A+W Customer Report: Feroment - Consistent Customer Orientation

On the production line, we find the current machine generation from Rotox: here a sash is welded in one step.

Photo source

www.a-w.de

Date: 16 January 2018

Feroment with consistent customer orientation.

For about four decades, FEROMENT has been known for the highest-quality products, service and consulting expertise for windows, front doors, roller shades, and other construction elements.

As a medium-sized company and typical end-customer supplier, FEROMENT combines the best traditions of craftsmanship with state-of-the-art machine and software technology, with a reliance on innovation and organic growth.

Only in this way, according to the management board, can top products be manufactured at a fair price in a competitive market.

Automatic transport lines convey the frames and sashes between the processing stations, here from welding to polishing.

Paperless production: all important information is displayed clearly on A+W Cantor CIM monitors – all of the information is available exactly where it is needed.

Success thanks to customer proximity

This company’s highest priority is maintaining maximum focus on the customer, an attitude embraced by each employee.

The FEROMENT team offers advising, measurement, delivery, and assembly from a single source, for private customers as well as construction companies and apartment developers. Naturally, FEROMENT also works with dealers.

FEROMENT is a supplier with a lot of repeat business. Whether the customer is buying an accessory or windows and doors for an entire home,– each person receives friendly, expert assistance. Contributing to this is the 400 sq m exhibition space that demonstrates FEROMENT products in use.

From windows and doors to sun-shading solutions, the company’s construction elements are attractive, energy-efficient, and technically advanced, with design that inspires people. It’s clear that FEROMENT is positioning itself as a premium supplier, both of products and of outstanding customer service.

Twenty years of software partnership: FEROMENT was one of the first A+W Cantor customers. From left: Maik Grasmäher, Authorized Representative and IT Officer at FEROMENT and Nicole Diessel, A+W Sales.

Purposeful growth

In 1980, under the management of company founder Bernd Grasmäher, FEROMENT began production of PVC windows. Today there are 60 employees with sales around EUR 13 million. The Managing Director is Thorsten Möller. Since the beginning of 2017, FEROMENT has been part of the Philip Mecklenburg trade group.

In 2015, operations were expanded with the addition of 2,200 sq m of production, storage, and picking halls. The production halls can be used efficiently thanks to their generous design – and there is still room to grow.

Optimized process control – high-tech production

The company’s growth was driven constantly by purposeful investments in equipment and production technology.

In addition to state-ofthe- art processing machines, today the company also has automated buffer systems and transport lines. All technologies work hand-in-hand, and are optimally attuned to one another thanks to a custom-tailored EDP system.

Mechanical and manual workstations are controlled by A+W Cantor software, which guides the production technology from the processing center through to packing, shipping and delivery with the greatest efficiency.

Monitors and scanners replace order folders and files; elements are identified, registered, and reported ready via bar code reading. Precisely the information that is needed is displayed on manual workstations. Thanks to the advanced software, the production flow is constant and smooth: there is no searching for components, only work being completed.

A+W Cantor integrates administration and production at FEROMENT to create a continuous data network. After entry of an order and its scheduling in production, all data for this order is available everywhere in the company.

The software initiates the processes necessary for production and punctual delivery. Information such as control instructions for the CNC machines and status reports for the order system are exchanged in real time.

The integrated materials management checks whether all necessary components are in stock, whether materials need to be ordered and, if so, when the missing parts will arrive. “We are already very spoiled here,” admits IT Manager Maik Grasmäher. “Nothing is nicer than when all parts are available when they are needed, and the final product can be delivered on time.“

Thanks to bar code registration, the location of each insulated glass unit in the glass buffer is known. Workers on the glazing line scan the label on the frame or sash. The sheet is then guided by the A+W Cantor system out of the buffer and to glazing: a secure system without the need for searching.

Open software concept

For Maik Grasmäher it is important that he can configure and adjust the software himself. New machines, different flows, different products: something is always changing, and rigid systems don’t allow this level of control.

This is why Maik Grasmäher is enthusiastic about the A+W Cantor system, “Thanks to the open nature of the system, we can display everything, even add-on products, everything in the correct colors, size ratios, etc. That is, not just the window, but also the grille or the railing in front of it, exactly as it will look in the end.”

The last polish: no window leaves the plant without a perfect finish. Here, craftsmanlike precision is required.

The open design of the software and the close cooperation of A+W Cantor with customer suppliers also permit the integration of external product configurators. In the near future, FEROMENT will incorporate the online configurator of its accessory partner Roma.

When this is complete, the partner’s current products, prices, restrictions, etc. are just a click away while entering orders into A+W Cantor. “This saves us a lot of work,” explains Maik Grasmäher. “Previously we had to maintain the extensive Roma product line by hand. In the future, including our partners’ products will be much easier, more fluid, and secure thanks to the seamless integration into A+W Cantor.”