatic cable feeder. In the product segment cut strip terminate, Schleuniger introduced, for the first time to the public, its new combined coiling & binding system for all models of the CrimpCenter series. Besides the new CrimpCenter 64 HD for processing of large cable diameters up to 25mm², a new version of the PC Software “Easy ProductionServer” was demonstrated. In regard to semi-automatic machines, Schleuniger presented the reportedly fastest coaxial cable benchtop stripping machine on the market – the new CoaxSTrip 5300 NT. Attendees also experienced, how the new SmartStrip feature makes the UniStrip 2600 even smarter as it now features automatic diameter detection and pre-programmable stripping parameters. The StripCrimp 200 was presented with two new options to process extremely short breakout lengths and to automatically destroy bad crimps. The Pulltester 20 and the Micrograph Crimp Lab products offer an easy entry into crimp quality assurance. In the cut & strip machine segment, visitors experienced how a new development for processing coaxial cables with high-speed rotary incision (PowerStrip 9500 RX) can increase output of production, and during a Cayman software session, attendees saw how offline programming and networking with cut & strip machines is easily done and makes production even more efficient. A guided tour of the entire company gave this successful presentation a perfect end. (jau)

EPP Europe 414