Focusing on value for customers with advanced solutions and services, Koninklijke Nedschroef Holding BV has established itself as a leading global fastener partner – mainly for the automotive industry. Here we speak to Dr Mathias Hüttenrauch, CEO and chairman of the board at Koninklijke Nedschroef, about the challenges of supplying the automotive industry and how the company stays at the forefront of the industry.
Koninklijke Nedschroef has a global network. How does the company ensure it presents a consistent service to customers around the world?
“Our global network enables us to work with passenger car businesses, commercial vehicle companies, first tier suppliers, as well as other industries along the whole value chain. We can also take responsibility for the complete C-part management for customers – supplying high-quality products every day.
We are a partner for critical fasteners, as well as other cold forged products for more than 120 years. We have globally 12 Centres of Competence (CoCs) in Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark and China. These CoCs focus on different products and dimensions and thanks to our stringent production processes and commitments to quality, we can offer the same high-quality products from every factory.
In addition to the products, we provide numerous other services to our customers. We have trading operations in 8 countries that use internationally experienced teams for competitive sourcing. We supply full engineering support, quality control and full customer-specific documentation management, as well as warehousing close to customer operations.
Another crucial part of the services we provide is through our experienced and knowledgeable research and development team, which can offer a wide range of support to customers, including tear down analysis and idea generation, material research, advanced testing, as well as support from concept to production line.
The final aspect is an extremely efficient and good logistics, which is why our warehousing and logistics includes Lean supply routes and short communication lines. We can provide inventory management and control, inbound and outbound order processing, barcoding, re-packaging and labelling, quality control, static and dynamic replenishment and safety stock management.”
How has the demand for fasteners changed over the last 10 years? How are you meeting these demands?
“The major driver for our product portfolio is really the changing demands of our customers. I can see that from one end they move into more standardisation and on the other end to more specific solutions. There is still a need for the classic fasteners and we will continue to provide them, but the major trend is customers asking for more sophisticated solutions and for that you need more engineering power in order to develop the products.
A main factor in this is having an engineer on-site. We started this almost 10 years ago and it is increasingly important. If you want to be involved in major projects you need to have a link to the engineering team and get involved early in the process. This is because a developer on the OEM side doesn’t think in fasteners, they think in applications and components and systems. Being involved earlier in the process means as well that we get a better understanding of the application of the components, and see where and how the fasteners are being used – ensuring we offer the optimal solution.
Once a customer has experienced our service and seen the astonishing saving potentials, as well as the value added benefits of working with us from the concept stage, they typically continue to do so. The reason is that it is easier to save costs at the beginning of a project rather than asking for productivity improvements in the life cycle.
Another key part of working with customers is understanding what they really want, which can depend on the model ranges they are using. They might want a really cost-efficient solution, sometimes they are looking for lightweight reduction where they might spend more for a better solution. They might want just a standard component or they might want a sophisticated one. By having our resident engineer on-site, we can create a close relationship with the customer and understand these needs, which helps ensure we offer the perfect product.”
Will joined Fastener + Fixing Magazine in 2007 and over the last 12 years has experienced every facet of the fastener sector – interviewing key figures within the industry and visiting leading companies and exhibitions around the globe. Will manages the content strategy across all platforms and is the guardian for the high editorial standards that the brand is renowned.
