Closer to the customer

What does FAULHABER represent in your opinion?

Which direction is FAULHABER going to take in the future? How will the customers benefit from this? Which industries will be increasing their demand for micro drives and complete solutions? General sales manager Marcus Remmel talks about markets and sales strategies, the company's own locations, the tremendous innovative strength of the company - and his own, exciting way to FAULHABER.

What does FAULHABER represent in your opinion?

FAULHABER is one of the technology leaders in its industry - but the main focus is still on the people: that is the nice thing about working for a family-run company. Above all, the company thinks in the long term, regardless of whether it is about customer or staff loyalty or our on-site commitment in the markets.

What brought you to FAULHABER, and what did you find appealing about the job?

I studied mechatronics; the combination of electrical and mechanical systems and software as an overall system has always interested me. I started out as a developer, and found my way to Sales via project management.

I wanted to develop products which would benefit customers. Perhaps because I spent two years developing something unmarketable during my first project as a young developer. This ended up being shelved – which motivated me to ask the question of how to develop products which would be successful on the market. I therefore accompanied Sales to the customers, became more involved in project management, and ultimately introduced customer requirements into products. I then went in the direction of project management where I carried out many sales training courses and at some stage, joined the Sales division.

The way to FAULHABER was almost logical, since my two previous employers used FAULHABER technology. The main thing that attracted me to the job was the intention to unify Sales, which was still scattered around in several locations at the time, and bring it into overall alignment for the markets.

In which products can FAULHABER be found?

That is the beauty of FAULHABER: you are not limited to one particular industry, but new ways of using FAULHABER products are always arising; thousands of applications, new customers and new products every day. From autonomously operating underwater robots in the deep sea, for example, to satellites in space. One highlight for certain was the Rosetta mission 2 years ago, when Philae landed on the Churyumov comet with 14 FAULHABER motors.

How has the market developed for FAULHABER?

In a way that is extremely varied, mainly because of the trend towards automation across all industries such as medical engineering and laboratory automation. Time and time again, extremely dynamic developments take place in individual industries and markets, which consolidate after several years before starting off again elsewhere. This does not exactly make it easy to predict developments, but since FAULHABER is highly innovative and continuously bringing new products onto the market, we are extremely well prepared for anything.

What industries are particularly driven by innovation?

At the moment, a lot of work is being put into laboratory automation in order to bring analysis closer to the patients. The systems that are required for this are in hospitals and doctor's practices, and require a completely new type of product concept. In medical engineering, the trend is more towards the direction of operation robots – systems which will penetrate the body by remote control and with which there will ultimately no longer be a direct link between the surgeon and the scalpel or endoscope. Additional electrification is also taking place in the aviation industry: functions which are still mainly mechanical are now being equipped with drives for additional comfort – be it the shutters in business class to seat adjustments in premium economy. And finally the before-mentioned automation technology, which is going in the direction of interconnected, but autonomously operating robots and systems to a certain extent.

Does FAULHABER want further global expansion?

We have had an efficient distribution network for many years, but we are also aware that we must be represented in certain markets in order to tackle more complex projects and developments with customers. We are intensifying our efforts in this area or have already been active – for example two years ago in the Benelux countries, last year in Poland, and at the beginning of this year in Malaysia. And now in Austria as the next step.

How important is innovation leadership to FAULHABER?

As we have said, FAULHABER is one of the technology leaders in the area of micro technology, and it is essential for FAULHABER to maintain this leadership. In an increasing number of cases we no longer sell individual components such as motors or drives but are going in the direction of complete solutions, which are then sold together with encoders and controllers. Particularly in the controller area, we took yet another major step last year with the introduction of our new Motion Controller generation.

This makes it much easier to incorporate our drive technologies in superordinated process control systems or PLC systems. Our innovative strength is also in demand in manufacturing technology; there is considerable pressure to reduce costs in this area – and we are continuously making production more efficient.

Even in the sales area we are continuously thinking ahead in order to become more innovative and more efficient.

Where does FAULHABER get its ideas for new, innovative products?

Having ideas for new innovative products is more or less the brand DNA of FAULHABER. On one hand, there is the classic route via development and advanced development at FAULHABER, which deals with new technologies and provides input for new products. Usually, these are technologies which are introduced in Sales or via product management, and which we then discuss with customers or sales partners.

On the other hand, FAULHABER is orienting itself more strongly to markets and the customer groups which are active there. In order to do this, we started identifying and talking to important players years ago – asking for specific requirements and the desired customer benefits. The results were made available to product management and development so that we receive products which are optimally oriented to customer requirements.

Are we talking about products in the standard product range, or customer-specific developments?

Both. Of course, the goal is for the standard products at FAULHABER to be as close as possible to the final application, so that only minor modifications are needed to make the required adjustments. There is also the area of purely customer-specific development, of course. These are projects on which we specifically tackle developments for individual customers or collaborate with them and design these customer projects in a truly customised way.

What can we expect from FAULHABER in the near future?

FAULHABER will continue to comply with customer requirements as far as product development is concerned, of course, and make drives smaller, more efficient and quieter than they are now.

New drives and systems will be added, and we will continue to develop the Motion Control product range.

On the whole, we are going to become even more customer-orientated, and will design products in collaboration with customers more frequently – but whatever happens it will remain exciting

We are constantly making production more efficient